A slide is a part of a

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

consisting of two (or more) pieces of tubing fitted one closely inside the other, and used to vary the overall length of the tube, and therefore the pitch of the instrument. Often two sets of tubes are used, with a U bend attaching them; this arrangement is called a ''single slide''. A ''double slide'', where two U-shaped slides are braced together and move on four inner tubes, is found on the B♭ contrabass trombone. Slides are used in three main ways: * In instruments such as the

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

and

slide whistle A slide whistle (variously known as a swanee or swannee whistle, lotos flute piston flute, or jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwind ...

, moving the slide is the way to select the note while playing. * On most brass instruments, a ''tuning slide'' is used to adjust the main pitch of the instrument before playing. A modern double or triple

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

has several tuning slides, which are sometimes moved during performance. * In instruments such as the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

and

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th&n ...

, small ''valve slides'' are moved manually or by means of a trigger while playing, to correct the pitch of the note selected by the valves.

References

* Musical instrument parts and accessories Brass instrument parts and accessories {{Brass-instrument-stub