[Trombone-l] A question on alternate(?) positions.

[Jeremy Yager]

Hey Listers,
I am a clarinet player who has been invited to play trombone with a local
trombone choir that I'm arranging some music for.  I marched baritone in
college--in fact, I made a brief appearance on this list a few years back.
I'd like to be useful to this choir rather than just making flatulent noises
behind a stand, so I'm working pretty hard to get some decent slide work
going.

So, I have a question on alternate positions after reading the '51
Positions' thread.  Do you use alternate positions whenever it is the most
convenient (in terms of same slide direction or short position changes), or
do you reserve them for technical passages when it is difficult otherwise?
In other words, would a competent trombone player be concerned about slide
direction and slide travel distance for a passage if playing standard
positions didn't affect the musicality of the passage in question?

As a reference, on clarinet, for many notes we have a basic fingering and
then alternates that come into play when it is technically difficult (or
impossible!) to reach the basic fingering from the previous or next note.
However, alternate fingerings are not usually preferred when the basic
fingering is reachable due to tuning or tone quality concerns.  Does such an
distinction exist for trombone?

Thanks,
Jeremy