Instruments - Part 7

Trombone

We continue our survey of musical instruments with the trombone.  This brass instrument has a range between the tuba and the trumpet.

All the other brass instruments use valves operated by the player's fingers that insert varying lengths of tubing into the airflow and thus change the pitch of the instrument.  The trombone has a much simpler mechanism.  The player changes the length of tubing, and thus the pitch, by simply sliding the "slide" of the instrument in or out.

The trombone is descended from a Renaissance instrument called a sackbut.  No sack or butt jokes, please.

The instrument has changed very little since then.  The main difference is that the bell (opening) of the modern trombone is flared more widely open.

This guy is playing his trombone in a Swedish Näcken competition.  In Scandinavian folklore, Näcken were naked male water spirits who lured people to drown by playing music.  Traditionally, Näcken played violins, not trombones.  We'll cover them later in our series on Gods, Myths and Heroes.

Here's a small band that features a trombone in addition to the usual guitar and drums.

There is also an unusual hybrid instrument (not pictured here; this is a regular trombone) that has valves like a trumpet in addition to a slide for changing pitch.  It has never caught on because there's really no need for both valves and a slide.  This photo brought it to mind because the hybrid instrument is called a Superbone.

Finally (I couldn't resist), here's a short video clip of the action known as the rusty trombone.  Like a trombone, it involves working the mouth while moving something back and forth.  I added the soundtrack to the video.

More musical instruments to come.