Sixth Grade
Worksheets
How Does a Trombone Work?
Caption: 1. tuning slide 2. mouthpiece 3. bell 4. water key 5. main slide
6. second slide brace 7. first slide brace 8. slide lock ring
How does a trombone work? With no keys to press, what makes it play different notes? How does a trombone player get the notes just right?
More than anything else, the sounds produced by a trombone depend on the ears of the trombone player. A trombone player, more so than most other musical instrument players, needs to have a good ear for music to make his playing sound good.
Here is how it works.
A trombone player begins to play a note by buzzing his lips on the mouthpiece of the trombone. This sets up a vibrating air column in the body of the trombone. Vibrations of different wavelengths produce different sounds, or different musical notes.
