Film Friday – Trombones of all Sizes!

Trombones, trombones, trombones of all sizes!  This video features the “German Brass” ensemble, a talented musical group which is comprised of members of major German symphony orchestras and professors at university music schools.  The German Brass has some fun with trombones in this entertaining musical act set in a circus tent.  You’ll see some normal sized trombones play the main melody and then a smaller instruments, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller.  Eventually you’ve got a full choir of trombones going, playing various parts and working with one another as an ensemble.

I love this because it shows off the trombone (an instrument that fascinates young learners) and also demonstrates how instruments can come in different sizes.  My kiddos are always fascinated by the trombone and the video is a fantastic example of how the slide works on a trombone.  If you have an actual trombone or a slide whistle to show off in class, you could demonstrate that when the slide goes out the sound changes.  If you don’t have your own sliding instrument, you could take a moment during the video to show that when the slide goes out the sound changes and when the slide goes back in the sound changes again.

I’m absolutely going to put this video in my toolkit for when I teach kids how size affects sound.  I’ve used different sized boomwhackers, different sized drums, different sized Orff instruments and more, but this video quickly and easily shows how the size of the instrument changes the sound.  Bigger instruments are generally lower pitched and smaller instruments are higher pitched.  Kids immediately see/hear the correlation between the size of the trombone and the pitch of the melody. How great would this be to show when you’re trying to get kids to understand soprano, alto, tenor, bass as it applies to recorders or Orff instruments?

What else could you use this for?  Showing how an ensemble works?  Solo vs ensemble?  Accompaniment?  Key Changes?  Melody?  Lots of ways to make this fun video educational!