Trombone

The trombone is a wind instrument that is a member of the brass family. The trombone's differentiating characteristic is a telescope-like slide which is controlled by the player to change pitches with the exception of the valve trombone with three valves. Similar to other brass instruments, the vibrating lips of the player makes the air inside the trombone to vibrate and this produces sound.

The instrument's name is derived from the Italian word tromba meaning trumpet and -one which means large. Thus, it is literally named large trumpet. Both the trumpet and the trombone have generally cylindrical bores.

History

The creation of the trombone dates back more than six hundred years. Its original design was slightly similar to the sackbut, an Old English instrument. The term sackbut originated from the French saquer which means pull and bouter meaning push. Trompone is the Italian for sackbut and this is most plausibly the basis of the word trombone. Initially there were four types of trombones: soprano, bass, tenor, and alto.