trombone
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Brass instrument with a deep cup-shaped mouthpiece and a mainly cylindrical bore that expands into a moderately flared bell. Instead of valves, the trombone has a movable slide: a U-shaped piece of tubing that can be pushed away or pulled towards the player. This lengthens or shortens the sounding length of the tube to create lower or higher-pitched notes. All the notes of the chromatic scale are available by placing the slide in any of seven basic positions, and blowing a harmonic series of notes built upon each basic note. The slide mechanism also makes possible a continuous glissando (slide) in pitch over a span of half an octave.
Descended from the Renaissance sackbut, the tenor and bass trombones are staple instruments of the orchestra and brass band, also of Dixieland and jazz bands, either separately or as a tenor-bass hybrid. The hybrid has a switch that lowers the pitch a fourth from B flat to F.
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