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Trombones always fascinated me, being the only instrument I can think of that changes its shape as you play it. I also really like the trombone's unique sound range.
To add to its visual impact, I am proposing an additional feature. This takes the form of a small brass attachment that screws unto
the trombone within finger reach of the player’s left hand. (the one that extends the slide tube brace)
Inside this attachment is a soapy mixture that enables bubbles to be blown by the player on depression of a single finger key.
With learned coordination between breath, note, instrument angle and finger control, a variety of bubbles, can be generated which add visual effects to the music being played.
note - I am aware of cheap plastic novelty bubble blowing trumpets etc, but the Trombubble Attachment is a highly engineered, precision device that requires patience, learning and skill to be used effectively.
Demonstration from 14 years ago
https://www.youtube...watch?v=U88xWlfZZww
[pocmloc, Aug 22 2023]
Swanee_20bagpipes
[pocmloc, Aug 22 2023]
Trombone game
https://store.steam...990/Trombone_Champ/
[Treejuice, Aug 22 2023]
Accordion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion
[Voice, Aug 28 2023]
[link]
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1. The left hand holds the static part of the instrument, the right hand extend and retracts the slide. |
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2. Other instruments also change shape in different and unusual ways e.g. slide trumpet (like a trombone but only one sliding tube so the entire instrument moves away from the player). Also the saw (the entire instrument is bent to change the note). |
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//the only instrument I can think of that changes its shape as you play it// - there is of course the concertina, to which this idea would be just as amusing an addition as it is to the trombone |
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Of course... the concertina - there must be others... |
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//there must be others...// well there's the 'party blower' (also known as a 'blow-out' or 'party horn'), a key instrument in any top-ranked orchestra |
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It also depends what you mean by //change [...] shape//. For example, a piano changes shape very slightly when you press a key. A guitar changes shape when you fret a string (because the string is no longer straight but is slightly kinked). In fact the soundboard of any stringed instrument changes shape constantly as it vibrates in and out to push the sound waves through the air. |
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We could define two different ways of changing shape, so as to create a topological classification of musical instruments, which would then help to have a more logical and scientific arrangement of instruments in the orchestra etc. instead of the arbitrary fossilised arrangement we have to put up with now. For example, both the trombone slide and the piano key would be classed as type 1 deformations, in that individual parts slide or rotate around each other without plastic deformation. On the other hand the trumpet undergoes both type 1 and also type 2 deformations: type 1 because the valves slide in and out of their casings without deforming, but also type 2 because the springs beneath the valves are compressed when you press down, but spring back to lift the valve again when you release it. The party blower uses solely type 2 deformations, both in the reed tongue that bends to vibrate to create the distinctive noise of the blower, and also the long tail that unrolls. I suppose the pedant will insist that every instrument undergoes type 2 deformation as a natural by-product of making sound - the metal walls of the trombone tunes inevitably vibrate a little by deformation, though this is incidental to the actual functioning of the instrument which is purely through the vibrating air column and the sliding enlengthening mechanism. In theory a trombone could be hewn from a single block of black basalt, though a pendant may also suggest that the basalt trombone would still deform through vbration a little even it if were almost undetectable. Another pedant would point out that to a trombone connoisseur, the mechanical characteristics of the metal tube walls imparts a certain "je ne sang fraiche" to the sound, with silver plating or laquering of the outside having a regognisable effect on the tone quality of the instrument. Other pedants could argue that the sliding or rotation of the keys on the piano (or indeed the little knobs on the concertina) are incidental to the production of the sound itself in a way that the sliding of the trombone slide is not. And finally a really irritating pedant will point out that the trombone comes in two varieties, the slide trombone and the valve trombone, so it is incorrect to speak of the sliding attributes of a trombone without explicitly specifying that the rererence is to a slide trombone and not a valve trombone. |
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No one's mentioned bagpipes? Interesting... regarding the meat of the idea, I wonder how it would sound with the wind that carries the sound of the music to our ears being damped by being passed through soap first. I imagine it could be pretty cacophonous. |
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//...it could be pretty cacophonous// - so, an improvement then? |
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Just to say that I appreciate the effort you went to to set up that joke for me |
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Definitely adds a festive note to bagpipery. Please only comment moderately, leaving out calumny. |
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I'm tagging my brother, famous Trombone player @DannyFlam. |
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//No one's mentioned bagpipes? // I was so certain that bubble producing bagpipes was already halfbaked, I didn't even bother to carry out a search. |
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I meant an instrument that changes shape. |
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Note to self: generate a new bagpipe idea |
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Also, you can make a trombone for lefties. Just rotate the assembly joint, although then the spit valve is on the top instead of the bottom. |
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