The effect of actuating the bass trombone second valve on the quality of note transition in legato

The independent activation of the two valves of the modern trombone, implemented in the 1950s, made it possible to play the same note by multiple positions. The innovation facilitated not only the execution of chromatic passages but also note transitions that involve slide displacement between positions far apart. The full range of possibilities allowed by this improvement is not yet widespread among trombonists. This paper discusses the effect of using the second valve of the bass trombone on the execution of legato note articulation. Note transitions produced in positions far apart were extracted from performances of orchestral excerpts. Expert musicians with professional experience in symphony orchestras were asked to use different valve configurations in the performances of two orchestral excerpts. Two descriptors were used to infer the quality of the transitions: (i) the time interval spent in carrying out the transitions (Transition Duration); and (ii) the energy stability during the transition (Energy Index). We verified an increase in efficiency in the articulation between these notes, played in legato when the second valve was used alone, by the statistically significant decrease of Transition Duration in 39.2% and increase of the Energy Index in 10.6% (both df = 107 and p < 0.001).