Bass Trombone 
The Bass Trombone is unusual among all wind instruments in that the modern instrument bears no relation to its predecessor. The modern Bass Trombone is, in reality, a modified Tenor Trombone. The Tenor Trombone is pitched in B-flat – and so is the Bass. Confused yet? The original Bass Trombone was a large, ungainly instrument pitched in either G, F, or E-flat a third, fourth, or fifth below the standard Tenor Trombone. The instrument was so large that the slide had to have a handle attached to it in order for the player to reach all the way out to sixth and seventh positions. Players found this instrument tiring, and by the end of the Nineteenth Century, it had almost completely disappeared. In its place was a Tenor Trombone with a single valve attached to it. This valve lowered the fundamental pitch of the instrument, B-flat a fourth to F. In conjunction with the valve, the bore of the instrument was enlarged to be of the same proportion as that of the old Bass Trombone. The effect was a small instrument with a large bore that made the same sound as the older, larger instrument. However, there was a problem with this arrangement. Continue reading “Bass Trombone”
