"Tim R" wrote in message
...
On Friday, December 25, 2015 at 6:16:13 PM UTC-5, wrote:


Like most brass instruments a trombone comes with a main tuning slide. It
is a U shaped piece of tubing right on the top (behind your head when
you're playing). You set that for the group you're playing with.

But you also make fine adjustments with the slide that moves. Trombone is
"fretless" just like a violin. The slide has an approximately correct
position but it always has to be slightly fine tuned for every note,
because there are many notes in each position but all have tendencies to be
sharp or flat, and notes sometimes have to be adjusted sharp or flat
because of the musical context.

I've been playing in various groups for most of the past 50 years, and I've
observed a recent tendency to standardize pitch much more. In the 60s a
Stroboconn tuning machine cost $2600, which was more than a car back then.
Now everybody has a $20 electronic tuner that is just as accurate. While
not everybody uses them correctly, the overall effect is that groups have a
central pitch much closer to 440 than in the old days.

Around 1964 our Jr High had a band program and had one of the Stroboconn
machine. I thought it was called a Stroboscope, but hard to remember what
it was from over 40 years ago. Maybe the band director called it wrong
then.

I do remember the trombones being adjusted like you said. P:iece on the
back was moved in or out. I never did know how they could move the slide in
and out for the different notes and get them right. I think the band
directors favorite note was a B to set everyone to.