I've been given a trombone to try and learn to play, but I don't know whether it's an alto or a tenor trombone! At concert pitch, it plays F, Bb, D, F and Ab in first position as much as I can reach. I looked on the internet and went to chappell's of bond street, but they just searched wikipedia for me and didn't know an awful lot which was helpful. The bell's between 7.5 and 8.5 inches.

Can anyone help? Thanks for your help!

I'm pretty sure first position Bb means it's a tenor, though I could be wrong.

I would bet this is a tenor trombone, but not a modern trombone by the size of the bell end, what they use to call pea shooters in the old days. but could be wrong.

Medium bore instruments are still preferred for jazz, where solos are all miked.

medium bore Bb tenor trombones have 8 inch bells generally but some of the first position notes suggest it's a Bb/F. Does it have a trigger and were you using it playing the notes? :-)

When I first saw this thread I thought "Well it's a trombone, and you've proved that you know that, since you've posted about it. A low-pitched brass instrument with a slide."

Sorry - am in a bit of a silly mood.

Thanks for the replies in general so far. It doesn't have a trigger, no.

Ah sorry got confused replying late at night' yep that sounds like it's a tenor. Sound's like you're doing well, some of those notes a pretty high for a beginner :-)

Don't worry. I thought something similar when I came across it. Must be a teenage brain thing!

It's definitely a tenor trombone. Even if it had a trigger (or 'plug' - the extra bit of tubing that you can use instead of going to 6th position), it wouldn't necessarily be a bass trombone - they are larger bore and have a much bigger bell. Alto trombones have their harmonic series in 1st position in Eb (i.e. Eb - Bb - Eb - G - Bb - Db etc.) but are still played as concert pitch instruments. They are very noticeably smaller than normal 'tenor' trombones, and are a very specialist instrument, rarely played by anyone other than professionals, in things like the Mozart C Minor Mass.

I haven't checked this wikipedia article for accuracy, but it looks OK at first glance.

Thanks for all your replies! Now I just need to learn it..

Also the Requiem. I would expect them to be used in historically informed performances of Classical and early Romantic works such as Beethoven 5 and 9 and the Schumann "Rhenish". The last has a very high Trombone 1 part, rising to Eb space in treble clef.