The missing manual for learning and mastering the
Alto Trombone

Alto Trombone Savvy

Learn the alto positions, but not just that… 

  • Sight reading secrets
  • Exercises for a more beautiful sound
  • Ear-based skills to improvise without fear
  • Available in bass and alto clef

Play this fantastic instrument as well as you imagine you can. Hey, you just need to practice the right things given to you by someone who really knows the instrument!

Alto Trombone Savvy


Learn the alto positions, but not just that… 

  • Sight reading secrets
  • Exercises for a more beautiful sound
  • Ear-based skills to improvise without fear
  • Available in bass and alto clef

Play this fantastic instrument as well as you imagine you can. Hey, you just need to practice the right things given to you by someone who really knows the instrument!

"To quote an advertising line from the past, 'This is not your father’s method book.' Alto Trombone Savvy is a thoroughly 21st Century production by a master of the art and the instrument."
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Stan Pethel
Professor of Music Emeritus at Berry College

Download a free 23-page excerpt of the book.

Enter your name and email to download this full chapter called “Intonation Savvy”. This will help you hear the alto positions and the sound of the alto much better.

I am a Grammy-nominated alto trombonist, writer, electronic musician, entrepreneur, and Dad to two fascinating teenage boys.

I have played the alto exclusively since mid-way through college. I saw one one day in my teacher’s office and immediately thought, “That’s for me!”

It took me a while to become comfortable with the alto enough to play jazz. To speed that up, I sold my tenor and vowed never to go back, kind of like the old explorers who destroyed their ships so that they couldn’t go back home.

I think the alto is far superior to the tenor, but that is just my opinion. It is quicker to respond, the distances between slide positions are shorter, and the horn emphasizes the higher overtones.

I won’t tell you that learning the alto is easy, but I will promise you that my book Alto Trombone Savvy is the best method for learning it as quickly as your time and effort allow.

Tell me how can I help you play better.

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