Number of trombonists in the world?
- Tetraphosphate
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Aug 22, 2018
I've been wondering, as the title says, how many trombonists there are in the world? Of course it'll be impossible to know the exact amount, but it would be fun to speculate :pant:
Also I'm guessing the number of tromboners would be fewer than pianists, violins, flutes, etc.
Also I'm guessing the number of tromboners would be fewer than pianists, violins, flutes, etc.
- JohnL
- Posts: 2529
- Joined: Mar 23, 2018
Actively playing or people who played the instrument at one time?
I expect there are more people overall actively playing trombone than violin (amateur, pro, and students). More school bands than orchestras, more amateur bands than amateur orchestras. More flutes than trombones. Probably more pianists, too, but that would be counting “occasional” players (lots of people own keyboards and play “once in a while”).
I expect there are more people overall actively playing trombone than violin (amateur, pro, and students). More school bands than orchestras, more amateur bands than amateur orchestras. More flutes than trombones. Probably more pianists, too, but that would be counting “occasional” players (lots of people own keyboards and play “once in a while”).
- Tetraphosphate
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Aug 22, 2018
[quote="Neo Bri"]Yeah, you have to define players.[/quote]
Hmmm.
I was thinking maybe people who play regularly (more than once a week)?
Hmmm.
I was thinking maybe people who play regularly (more than once a week)?
- Tetraphosphate
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Aug 22, 2018
[quote="JohnL"]I expect there are more people overall actively playing trombone than violin (amateur, pro, and students). More school bands than orchestras, more amateur bands than amateur orchestras.[/quote]
Yeah, but a lot of people in Asia learn violin too, and correct me if I'm wrong, but they tend to do more solo pieces? so not necessarily in orchestras. :idk: (just making a guess, tbh)
Yeah, but a lot of people in Asia learn violin too, and correct me if I'm wrong, but they tend to do more solo pieces? so not necessarily in orchestras. :idk: (just making a guess, tbh)
- Kbiggs
- Posts: 1768
- Joined: Mar 24, 2018
If I’m on a gig and a trombonist doesn’t show, there’s one fewer.
If someone else gets the gig, there’s too many.
If someone else gets the gig, there’s too many.
- Mikebmiller
- Posts: 961
- Joined: Mar 27, 2018
This is sort of like that formula for guessing how many extra terrestrial civilizations might be out there. Let's do some basic math:
According to this site:[url]<LINK_TEXT text=" https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list ... facts.html"> https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/hsfacts.html</LINK_TEXT>
There are approximately 37,000 high schools in the USA between public and private.
How many have bands?
According to this:[url]<LINK_TEXT text="https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/ ... sing-grade">https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/04/06/150133858/music-education-in-public-schools-gets-a-passing-grade</LINK_TEXT> 98% of schools with over 500 students offer some type of music. So let's say that 2/3 of all high schools have some sort of band. So that would be somewhere around 20-25,000 HS bands in the USA, ranging from very small to over 200 members.
How many trombone players in each band? Usually 3-10 depending on the size of the band. So if we have 25K bands with an average of 6 trombone players each, that is around 150,000 high school trombone players scattered across the USA. If a high school has 4 classes, 9th-12th grade, that is approximately 37,500 people per school class that start trombone. If you spread that out over the average life span in the USA of 78 years and subtract the 12-14 years that people live before they start playing, that gives approximately 2.4 million people in the USA who have played trombone at some point in their life.
How many of these people continue playing after high school? Based on what I have seen in my area, way less than 10% of high school musicians continue playing after school. Maybe closer to 5% or less. So an educated guess would be that there are somewhere between 120,000 and 240,000 people that have played trombone past high school. But just based on my experience in my community, even that number would be way high. In a county of 200,000 people, I only know about 10-15 adults who actually play trombone on any kind of regular basis.
So, basically, I have no idea. But it was fun to crunch the numbers.
According to this site:
There are approximately 37,000 high schools in the USA between public and private.
How many have bands?
According to this:
How many trombone players in each band? Usually 3-10 depending on the size of the band. So if we have 25K bands with an average of 6 trombone players each, that is around 150,000 high school trombone players scattered across the USA. If a high school has 4 classes, 9th-12th grade, that is approximately 37,500 people per school class that start trombone. If you spread that out over the average life span in the USA of 78 years and subtract the 12-14 years that people live before they start playing, that gives approximately 2.4 million people in the USA who have played trombone at some point in their life.
How many of these people continue playing after high school? Based on what I have seen in my area, way less than 10% of high school musicians continue playing after school. Maybe closer to 5% or less. So an educated guess would be that there are somewhere between 120,000 and 240,000 people that have played trombone past high school. But just based on my experience in my community, even that number would be way high. In a county of 200,000 people, I only know about 10-15 adults who actually play trombone on any kind of regular basis.
So, basically, I have no idea. But it was fun to crunch the numbers.
- StevenC
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Mar 23, 2018
Yes, it is impossible to do an exact count, so we will need to use sampling. In my household, two out of three members play trombone. I think extending this to other households may yield an over-count. In my sister's household, there is only one trombone player among five members. Is that more typical?
- Posaunus
- Posts: 5018
- Joined: Mar 23, 2018
[quote="StevenC"]In my sister's household, there is only one trombone player among five members. Is that more typical?[/quote]
Yeah Steven, that sounds about right - 20% tromboning frequency. So extrapolating to the U.S. population of 325 million, there must be about 65 million trombonists within the U.S borders! :clever:
Ain't statistics wonderful? :shuffle:
Yeah Steven, that sounds about right - 20% tromboning frequency. So extrapolating to the U.S. population of 325 million, there must be about 65 million trombonists within the U.S borders! :clever:
Ain't statistics wonderful? :shuffle:
- harrisonreed
- Posts: 6479
- Joined: Aug 17, 2018
[quote="JohnL"]Actively playing or people who played the instrument at one time?
I expect there are more people overall actively playing trombone than violin (amateur, pro, and students). More school bands than orchestras, more amateur bands than amateur orchestras. More flutes than trombones. Probably more pianists, too, but that would be counting “occasional” players (lots of people own keyboards and play “once in a while”).[/quote]
I don't think there are more people playing trombone than violin, mostly because of youth and community orchestras, but also Asia.
I expect there are more people overall actively playing trombone than violin (amateur, pro, and students). More school bands than orchestras, more amateur bands than amateur orchestras. More flutes than trombones. Probably more pianists, too, but that would be counting “occasional” players (lots of people own keyboards and play “once in a while”).[/quote]
I don't think there are more people playing trombone than violin, mostly because of youth and community orchestras, but also Asia.
- Mikebmiller
- Posts: 961
- Joined: Mar 27, 2018
I think a better question would be "how many people in the USA actually make a full time living playing and/or teaching trombone. I would guess that that number would be somewhere under 1,000.
- StevenC
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Mar 23, 2018
[quote="Mikebmiller"]I think a better question would be "how many people in the USA actually make a full time living playing and/or teaching trombone. I would guess that that number would be somewhere under 1,000.[/quote]
In our local school district, both the high school and middle school band directors are trombone players. Do they count?
In our local school district, both the high school and middle school band directors are trombone players. Do they count?
- BGuttman
- Posts: 7368
- Joined: Mar 22, 2018
[quote="Burgerbob"]7.[/quote]
Does that include you? :tongue:
Then again, if we were to limit ourselves to only trombone players who do nothing OTHER than play trombone, that number could be pretty accurate.
Does that include you? :tongue:
Then again, if we were to limit ourselves to only trombone players who do nothing OTHER than play trombone, that number could be pretty accurate.
- Burgerbob
- Posts: 6327
- Joined: Apr 23, 2018
[quote="BGuttman"]<QUOTE author="Burgerbob" post_id="66615" time="1535661050" user_id="3131">7.[/quote]
Does that include you? :tongue:
Then again, if we were to limit ourselves to only trombone players who do nothing OTHER than play trombone, that number could be pretty accurate.
</QUOTE>
Oops! You're right.
6.
Does that include you? :tongue:
Then again, if we were to limit ourselves to only trombone players who do nothing OTHER than play trombone, that number could be pretty accurate.
</QUOTE>
Oops! You're right.
6.
- Tetraphosphate
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Aug 22, 2018
In my country, there aren't actually a lot of trombonists. (well, New Zealand is a smallish country so that sorta makes sense). I'm the only trombonist at my school, so :good:
- JohnL
- Posts: 2529
- Joined: Mar 23, 2018
[quote="StevenC"]In our local school district, both the high school and middle school band directors are trombone players. Do they count?[/quote]As trombone players, certainly (as long as they play regularly). They wouldn't count as someone who makes a living player/teacher trombone.
- Mikebmiller
- Posts: 961
- Joined: Mar 27, 2018
[quote="JohnL"]<QUOTE author="StevenC" post_id="66627" time="1535674117" user_id="149">In our local school district, both the high school and middle school band directors are trombone players. Do they count?[/quote]As trombone players, certainly (as long as they play regularly). They wouldn't count as someone who makes a living player/teacher trombone.
</QUOTE>
Actually, many of the band directors I know that started life as trombone players rarely play much any more. These folks have music degrees, but I can play circles around some of them. So the rub is that you go into music as a profession because you are talented at an instrument, but you end up spending your days running marching band practice for 3 hours and never have time to actually play that instrument.
</QUOTE>
Actually, many of the band directors I know that started life as trombone players rarely play much any more. These folks have music degrees, but I can play circles around some of them. So the rub is that you go into music as a profession because you are talented at an instrument, but you end up spending your days running marching band practice for 3 hours and never have time to actually play that instrument.
- Mhoutris
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Jul 26, 2018
Ah yeah, you should ask the manufactures. I mean, I've toured the Conn-Selmer/Bach/King etc. plant in Cleveland 3 times now and they're making TONS of instruments every day. There's obviously a huge market for new instruments when you consider how cheap you can get used horns on Craigslist or Facebook.
- Tetraphosphate
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Aug 22, 2018
It's actually the opposite where I live... there are only 2-3 trombones at my local music shop, and KBB Music only has 2 bass trombones for sale in the whole of New Zealand :???:
- JTeagarden
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Feb 24, 2025
If I were trying to back my way into a number, I would use the amount of slide lube sold in the US as a surrogate measure.
- NathanSobieralski
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Feb 04, 2024
Must be at least 76 right? :biggrin:
- Wilco
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Mar 24, 2019
Usually zero that want to buy when I have something for sale…
- robcat2075
- Posts: 1867
- Joined: Sep 03, 2018
I recall this was a topic on the old trombone forum.
My estimate based on the known number of US public schools, community bands and orchestras... and an estimated number of trombone players at each institution... came to about 250,000 people currently playing trombone across the US. About 0.075 % of the population.
Extrapolating that to the world is difficult. I presume school bands to be rare in third world countries.
My estimate based on the known number of US public schools, community bands and orchestras... and an estimated number of trombone players at each institution... came to about 250,000 people currently playing trombone across the US. About 0.075 % of the population.
Extrapolating that to the world is difficult. I presume school bands to be rare in third world countries.
- BrassSection
- Posts: 424
- Joined: May 11, 2022
[quote="Tetraphosphate"]
Hmmm.
I was thinking maybe people who play regularly (more than once a week)?[/quote]
Not sure where I’d fit in. I play at least once a week, but maybe only half of my playing time is on trombone, rest primarily trumpet or euph…Maybe count me as half?
Hmmm.
I was thinking maybe people who play regularly (more than once a week)?[/quote]
Not sure where I’d fit in. I play at least once a week, but maybe only half of my playing time is on trombone, rest primarily trumpet or euph…Maybe count me as half?
- MahlerMusic
- Posts: 158
- Joined: May 07, 2019
Guys and gals, lets be scientific about this. In my immediate family 3 of 5 people play the Trombone so 60% of 8,232,350,871 would be my guess.
Right now in the world there are 4,939,410,522.6 Trombone players.
Right now in the world there are 4,939,410,522.6 Trombone players.
- harrisonreed
- Posts: 6479
- Joined: Aug 17, 2018
Then you have to take into account ability -- Alessi plays with the strength of *two* people, so he's worth at least that in the census.
- robcat2075
- Posts: 1867
- Joined: Sep 03, 2018
[quote="harrisonreed"]Then you have to take into account ability -- Alessi plays with the strength of *two* people, so he's worth at least that in the census.[/quote]
He's going to have to do better than *two* to offset my playing.
He's going to have to do better than *two* to offset my playing.
- harrisonreed
- Posts: 6479
- Joined: Aug 17, 2018
[quote="robcat2075"]<QUOTE author="harrisonreed" post_id="280207" time="1751534752" user_id="3642">
Then you have to take into account ability -- Alessi plays with the strength of *two* people, so he's worth at least that in the census.[/quote]
He's going to have to do better than *two* to offset my playing.
</QUOTE>
Yes, indeed. When I play, for example, you must divide the total number of players by 3. There is a military term called "force multipliers". Therefore, there must also be such a thing as a "force divider".
That in turn begs the question -- can a drink be "defreshing"?
Then you have to take into account ability -- Alessi plays with the strength of *two* people, so he's worth at least that in the census.[/quote]
He's going to have to do better than *two* to offset my playing.
</QUOTE>
Yes, indeed. When I play, for example, you must divide the total number of players by 3. There is a military term called "force multipliers". Therefore, there must also be such a thing as a "force divider".
That in turn begs the question -- can a drink be "defreshing"?
- tbdana
- Posts: 1928
- Joined: Apr 08, 2023
[quote="harrisonreed"]That in turn begs the question -- can a drink be "defreshing"?[/quote]
Have you ever heard of a "freshing" drink? Why is it always "re"-freshing? I'm whelmed.
Have you ever heard of a "freshing" drink? Why is it always "re"-freshing? I'm whelmed.
- BGuttman
- Posts: 7368
- Joined: Mar 22, 2018
On the other hand, I have heard of freshening a drink, but the drink is never defreshened.
- robcat2075
- Posts: 1867
- Joined: Sep 03, 2018
- harrisonreed
- Posts: 6479
- Joined: Aug 17, 2018
I posit that lukewarm pickle juice would be a defreshing drink. As would be overly sweet, overly milky hot coffee on a 90⁰ F day.
- JTeagarden
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Feb 24, 2025
[quote="harrisonreed"]That in turn begs the question -- can a drink be "defreshing"?[/quote]
Yes, I had one about a month ago, it was supposed to be a martini, but frankly just tasted like brine, the owner assured me that was how it was supposed to taste, more likely answer: they glossed over proportions and simply poured too much juice from the olive jar into the glass.
Moral of the story: If you're a bar in a small Michigan town charging $12 a pop for cocktails, you'd better bring it.
Yes, I had one about a month ago, it was supposed to be a martini, but frankly just tasted like brine, the owner assured me that was how it was supposed to taste, more likely answer: they glossed over proportions and simply poured too much juice from the olive jar into the glass.
Moral of the story: If you're a bar in a small Michigan town charging $12 a pop for cocktails, you'd better bring it.