These attachments aren’t unique to standard tenor trombones either, with bass trombones having the ability to host an F attachment and a Db attachment so that even lower notes are playable. Being able to play in the F key takes this difficulty away, so many people grab an F attachment when they need to play deeper notes. The F attachment is popular because many are dissatisfied with the sounds produced by a standard trombone further down the scale. It does this through the same principle that changes the sound profile of every brass instrument, by adding to the overall pipe length of the trombone. The most popular of these is the F attachment which, as you can guess, changes the trombone to play in the F key. That said, there are attachments available to tenor trombones that change their key. Just like the trumpet, the trombone is capable of playing a variety of notes depending on the slide’s position. It's also worth adding that historically the trombone was keyed to A, but in the modern-day tenor trombones play in C/Bb. This is uncommon for brass instruments, which are usually transposing instruments written at Bb, and makes the trombone’s notation identical to that of other arrangement instruments like the piano. This is where our answer comes in, the traditional trombone is written in the C key to keep in line with the concert pitch. Modern concert pitch tuning is set at 440 Hz for the A above middle C, using this reference to set all the other notes in accordance. Where multiple musicians are playing instruments from different families, the concert pitch exists to establish a standard pitch that all pieces of the arrangement can be tuned to, guaranteeing that their sound harmonizes.Ĭoncert pitch is usually used to differentiate the sounds of certain instruments from transposing instruments.

The concert pitch was designed as a reference for music bands and ensembles. To properly explain at key a trombone plays in, we need to talk about concert pitch and any other deviations to the standard trombone key that players must face when learning this instrument. Due to practical differences between brass instruments, it can be challenging to pin down by ear which key signatures each instrument plays in, so today we’re answering what key the trombone usually plays.

Soprano trombone position chart