Aiden Hwang

Trombone Supporter

3D printing and ergonomics meet music

  • Industrial Design
  • Ergonomics
  • Music
Year
2023
Role
Designer and maker
Tools
3D printing
Results
Used in all of my performances since creation, including a 2024 world premiere with the New York Philharmonic
A process sheet for a trombone hand support: annotated sketches of the grip problem, a row of cardboard mock-ups, six black printed iterations side by side, and photographs of the finished part clamped to the instrument and held in the player’s hand
Year
2023
Role
Designer and maker
Tools
3D printing
Results
Used in all of my performances since creation, including a 2024 world premiere with the New York Philharmonic

I designed and 3D printed a durable, ergonomic, and aesthetically subtle hand supporter for my trombone that properly distributes the instrument’s weight to stable points of my hand. This eliminated the joint soreness and inflammation I had been suffering prior to designing the grip.

The supporter makes my trombone feel less like an instrument and more like an extension of my own body. Through the grip, I can feel the trombone’s weight shift with my movements, giving me more comfort as I play. It is a union of form, function, and feeling.

This project supported me both physically and mentally as I sat beside trombonists from the New York Philharmonic orchestra in a collaboration between the Juilliard Preparatory Division, the New York Philharmonic, and American Composers Forum. You can watch the videos from the Music page of this site.

A hand holding a trombone with the black supporter under the slide brace, the bell behind, against a pale gray backdrop
The supporter (black version) in use

Sketches

Click each image to enlargeTap each image to enlarge

The back of a hand with a red outline drawn along the base of the index finger
A notebook page headed Simplified Drawing: side views of the trombone’s brace with a hand on it, and notes on the tendon stress its pressure caused
A notebook page of dimensioned studies of the supporter’s curved arm and round clamp, with a note in red to use a grid fill for the 3D print
A notebook page of profile studies for the arm, with notes asking for a more curved underside to spread the force and a big fillet on the front edge
A notebook page of small studies of the grip and clamp, with a list of changes: point the grip at the center of the circle, make it thicker and wider, and leave room for the left thumb
A notebook page of pencil notes for the next print: turn the grip about 8° counterclockwise, more clearance for the trigger wire, a grip 0.2 inch wider, and back to v8’s cylinder dimensions
Two hand-drawn design sheets headed Trombone Hand Supporter, annotated with studies of the grip, the hand and the part
Sketching solutions to the problem

Prototypes

A strip of corrugated cardboard being bent into a curve on a cutting mat
A cardboard prototype wrapped over the back of a hand and around one finger
A cardboard prototype taped around the trombone’s tubing under the player’s thumb, seen from above
Rapid prototyping using cardboard
A hand holding a yellow and white mock-up in front of a laptop showing a 3D model of a cylinder
The supporter’s curved arm modeled on a laptop screen
A gray 3D model of the supporter on a monitor: a long arm ending in a round clamp, the initials ADH on its side
Modeling the grip in Fusion
A black supporter partway through printing on a Prusa printer, its infill showing under the nozzle
The black printed prototype clamped to the trombone below the trigger, the player’s hand around it
The black supporter fitted to a trombone in a player’s hand during a rehearsal, an orchestra out of focus behind
Three close views in a row of the black supporter clamped to the trombone’s tubing, seen from the side, the front and above
A board of prototypes: cardboard mock-ups along the top, and below them a row of six printed black versions in sequence

Cardboard references and 3D printed prototypes

  1. An early cardboard prototype taped to the trombone’s tubing and held in the hand
    01CardboardNovember 2023Cardboard creates loose forms for references
  2. A hand holding a black printed prototype: a long arm ending in a round clamp
    02Printed PrototypeNovember 2023Modeled in Fusion and 3D printed in black
  3. The yellow supporter fitted to a trombone, the player’s hand on it
    03Final VersionMarch 2024Version 17, printed in yellow

Final Version

The yellow supporter clamped to the trombone, the player’s hand around it, the tubing rising behind
The yellow supporter from below, “v17” printed on its side
The side of the yellow supporter, engraved “ADH” and “Aiden Hwang”
The final supporter, printed in black and yellow versions and engraved with my name
A rehearsal in progress: a man in a pale blue shirt and glasses talking and gesturing with one hand, a seated trombone player and their instrument beside him

My current trombone supporter model in use during a world premiere with the New York Philharmonic

Watch these pieces on my Music page