Trombone Slide Position Chart

One slide, seven positions, a ladder of harmonics

A trombone is a tube about nine feet long, and at any one length that tube will play a whole ladder of notes — the harmonic series, also called partials. With the slide all the way in (1st position) the ladder runs B♭2, F3, B♭3, D4, F4, B♭4 and beyond, and your lips and air choose which rung sounds. Moving the slide out one position lengthens the tube enough to drop every rung by one semitone: 2nd position's ladder is A2, E3, A3, D♭4, E4, A4, and so on down to 7th position, six semitones below 1st. Every note in this chart is one rung of one ladder — which is why each note page names its partial as well as its position.

The low register runs backwards — and that is normal

New players are baffled that B2, the note right above low B♭, is played with the slide almost fully out in 7th position. The reason is the rule that runs the whole instrument: the slide can only lower a harmonic, never raise one. B2 is above B♭2, so it has to come from the next harmonic up — F3 — lowered six semitones. The whole first stretch of the chart works this way: C3 in 6th, D♭3 in 5th, D3 in 4th, E♭3 in 3rd, E3 in 2nd, all standing on the F3 harmonic, until F3 itself arrives back in 1st. Learn that one idea and the low register stops looking random.

Alternate positions: the trombone's shortcut system

Because the partials crowd together as they rise, many notes exist in two places. The classics are in the chart above: F3 in 6th (instead of travelling back to 1st), B♭3 in 5th, and D4 in 4th — each saves a long slide move in a fast passage or smooths a slur. Higher up, B4 (2nd or 4th) and C5 (1st or 3rd) are standard either way. Alternates are not better or worse; each earns its place in a particular bar of music. One family to treat with care is the seventh partial (the flattened A♭ harmonic): its positions — a short 3rd for F♯4, a raised 2nd for G4 — are real, and some charts print them, but the partial sits so flat that most teachers keep the standard positions in the chart above as the ones to learn first.

The F attachment, honestly

Many school trombones carry an F attachment: a thumb trigger working a valve that switches in an extra loop of tubing and drops the instrument a perfect fourth, from B♭ to F. It does two jobs. It gives short equivalents for the longest reaches — low C3 in 1st with the trigger instead of 6th, B2 in 2nd instead of 7th, a mercy for younger arms — and it fills the gap a straight trombone has between the pedal B♭1 and E2, reaching down to C2. What it does not do is change the positions in this chart: with the trigger up, a trombone with an F attachment plays exactly the positions above, and because positions on the longer F tube fall in different places, trigger positions are a separate chart of their own (six positions, T1–T6). This site teaches the straight positions first, and names the trigger shortcut on the note pages where it matters most — C3, B2 and their neighbours.

A sensible way to practise from this chart

Learn 1st position's ladder first (B♭, F, B♭, D, F) until the lips find each rung without the slide moving. Then learn positions by family: play F3 in 1st, then step the same harmonic down through E3, E♭3, D3 and the rest of the low ladder, feeling how each position is a little further out than the last. Add the classic alternates (F3 in 6th, B♭3 in 5th, D4 in 4th) as soon as a piece of music asks for them — that is what they are for. And check yourself against a tuner on the 5th-partial notes (D4 and its family): that harmonic sits about 14 cents flat, so those notes want the slide a touch shorter than the landmark suggests — except D4 in 1st, which cannot come in at all and is one reason its 4th-position alternate exists.

Sources

Every position in this chart was checked against two independent references: Yamaha's official trombone fingering chart (Musical Instrument Guide) and the NoteAtlas trombone slide position chart, with the Tonalics position chart — itself checked against a published tenor chart — as a further cross-check. The sources agree on the main position for every note in the heart of the range. Two honest exceptions are flagged where they occur: Yamaha's chart draws G♭4 and G4 with the short seventh-partial positions (3rd and 2nd), while the other references give the standard 5th and 4th positions shown here — those short positions are named on the G♭4 and G4 note pages rather than hidden. Yamaha's own chart also badges three alternate positions — F3 in 6th, D4 in 4th and F4 in 4th — and those are exactly the alternates this site shows for those notes.

Trombone slide position questions