How to Begin to Play the Trombone
- 1). Locate a music stand and an area where practice will be uninterrupted and not bother the family.
- 2). Pretend that you have a small piece of paper on the end of your tongue. Now spit it off. Let the air continue through your lips.
- 3). Do the same thing again, keeping your lips close together; produce a long "buzz."
- 4). Take the trombone's mouthpiece by the tube. Put the larger end in the center of your closed lips. Center your lips both vertically and horizontally.
- 5). Do the "spit-buzz" exercise into the mouthpiece. Sustain the "buzz" for 3 seconds.
- 6). Assemble the slide and bell portion of the trombone so that the two parts have an L-shaped, 90-degree relationship.
- 7). Hold the trombone with your left hand bearing most of the weight of the instrument.
- 8). Place the small end of the mouthpiece into the lead pipe of the slide section with a very light twisting motion.
- 9). Produce long and steady tones using the "spit-buzz" exercise.