What is a Slide Trumpet / Soprano Trombone?

[@derminotauros]

I have one soprano trombone made by Thomann. My wife give it to me as a present for birthday. She played trombone and it helps me to understand the 7th position of playing trombone. It is a nice Instrument and gives aot of fun to a trumpet player. You learn to hear better for right Intonation and also help to switch for some time to the tenor slide trombone. A good choiche to expand your understanding of the physics of brass instruments in general. I loved it. Thanks for this Video Bob. More of this. Love, peace and harmony Bernward

[@Life-er6mq]

Thanks for this video! I've played trumpet at a decent level since middle school and am trying to convince my wife to get me a slide trumpet for Christmas haha. I've wanted one since high school jazz band and love looking them up on KZbin every few years to see if anyone plays them. This is the first new video I've seen on it in years; it's so cool people are making content with them!

[@Wanielyo]

Always fun to hear this instrument played, and get ideas on how to get the best out of it. Great stuff.

[@scoutbeach]

The slide trumpet is so cool! I was pleasantly surprised to see the conch, did you put a mouthpiece in it (I've done that). You could do some funky Junkanoo jams with the slide and the conch!

[@tomasuriel93]

wooow that is so cool I've never seen that. I love it, thanks for sharing.

[@MichaelBxl]

Nice video and nice to hear your music too !

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

Thanks!

[@timflr6007]

Love your videos. Slide Fiasco is a banger!

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

Thanks!

[@sashakindel3600]

I've seen people say trombones and slide trumpets are "completely different," and likewise valve trumpets versus valve trombones. I'd argue that they are, at least, "rather similar." As an orchestrator, I'd be satisfied with just specifying the pitch of the instrument I want, and whether it should have a slide or valves.

[@harleyzeth]

Trumpet and soprano trombone are rather similar, but the rest of what you said makes little sense. You wouldn't use bass trombone, tenor trombone, or euphonium interchangeably just because they're pitched the exact same

[@sashakindel3600]

@@harleyzeth By "I'd be satisfied with just specifying the pitch of the instrument I want, and whether it should have a slide or valves" I meant specifically with respect to trumpets and trombones. You're right that I wouldn't use euphonium interchangeably with trombone. I see bass trombone versus tenor trombone (two instruments that, if you're talking about the most common kind of modern trombone, do indeed have the same fundamentals, but are specifically designed to have different tessituras) as something of a special case, which you are also right about. So to word what I originally meant more explicitly, between a slide trumpet and a soprano trombone, I wouldn't have a preference, and likewise between a valved tenor trombone and a bass trumpet in Bb. If it ever came up, the same would apply to the other imaginable combinations like, say, a bass trumpet in Eb and a valved alto trombone.

[@harleyzeth]

@@sashakindel3600 I get what you mean

[@nkdude11]

Ok there IS a difference between a soprano trombone and a slide trumpet, what you have is a soprano trombone. Steven Bernstein calls his a slide trumpet because his is one. The difference is simply proportionality to the tenor trombone, where the bell lies at about 3rd position. You can see with slide trumpets that the bell is set much farther forward, around 5th or 6th position it looks like. Slide trumpets also sometimes have smaller bore diameters and will often have the handslide tubes actually touching, and thus it is moved by a fixed handle, but this is not always the case.

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

It doesn't really matter, but a few points for clarity: 1. Steven also calls my instrument a slide trumpet. 2. The reason the bell extends farther forward on some slide trumpets (including Steven's custom horns) is generally because on those horns the width of the slide is half of the width of a standard trombone slide, and for that reason if the bells were built with the same shape of a conventional tenor trombone bell, the back of the bell would hit you in the face and make it impossible to play. Kanstul accounted for this problem by making their slides the same width as a tenor trombone slide so the bell doesn't hit you in the face and the slide positions are the same in relation to the bell. The disadvantage to this is that the slide is slightly more cumbersome compared to a slide with a smaller width. Old Getzen slide trumpets have a slide that is so narrow as to require a handle, and for that reason the bell extends farther forward, but it wouldn't change the nature of the instrument if they could have made them with a more conventional bell shape. 3. A point you didn't make is that Kanstul made a distinction between their slide trumpets and soprano trombones based on the diameter of the bell, but otherwise they were identical instruments. You could make an argument for a definitional distinction between a slide trumpet and a soprano trombone, but the better argument would address the nature of the slide, not the spacial relationship between the slide and the bell. Plus we make the rules.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Carol Brass makes something like that.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Wycliffe Gordon plays this

[@aire4222]

Does the sound of the soprano trombone get more or less powerful as you go into the register? I know that trombones don't, but obviously trumpets do. What causes that?

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

I think trombones get pretty powerful in their upper register, too. I'm not sure the physics behind it, but the slide trumpet seems to have the same quality.

[@brianduffy6254]

Are you playing a conch? 😅

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

Sure am! I might do a video on the conch for this series, too.

[@OliviaSNava]

Not just music historians, also pedantic modern trombonists who're tired of trumpets getting all the attention... *cough*

[@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic]

Ha! If it makes you feel better maybe trombonists should start calling trumpets "soprano valve trombones."

[@OliviaSNava]

@@RidgewoodSchoolofMusicHA Now I'm imagining an actual soprano valve trombone. Now I'm thinking of the contrabass trumpet, otherwise known as the cimbasso.