Good site for learning trombone

[Draconistarum]

I've recently come into possesion (borrowed) a trombone. I was wondering if there was any good place online that can at least show me the ropes of learning it. Anything that can show me what position my mouth should be and all would be really great.

[Newkstime]

Grab some private lessons.... Brass playing is pretty tricky and it's always better to get playing the right way from the start.

[Draconistarum]

I'm planning on getting lessons after I come up with a bit more cash, but I meant a place that might have examples of the basics. Possibly ways to get used to the bass clef.

[The Martin]

Get the book "A tune a day"

All you need to know on a day to day bassis.....
It's perfect.

[Tom Goodrick]

I learned to play the sax at home, from a beginner's book used mainly for fingering. But I don't think you can do that very well at home. Maybe you will be lucky and pick it up quickly. But for a sax, you supply the air and the reed does most of the work until you start getting fancy. I suspect many sax players let the reed do all the work their entire career. But hearing you say "where does the mouthpiece go on my mouth?" indicates that learning any brass instrument should be done by lessons - by someone who actually plays the same horn. Learn trombone from a trombonist.

I have played the trombone for 52 years and am still learning new things. For example, I found recently that if I put the upper rim of the mouthpiece just on my upper lip, not above it, I can articulate the high notes much better (concert C3 to F3). But this is also very dependent on the balance of diaphram pressure to mouthpiece resistance you work with. This came from working with the sax where a very similar diaphram-balance thing happens. With the proper pressure balance on either sax or trombone, you can push your lips out a little against the mouthpiece giving the lip more movement for intonation, vibrato or jazz effects.

There are books that describe how to blow horns. Look on some of the Internet sites for them. Obviously the matter of describing what you cannot see inside your mouth is difficult. But it is no more difficult to learn from books as from teachers. Whether you use a teacher depends a lot on where you live. If you have worked with trombinists on your sax jobs, ask one of them for help. A couple years ago when I took up the horns again, I called up a local sax player (who teaches at the local university)to come and listen to me to make sure I was not getting off on the wrong foot. He was very helpful. But asking a school band teacher to give you lessons can be a bad experience unless he or she happens to be a trombonist.

There are two other considerations. You don't need to become a trombonist just because you have a horn. You can go to a store and trade it in for another instrument. Do your arms fit the horn for 6th position? Can you hold the horn for long periods? They are a bit awkward.

The most important question is "Do you have a specific interest in the horn? There have been many good trombonists over the years. Recordings by Si Zentner, Urbie Green, Buddy murrow and even Tommy Dorsey can still be found today on CD. Buy one or two and listen to them. Is that a sound you want to be able to do? A lot depends on the type of music you want to play. While the sax can be played in a very wide variety of groups for a wide variety of types of music, trombone work is more limited.