Wanting to raise a family, he traded life on the road for teaching music at college and public school. I grew up learning the instrument. I remember him discussing the difficulty and frustration music educators have with teaching new students the slide positions. Even more advanced players commonly have problems with slide accuracy. I remember he would talk about the fact that there was no position training device available to help students build accuracy that wouldn’t make playing the horn too clumsy.

The problem with slide positioning…

The problem is well known in the industry. As a music teacher, you can only correct your students’ slide accuracy during the time of the lesson. When students practice on their own they often build ‘bad habits’ that most of the following lesson has to deal away with before moving on.

Interestingly there have been 2 patents issued for devices attempting to solve this problem – the first in the 1890s! Both patents were abandoned after neither invention could come to fruition due to major design flaws that would render the trombone nearly impossible to play!

The solution: TromboneBuddy™!

As a (recently retired) engineer and “hobby” trombonist, I began to think about the TromboneBuddy™ about 4 years ago. What started as a literal “sketch on a napkin” (okay, a paper towel) came to life as we hand-built more than 200 failed prototypes. We tested countless exotic materials and tracked down the latest 3D printing technology over hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours of effort.

The result is a completely new teaching aid for the trombone which significantly improves the learning curve of aspiring trombonists, beginners as well as advanced players looking to perfect their slide technique and pitch.

TromboneBuddy™ helps students and teachers:

TromboneBuddy™ lets the player know when they have reached the correct position, exactly like a teacher would. So essentially it mimics the feedback a real teacher would give, even when you practice on your own. That way students won’t practice wrong positions that in turn become bad habits that delays the learning process.