When I was a high school and undergraduate student I always felt a little frustrated trying to keep up with the “fleet footed” trumpet and sax players I was jamming with. Compared to those instruments, the trombone is such a difficult instrument to get around on in faster tempos. There are a variety of techniques that I began practicing to help me with this, but one thing that has helped me quite a bit has been to become familiar with and comfortable using alternate slide positions.
Rather than go over what positions can be used for every individual note, I’m going to focus here more on why I use alternate positions and offer strategies for when to use them. I’m also not going to cover intonation adjustments here, so keep in mind that when I suggest using a particular position for a certain passage you will want to know how that particular partial needs to be tuned. Always listen carefully and adjust your slide to correct out of tune notes.
One of the simplest rules of thumb for using alternate slide positions is to strive to keep half steps in adjacent positions. The Eb major scale is a good example.
All major scales contain two half steps, between the third and fourth pitches and the seventh and octave. Following our rule of thumb about half steps, the slide positions between G and Ab would typically be played in adjacent positions already, 4th position to 3rd position. Many players, however, would play the D in first position and Eb in 3rd. In my scale example above you can note that I recommend playing the D in 4th position, which makes for a smoother slide motion between these two pitches.
There are some situations, however, when this general rule of thumb for keeping half steps in adjacent positions might get a little tricky and give you multiple choices on how to play a given passage. For example, the Ab major scale.
In this above example I’ve marked the G to be played in 2nd position (remember, this position needs to be raised from where you normally place the slide for 2nd position). Technically, this keeps the half step between the G and the Ab in adjacent positions since you’re only moving out to 3rd position for the Ab. This works just fine and is how many players approach this scale. There are other possible ways to play this scale that offer some advantages. For example, you can play the F and G both in 4th position, which keeps the half step not only next to each other in slide positions, but also keeps them both on the same partial.
Playing the F also in 4th position in the above scale is an example of my next rule of thumb – move the slide as little as possible. Playing the F in 1st position and the G in 4th forces you to move your slide much further and is wasted motion, slowing you down. While I’m at it, I would also recommend that you practice playing the high Bb in this example in 3rd position, so that you can simply stay in 3rd between the Abs and Bb up there.
These two rules of thumb (keeping half steps in adjacent positions and moving your slide as little as possible) are easily practiced with scales and chord arpeggio patterns. Remember that most music is made up of scale and chord fragments so by practicing these things carefully with the alternate positions you will be able to more easily incorporate alternates while playing music.
Although not what I would consider a “rule of thumb,” the above Ab scale also shows an example of another situation where alternate positions can be quite useful. Here’s another example.
By playing the above passage using the alternate positions I’ve marked a trombonist can slur every pitch without needing to articulate with the tongue. This technique is sometimes called “fretting” because you can move every position down and transpose this type of phrase into different keys like a guitarist might transpose a phrase by moving up or down a fret. Note that every pitch in this example crosses over partials, which is what allows trombonists to cleanly articulate each note without needing to tongue anything, excepting the initial attack. For this reason, sometimes this is called “against the grain” technique.
This technique is useful for jazz trombonists and was used extensively by Frank Rosolino, Carl Fontana, Jimmy Knepper, and others. It’s not exclusive to jazz trombone playing, however. One of the most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) examples from the classical literature is from Frank Martin’s 1940 composition, Ballad for Trombone and Piano. This piece contains the following passage, in tenor clef.
Those positions were marked by Martin, who wanted them to specifically be played so that the trombonist would slur each note. It’s a challenge to play it this way, but the effect is very cool when pulled off.
For a little more of my take on “fretting” you can read an article I wrote for the Online Trombone Journal called Lip Flexibility for the Advanced Jazz Trombonist.
One final situation where I find it helpful to consider using alternate positions is to use them to keep the slide motion consistently moving in the same direction, when possible, changing the direction of the slide on a downbeat or other rhythmically strong note. Here are a couple of examples to help illustrate how this works.
In this above example you can play the F in 6th position to keep for a smooth slide motion moving in the same direction and only need to move two positions (4th to 6th) between the F and Gs. Playing the F in first position would make for a jerkier slide pattern and force the trombonist to move four positions (4th to 1st) between those pitches. That said, if this scale pattern was to continue to descend, it would make more sense to play the F in 1st position.
Playing the above example with the F in 1st position changes the direction of the slide on the downbeat, but isn’t actually using an alternate position in this manner. Here’s a similar example that uses alternate positions to force a slide direction change on a downbeat.
Playing the above pattern with the marked alternate positions keeps the slide moving in the same direction for more of the passage than playing the Fs and Bb in 1st position, which would make for a jerkier slide pattern. It also coincidentally follows the first rule of thumb, keeping the half step between Cb and Bb in adjacent positions.
One final situation I’ll discuss where using alternate positions may be useful is when you want to timbre of a phrase to match another. One of my teachers, John Seidel, notes a couple of examples for using alternate positions on the famous Tuba Mirum movement from Mozart’s Requiem Mass (follow the link to see this excerpt). Dr. Seidel writes:
In the interest of fine tone quality and intonation, the use of alternate positions should be avoided even though several will suggest themselves to you. Two exceptions to this rule are the f on beat three in measure six, which when taken in sharp fourth position will help to match the quality of the tone to the preceding g flat, and the b flat in measure thirteen on beat two which when taken in sharp fifth position will help insure against any unwanted glissando.
This is a good example to conclude with because it also offers some rational for avoiding alternate positions. It certainly is possible (and necessary) to practice playing alternates so that they are in tune and have a focused and resonant timbre, but they do sound different and some situations will call for pitches to be played in the primary position. The key to using alternate positions appropriately is to understand how and when the above situations may apply and make your choice based on the desired sound, rather than selecting your positions based on your technical limitations.
Careful practice will allow you to make informed decisions about slide positions and give you options to choose from. As I mentioned above, scales and chord arpeggios make excellent exercises to start with, but once you’re familiar with these situations you can easily apply alternate positions to musical passages. Eventually you’ll find that you automatically use alternates when appropriate without much thought at all and can keep your mind on making good music instead.
