Easy trombone songs for beginners
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Five well-known songs that stay almost entirely in 1st to 4th position and keep to simple rhythms, easiest first. The slide positions are written under the first bars of each, and the player can show them for the whole song.
1. Ode to Joy
to in E♭ major, in 1st, 3rd and 4th position only. Mostly quarter notes, with a few eighths.
2. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Six neighbouring notes, to , in C major, in quarter and half notes. is the only note in 6th position.
3. When the Saints Go Marching In
Five notes, to , in F major, mostly long ones, all in 1st to 4th position.
4. Jingle Bells
to in E♭ major, mostly quarter notes. Five s in 6th position; every other note is in 1st, 3rd or 4th.
5. Korobeiniki (the Tetris theme)
A Russian folk song, known as the music of Tetris. to in D minor, in quarter and eighth notes with some dotted quarters, all in 1st to 4th position. The second time through is faster.
What makes a song easy on trombone
- A small range
- Each song stays within about an octave, between and : the first five notes of band books like Essential Elements, to , and a few notes above them.
- Close positions
- Nearly every note is in 1st to 4th position; the only exception is in 6th, in Twinkle and Jingle Bells. 6th and 7th are a long reach for a young arm, and some beginner books leave them out.
- No long slide moves
- None of these songs goes straight between 6th and 1st position, the longest move a beginner meets. In F major, in 6th often sits next to in 1st, which makes Happy Birthday and Old MacDonald harder on trombone than they look.
- Easy keys
- No sharps, and no more than three flats. These five are in C, F and E♭ major and D minor.
- Simple rhythms
- Mostly quarter and half notes, a few eighths, nothing as short as a sixteenth. Korobeiniki, the last song, has the most eighths.
- A tune you know
- You hear your own mistakes, and a note comes out better when you already hear it in your head before you play it.
Tips for playing these on trombone
- Tongue each note lightly, with a soft “da” or “doo”. Without the tongue, the notes smear into each other as the slide moves.
- Hold the slide still until the very end of each note, then move it quickly to the next position.
- Keep the air going while the slide moves.
- The slide has no marks, so find each position by ear: if a note sounds off, move the slide a little until it’s in tune.
- Practise moves between neighbouring positions first, then the longer ones. The longest in these songs are 1st to 4th, and 3rd to 6th in Jingle Bells.
- Start slowly, so slowly it feels awkward, and play every note right. Rushing only teaches you the wrong notes.
- You don’t have to play the whole piece every time. Repeating the bars you’re unsure of teaches you more.
- Play the tune on its own first, then with the piano.
- If you read treble clef, as in a brass band, every song here also has a part in B♭ treble clef: pick the clef in the instrument menu at the top of the song’s page.