learning trombone

[r smith]

The way is to practice lots of long tones working your way up.
Listen to your sound & keep it full sounding. When your lips get tired give them a rest & come back later.
Good practising

[MikeMason]

If the playing requires mostly high register,don't try to use a bass.Find a tenor...

[pierso20]

also......

remember that it is a trombone...you're embrochure will have to change a bit for the mouthpiece. I ran into a similar problem coming from trombone to tuba.

Do a little searching and see what comes up...and then practice getting up to the high places. It'll come with time.

[tbn.al]

practice getting up to the high places. It'll come with time.

No matter what equipment you are using, or what instrument, the lips have to buzz the pitch. Going the other way, I was surprised to find the upper limits of my high register almost unchanged whether I have a tuba, bass trombone or tenor in my hands. The quality of the sound gets better the smaller the equipment, but not the ability to sound the pitch. My challenge is the pedal register on tuba. The above quote is the key.

[MartyNeilan]

any tips/tricks/magic to help me out?

Avoid the tricks and the magic. Approach it as a completely different instrument, which it is. Trombone will work wonders for training your ear if you have fallen into the "button pushing" trap that many middle and high schools teach.
Practice lots of intervals and scales to familiarize yourself with the slide positions; it is not that hard! (If you don't believe me, look at the average trombone player ) Don't be afraid to use a tuner at the beginning to help you find your way, but ultimately trust your ear.
You will discover that positions vary slightly - 5th position Db may be a 1/2 -3/4 inch different than 5th position Gb, for example.

[adam0408]

Air. Lots of air.

When you get in the upper register, think about spinning the air faster. With your embouchure, point the air down into the mouthpiece.

Playing is all about air speed and aperture size. Fast air and small aperture gives you high notes. Don't use pressure. Pressure is a crutch for poorly developed facial muscles, because it forces the aperture to be smaller and tighter without muscle action.

Be patient and let the notes develop gradually, and always always use MORE air.

[windshieldbug]

Air. Lots of air.

When you get in the upper register, think about spinning the air faster. With your embouchure, point the air down into the mouthpiece.

Playing is all about air speed and aperture size. Fast air and small aperture gives you high notes. Don't use pressure. Pressure is a crutch for poorly developed facial muscles, because it forces the aperture to be smaller and tighter without muscle action.

Be patient and let the notes develop gradually, and always always use MORE air.

What he said.

DON'T FORCE THE NOTES to get more range. Your embrochure on BOTH instruments will suffer if you do!

[Ryan_Beucke]

Long tones, scales, and slurring. Do lots of playing without even using your tongue, you have to get used to the blow of the instrument.

I would personally recommend using a smaller tenor trombone. It's a different horn than your tuba anyways, so you might as well use a horn that is closer to the sound that they are probably looking for.

[lgb&dtuba]

As someone who plays tuba, euph and trombone I'll echo what others have already said. They are different instruments and need to be approached as such. If you are going to have good range and sound on each then you need to put the time in on each.

There aren't any shortcuts.

1. Use your ears. Listen to yourself.
2. Use your ears. Listen to recordings.

Each instrument has different tonal possibilities that you'll want to explore for the type of music you will be playing. Ska trombone and symphonic trombone are quite different sounding.
Listen to the different tonal qualities in jazz, ska, symphonic, big band, dixieland and other recordings where a tenor trombone is used.

You need to learn to make your instruments sing in different styles just as you would your human voice.

It takes time and effort. But it's worth it. And fun.