Exploring Trombones

Curious about trombones? ASO's Acting/Associate Principal Trombone Nathan Zgonc shows us the differences between an alto, bass, tenor symphonic and straight trombone in this ASO Masterclass.

Listen to more music from the ASO:

[trackmastermr]

“Smallest of all trombones”
Piccolo and soprano trombones: Am I a joke to you
Me to piccolo: *Always have been*

[WNTrombone]

Can we all appreciate the steam coming out his bell on the pedal g in bluebells 😂

[tlchop]

First time I’ve ever seen steam coming out of a trombone bell like that. Awesome flow!

[Nature]

As a percussionist, i loved this educational video. Makes me appreciate even more those funny sliding horns in front of me ;)

[Allen-byci]

Bass trombone for the win. Beautiful playing

[landrydunhm]

I had no clue in 6 years of playing trombone and bass tb that what my wind ensemble always called the ‘peashooter’ is also called a straight trombone. We always referred to the f attachment or trigger trombones as just that, so it may just be a slight regional/ dialect/ politicly correct thing (I live in Texas btw). You learn something new every day!

[michaelquillen]

Played "professionally" for 36 years back in the day. I played symphonic, pit orchestras, jazz, and show bands. I only used two trombones and 3 mouthpieces in all those years. If I was to play strictly bass trombone, I used a King Duo Gravis (6B) with a Bach 1.5G mouthpiece. If I had to play both high and low registers in the gig, I used the King Duo Gravis with a Bach 4G mouthpiece. If it was a gig that required lead work, I used an old Olds Recording trombone and a Bach 7C mouthpiece.

[alankramer]

Blueballs of Scotland is such a classic. There is so much built up tension that needs releasing, great job.

[Overlycomplicatedswede]

As a bass trombonist (been playing trombone for 10 years 7 of them on bass trombone)
I absolutely love every chance I get to play in the pedal ranges and play loud as hell I.E bruckner 7 opening or bruckner 7 finale movement or Shostakovich 7
love from Sweden

[kennethmills]

I play the trumpet. Even so, your playing was all the more impressive! Extremely satisfying and inspiring! There are still a few that care about sound and not just facility. With the advent of Marsalis-type virtuosity, most of my instrument’s practitioners have seemingly forgotten the raison d’tre of these instruments: to wit, richness and beauty of sound as well as dynamic amplitude, lately exemplified by Adolph Herseth and to a somewhat lesser extent by Phil Smith. Thank you. I appreciate your efforts!

[MrSojeft]

One of the best presentation of the family of trombones! Keep going! Pls, make another one with more details!

[marcuscooper]

Nathan is a phenomenal trombonist! Thank you so much for this information.

[MatthewBanks]

Marvelous playing of course, but I was particularly enchanted by the alto trombone

[kevincruikshank]

Great interpretation on everything! I do believe that Schumann had the alto trombone in mind on his symphonies? Perhaps F Schubert as well? Also perhaps Berlioz wrote for the alto in Symphonie Fantastique? Haydn challenged the bass trombone to play like a brass cello in “Die Schopfung” and you accepted and mastered the challenge!

[roddydodjr]

0:37 Nate's Dragabone fire breathing

[ethanL]

Look up “Swiss Army Knife” in the dictionary and you find an image of this guy. This guy can play all of those horns as well as any other he has. Wow!

[levineMainya]

Wow the Blue bells of Scotland what a nice delivery... please recommend me a solo trombone piece to perform next year in our music festivals

[ljwilson]

I played trombone in high school back in the early 70's. We all played the straight tenor (except the guy who had a valve trombone). I had never seen a base trombone or a "symphonic tenor". Very interesting.

[owensmith]

Claiming this is the full range of trombones is under selling the instrument. My dad owns a Bb soprano trombone which is the same pitch as a Bb trumpet, there is no 7th position on the slide. Also there is the F contrabass trombone which usually has a double trigger, and the even lower (and rarely used these days) Bb contrabass trombone with the double stack slide and normally has a single trigger.

[optiTHOMAS]

absolutely glorious! I play on a 525 medium bore horn. I really wanna get a large bore or bass trombone one day! alto horns are pretty fun and the little soprano trombones are adorable! 😆 great stuff! 😁👍🏻