Re: Glissando on a Trombone
Reply #4 –
Is this to be an "imaginary" piece or something a real trombone can perform? (I actually play trombone so this is from experience, not simply theory)
Also, are you talking concert pitch or have you transposed the trombone similarly to a trumpet?
These are important considerations, a real Bb Tenor trombone can only gliss 6 semitones - position 7 to 1 or 1 to 7.
From the table below, a "partial" is a harmonic. The lowest "1st position" or "open" note I can play (ignoring the pedal or fundemental) is a concert Bb an octave below middle C - the 2nd partial. The fundamental is the real 1st partial or harmonic. What I have below is a 'traditional" view starting on the true 2nd partial - in reality the 7th listed partial is the 8th - the real 7th is somewhat out of tune (1st pos is a flat concert C Ab) and brass players are usually taught to play "around" it...
Again, from the table the lowest to highest gliss that you can play is (speaking concert) E to Bb, the next range is B to F, then E to Bb again, next is Ab to D, another B to F and finally a last E to Bb. This ignores those players that can play beyond the 7th partial where you can do lots of other nest tricks just on the lip...
So you can see a true Db to Ab gliss is impossible on just the slide as there must be a partial change part way through.
Within NWC you can only pitch bend 2 tones (1 tone below to 1 tone above). One of the links I provided earlier leads to a thread that references a gliss.nwc example file by Fred Nachbaur which shows a technique to extend this. See if you can find it if you really need more than 2 tones but be warned, it only works reliably on some sound cards.
Now, speaking concert pitch:
Partial/Valves | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1+2 | 2+3 | 1+3 | 1+2+3 |
Partial/Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th |
2nd | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb | F | E |
3rd | F | E | Eb | D | Db | C | B |
4th | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb | F | E |
5th | D | Db | C | B | Bb | A | Ab |
6th | F | E | Eb | D | Db | C | B |
7th | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb | F | E |
Or, Transposed ala trumpet:
Partial/Valves | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1+2 | 2+3 | 1+3 | 1+2+3 |
Partial/Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th |
2nd | C | B | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb |
3rd | G | Gb | F | E | Eb | D | Db |
4th | C | B | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb |
5th | E | Eb | D | Db | C | B | Bb |
6th | G | Gb | F | E | Eb | D | Db |
7th | C | B | Bb | A | Ab | G | Gb |
Slide pos to valve:
Position | Valves |
1st | 0 |
2nd | 2 |
3rd | 1 |
4th | 1+2 or 3 |
5th | 2+3 |
6th | 1+3 |
7th | 1+2+3 |