Usually pitched in B flat an octave above the tenor and built with a bore size of between 0.450" and 0.470" and a trumpet-sized bell.

It appears to have been created in the late 17th century, from which the earliest surviving examples date. It was used in German-speaking lands to play the treble part in chorales, and this tradition survives in the Moravian trombone choir at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

During the 20th century some manufacturers made soprano trombones as doubling instruments for jazz cornet players, dubbing them slide cornets, or as a novelty, but the instrument has never been widely used or enjoyed much popularity. It rather lacks its own character and historically had little validity as it was easily replaced by the cornet or woodwind instruments and the short shifts make it difficult to play in tune.

Soprano trombone slides being so short, there are often only 6 positions on the slide rather than 7. The soprano trombone is usually played by a trumpeter owing to the high pitch of the instrument. The range of the B flat soprano trombone is E3 to C6, though it is not usually written higher than B flat6.