i play 2nd trombone in jazz band, although everyone thinks that i should play 1st, cuz our 1st trombonist isnt exactly the best. but anyways,just recently,we got sheet music for "in the mood" written by joe garland and played by the glen miller orchestra.its a good song, but theres something bugging me: 1st trombone, being 1st trombone,have really high notes,and me being 2nd should at least have something like it,but i play what a 3rd trombone should be playing,and our 3rd trombone is playing notes that a 2nd trombone normally has. e.g.: 1st trombone would play an A above the staff, and 2nd trombone would play maybe an F or a G above the staff, and 3rd trombone would play a low A in the staff. but in this case, 1st trombone is playing A above the staff,3rd is playing the F or the G above the staff, and i`m the one playing the low A in the staff. should i be complaining, or is this normal?
thanx for your replies!!!

i would think that where would be a misprint, that doesn`t sound right

No, that`s right. You see it every once in a while. You also see that in trumpet parts, the 2nd part being higher than the 1st part. Or the 2nd trombone part being as high or higher than the 1st part. Sometimes it`s from an arrangement from a certain set of songs, giving the 1st or 2nd player a chop break, sometimes it`s because of solos, and sometimes it`s just cause.

Of course, it could be a typo as well. Never know....

i have played a verion(actually a couple)of In The Mood, and i play second as well.all of the second parts have all been very similar to the first parts.it might be a typo.ask your band director about it.

thats right. dont worry


heres something that ive had pounded in my head. the chair system is all relative. the only thing that makes the "lead" chair more distinctive than any other chair is that person decides style. but that doesnt mean the 1st is the ONLY one playing high. when playing these old charts you have to realize that they were playing for at least 3 hours doing LOOOONG dance sets. so this gives very people in the section a break. also a really good section has 3 lead players playing all the parts, meaning "high" notes arent limited 1st just because that person is better.

French horn parts often have something like that. We have 4 parts, and often the 3rd is higher than the second so the 1st and 3rd are playing high and the 2nd and 4th are lower, with the 1st above the 3rd and the 2nd above the 4th. Sometimes, though, it`s just 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in that order.

And also, I just started playing trombone for jazz band, and sometimes there is a 4th trombone part and sometimes there are only 3 trombone parts. Why is that?

it depends on the era of the music. pre 1940 i believe there was no such thing as the bass trombone. so there were only 3 trombones because that was all they had. so the voicings some of the songs were only written for 3 tenor voices. so only 3 bones. you can actually go out and find optioinal 4th bone parts that were written to compliment the upper 3.

hey i have that music. it`s right. i played second t-bone this year (its summer so now i am 1st) but everytime we played in the mood, i always played the third part, it is more difficult. the composition is correct.

hey everyone,
i`m a trombone player as well,
and looking for some good trombone pieces to play for my senior year.
can anybody give me a link to hear "in the mood" by joe garland.
if any of you know anymore nice jazz pieces for trombones, it would help if you guys could send me an email.
thanks much.

Well, its like in chorus.

Sometimes, Bass parts goes higher then the Tenor parts...the people that hear doesnt know that, only the players do.

If your a 2nd Trombone, dont fret...you will get the most flexible parts, i believe...-_-

be GLAD ur not 1st Trombone when u play Channel One Suite....high D flat...*shivers*

i love that D flat!!! i sang that sucker out!

i dunno i always dug that song even though its extremely cheesey.


and bass bone parts that go higher than tenor? whats this?