Piccolo & Sopranino Trombones
If the soprano trombone isn’t comically small enough for you, you are in luck! There are technically three smaller members of the trombone family, though two are so rare they might as well not exist. Welcome to the absurd world of piccolo and sopranino trombones.
Let’s start with the piccolo trombone. This instrument is pitched in B-flat, one octave above the soprano trombone, two octaves above the tenor trombone, and the same length as a B-flat piccolo trumpet. It is hilariously tiny, and despite that fact that renowned brass maker Thein offers one, it is not at all a serious instrument. In my opinion, soprano trombones are about the limit of real musical usefulness for a trombone, and an instrument an octave higher is only useful as a toy and curiosity. Still, piccolo trombone is a real thing that exists, so let’s talk about it.
As mentioned, Thein makes a piccolo trombone. I would assume they first made one for the German Brass, who often use the piccolo trombone as a “show instrument” according to Thein’s website. But they decided to make it a standard offering, and for whatever reason it was then copied by at least one Chinese instrument factory and is now sold by Wessex Tubas and other Chinese retailers. It is typically marketed as a toy that happens to be a functional instrument, which I believe is an accurate assessment. Wessex states that their piccolo trombone is “the perfect gift for special occasions such as birthdays or Christmas”, and “ideal for the light-hearted brass musician in your life”. And indeed, generally people buy a piccolo to have around as a fun toy or conversation piece, rather than aspiring to use it as a serious musical instrument.
The availability of piccolos cheap enough to buy on a whim has resulted in this member of the trombone family being made and purchased far more than it really has a right to. To be fair, the same could also be said about the even cheaper and more-widely available Chinese soprano trombones. But more than anything, the piccolo trombone is a funny little horn and makes the world a little more whimsical.
The only other piccolo trombone I know of (apart from 3D-printed examples) is a one-off experiment that was made by the legendary brass technician Robb Stewart. He mentions in this article that he made it “more as a novelty or experiment” than a serious instrument, but says that it “actually does play well enough to be used in performances if used judiciously.” The article does not mention when he made this experimental piccolo, nor do I know when Thein started making theirs, but I would guess that Robb Stewart’s was first.
Robb Stewart’s B-flat piccolo trombone
The sopranino trombone has not enjoyed the same popularity as the piccolo or soprano. Quite the opposite, in fact; the sopranino is so rare that it is somewhat mythical. This is an instrument in between the soprano trombone and piccolo trombone in length and sound, sounding an octave above an alto trombone. In all of Internet history there have only been whispers of the sopranino’s existence, and we only have one known example of one being used: the famous all-trombone Peanut Vendor by the German Brass.
This video features 8 (!) different sizes of trombone, from contrabass up to piccolino. The piccolino trombone (in F, a fifth above the piccolo) was a gag horn made by Thein specifically for this bit, and unlike the piccolo it’s not fully functional. It can reportedly only play a couple of partials, both of which are demonstrated in the video. Thein also made a page on their website for the piccolino, which makes one wonder if you can technically order one. Thein themselves refer to it as a “joke instrument”.
Two Thein piccolino trombones in F on the right, unknown other tiny trombone on the left
Anyway, that video also features the only known evidence of a sopranino trombone being played. The sopranino in question was also made by Thein, and can be deduced to be in F (a fifth above the soprano, or a fourth below the piccolo) by the slide positions. (For those following along, here are the timestamps: soprano 2:19, sopranino 2:45, piccolo 3:21, piccolino 4:46.)
There are a few crumbs of evidence around the internet of other sopraninos’ existence. According to Robb Stewart, the famed brass maker and technician Larry Minick built a few sopranino trombones in E-flat using piccolo trumpet bells, including one for Jeff Reynolds. I have yet to track down a picture of one, however. There is also vague mention elsewhere of sopraninos being used in Moravian trombone choirs (as Jeff Reynolds’ was), and as that tradition incorporates every size of trombone they can get their hands on, it is likely that is the only context sopraninos have been used in outside of the German Brass.
I remain a bit more optimistic about the potential of a sopranino trombone than I am about the piccolo trombone, but to me a truly useful sopranino trombone would have to have a (relatively) large bore and bell, to mirror the few large bore (~.500”) soprano trombones out there. The sound those instruments make is ALL trombone, big and dark. And I believe there is a bit of room to move that sound (not the small, trumpet-like sound of sopranos made with trumpet parts) upwards.
If you have any or know of pictures or videos of sopranino trombones, please do send them to me! I’m sure there is more information out there waiting to be found.
