Does this present any particular difficulty? Quarter note = 72; descending stepwise: E (above middle C) eighth-note, D sixteenth, C# sixteenth, B quarter. (Legato from E to C# isn't absolutely necessary, but it'd be nice.)

Would you play this second position, fourth, fifth, fourth?

(Note that I'm not a trombone player and not planning ever to become one.)

i would play in 2,1,2,4. Not that hard.

Thanks.

Does "not that hard" mean a reasonably accomplished trombone player (college level or higher, say) has no ground to complain about the part being unidiomatic or say, unsympathetic?

I proposed 2,4,5,4 because I was trying to put faster movement between adjacent positions. E going to D (me: 2,4; you: 1,2) lasts an eighth note, whereas as C# going to B (me: 5,4; you: 2,4) lasts only a sixteenth. Do you prefer 2,1,2,4 because playing the D with 1 and the C# with 2 is standard and you're more used to it or does it have something to do with the distance between adjacent positions increasing as you go into lower positions (2 to 3, for example, being a greater distance than 1 to 2) such that 5,4 isn't substantially easier than 2,4?

Can I get some (further) help here?

"Not that hard" is pretty vague, and I'd like to understanding trombone...what?...positioning, let's call it.

Not that hard as in it would take almost no time to teach it to my junior high students. We see lines like that all the time, and we can eat them up without thought, choosing multiple slide position combinations for it.

I would also just do this in 2, 1, 2, 4, with a legato feel if you want it. No prob.

I prefer 2, 1, 2, 4 because it takes away a direction change. As you said, the E lasts an eighth note, so I have more time after it to change direction and throw the slide than after the 16ths, which, in 1, 2, 4 is one direction and one throw.

Thanks, that's very helpful--especially the bit about the direction change; it never occurred to me that changing directions would eat up time, but it seems to make sense now that you mention it.