Alto'd

I picked up another instrument this week. An alto trombone. 

And I like it so much better than tenor 'bone. My lips are still swimming in that giant mouthpiece (it has the same shank as a trumpet and will fit a trumpet mouthpiece, but then it sounds a lot less like a trombone.) But I just find everything about the instrument suits me better. The feel, the sound, the lightness. Even the spacing of the positions feels more intuitive.

It is also a better instrument. Not a Cecelio this time, but your basic Moz. Street price is still only in the sub $300 range (the first decent student trumpet shows up at around $600 for an open-box Yamaha). The slide is so much smoother than my Cecelio tenor and it just all feels a little tighter, a little nicer to hold.

And I'm learning a lot about how I am approaching the trombone and the way it is exposing what are possibly bad habits on the trumpet. So even though I want to make this my primary trombone, it is teaching me how to play my other brass instruments better as well.