Instrument
Trombone sheet music
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The trombone is notated two completely different ways depending on which tradition an edition comes from, and the catalogue does not always say which you are getting. An orchestral part is in bass or tenor clef at concert pitch. A British brass band part for the same instrument is in treble clef, transposed, and reads a ninth higher than it sounds.
The listing below covers solo trombone, trombone with piano, band and orchestral parts, ensemble music and studies.
Find a title, then open its sheet music page to compare editions and arrangements. Instrument tags describe catalog listings; check the edition for its exact scoring.
Buying guide
What to know before you buy
Bass clef or treble clef — check before you buy
In orchestral, wind band and most solo repertoire the trombone reads bass clef at concert pitch: what is written is what sounds. Higher passages switch to tenor clef to avoid ledger lines, and a player who has never met it finds the first encounter genuinely disorienting.
British-style brass band music writes tenor trombone in treble clef as a B♭ transposing instrument, so a written C sounds B♭ a ninth below. Bass trombone stays in bass clef even in brass band. This is not an obscure edge case: a large share of the trombone catalogue is brass band music, and a player who reads only bass clef cannot use it.
If a listing says "brass band", "cornet band" or gives parts as "1st/2nd/Solo", assume treble clef transposed. If it says "orchestra", "concert band", "wind band" or "trombone and piano", assume bass clef at pitch.
F attachment, alto and bass trombone
Music written below the low E of a plain tenor trombone requires either an F attachment (a valve opening extra tubing) or a bass trombone. Editions rarely warn you. If you play a straight tenor, check the lowest note before buying anything described as "bass trombone" or written in a symphonic context.
The alto trombone appears in Classical and early Romantic orchestral parts and in a small solo repertoire, usually notated in alto clef. Buying an alto part for a tenor instrument means transposing at sight.
Free trombone repertoire
The nineteenth-century solo repertoire — Guilmant, David, Rimsky-Korsakov — is out of copyright, as are the standard study books by Arban, Rochut (after Bordogni) and Blume. Orchestral parts for anything before about 1930 are also free. What is not free is a modern edition with edited breath marks and a clean piano reduction, which for the concerti is worth paying for.
Common questions
- Is trombone music in bass clef or treble clef?
- Both, depending on tradition. Orchestral, wind band and solo music uses bass clef at concert pitch, moving into tenor clef for high passages. British brass band music writes tenor trombone in treble clef as a transposing B♭ instrument, sounding a ninth lower than written.
- Can a tenor trombone play bass trombone parts?
- Often not. Bass trombone parts go below the tenor instrument's range, and reaching those notes needs an F attachment at minimum. Check the lowest written note before buying.
- Is there much free trombone sheet music?
- Yes. The Romantic solo repertoire and the standard studies — Arban, Rochut, Blume, Kopprasch — are all out of copyright, and so is orchestral repertoire up to roughly the 1930s.