BradHarrison

Gray, I just went to the link you listed. It's technically correct but wildly misleading. This is not the way trumpet players approach the instrument. Everyone on this forum will back me up on that.

That chart will only work in the niche situation of playing a Bb trumpet and reading C music. It this is the way you learn the instrument you will have to transpose while reading music that is actually written for the instrument. I doubt this is the situation you want to be in.

Hope that helps.

Gary

Brad: I am a fundamentalist when it comes to music. No matter how music is written as you say for a Bb trumpet your notes on the trumpet never change. "A" is 440hz and not something else. Its not a matter of me being right, the point is you cannot change the note values of your instrument. If you know all 31 notes on the Bb trumpets range completely and can play any one of them on call - thats all there is to it. You do not need to transpose anything. Of course if you want to play music where C is not C even though it's shown that way - thats up to you. For me I will just play the music directly without making my life more complex by trying to play scores not correctly printed.

I suggest you get a full orchestra score by someone like Dvorak - say his 9th symphony. There is a staff for each different instrument and the music is written in the appropriate range. The trumpets could be Bb, Eb or C, they can all play the written music because each instument has a fixed fingering for the required notes - no transposing is required just like any other instrument.

This is a great discussion because it peels back some of the quaint practices is music that make no sense whatsoever. Take you trumpet and set next to a piano and play a middle C on the piano and then on your trumpet: 101; not 000. You don't need special music written for your trumpet you just need to know the fingerings for each note in your instruments range. Once you know that, forget transposing and play the music.

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Have Theatre Organ, Digital Piano, Trumpet, flugelhorn, Baritone Horn and Computer with Cakewalk and Encore 4 software.

BradHarrison

Gary,

It might make for sense for trumpet players to learn the way you have learned but it's not the convention. I understand that 1-0-3(usually written 1-3) sounds as a C concert on a Bb trumpet but it is actually called a D because trumpets are transposing instruments. So are the clarinet, horn, english horn, and all the saxophones. Why do trumpets transpose the way they do? I don't know, but they do.

You should certainly play in a way that works for you and that you understand but I wanted to point out that most trumpeters do not approach the instrument in the way you do and you may confuse people if you don't understand how you approach the instrument's transposition and the way others do. It's not wrong but it's definatly different.

Another quick point. The trumpet doesn't exactly have a range of 31 notes. That would take you from low F# to high C(just about the staff). The trumpet has an infinite range from over an octave below the low F#(called pedal tones) to one octave(and sometimes more) above high C.

Gary

Brad: thanks for the reply.

There is no hope for me. I don't see anything complex about a Bb trumpet, C trumpet or an Eb trumpet. The all have a fixed fingering for each note in the range they play. I surely won't be joining the trumpet players club that requires me to see music one way and play another when I can just play music the way the composer wrote it without doing any complex manuevers. My problem I guess.

You fellows seem to be bound to transpose, whatever works for you - I remain in the non-transposer group.

__________________
Have Theatre Organ, Digital Piano, Trumpet, flugelhorn, Baritone Horn and Computer with Cakewalk and Encore 4 software.

ukcookie

In theory it is correct to say that playing a C is "simple" whatever the key of instrument but for those who use a variety of different keyed instruments for different sound quality (Eb trumpets have a very distinctive sound and will be preferred for some fanfares to Bb or C instruments) it is a lot easier to standardise the fingering and transpose the music rather than trying to learn all the different fingering for each instrument.

I know this from first hand when I marched in drum corps playing a G instrument and continued to learn on my Bb at school and play in the orchestras etc. The Corps director wrote all the music in concert pitch for the G instruments so when reading the music, I had to learn a completely different fingering for the G instrument compared to the Bb.

It was mighty confusing switching between the two particularly when I would play in the orchestra after school then play in the drum corps int eh evening (if nothing else I became very good at transposing)