leeman_s

Alright, so I'm learning with the cornet. I'm going to get a book soon, but I looked on the internet for fingering charts. I found so many DIFFERENT things its got me so confused. Websites say there are variants for fingering for each note, and there are like 2 or 3 sets of fingerings and stuff.

I tried one out, and it goes like this:

12
1
2
0
23
12
1
2
0
12

Are there many many more fingerings I need to know or what? On my second day of trumpet I tried playing that up and down, and it goes in order and all. But there are so many fingerings I'm so confused.

Can somebody explain this to me?

DrunkIQ

Welcome aboard!

We have all been there - no worries! :wink:

if you have adobe acrobat then here is a link to a fingering chart for you:

http://www.trumpetstudio.com/scales/Allfinger.pdf

This brass trainer would may be worth playing with to help you memorize the notes to the fingerings;

http://www.musictheory.net/load.php?id=86

hope that helps,

__________________
-marc melton

TangneyK

Leeman,

The fingering chart that DrunkIQ posted is a good one.

Due to the physics(?) of the trumpet, there are many different ways to finger (smirk) many different notes. The fingerings on the chart DrunkIQ posted are the fingerings that are MOST in tune. "Alternate fingerings" are mainly used for special effects.

--Kevin

W Scott

Alternate fingerings are not just for special effects! They are very useful in fast, complex phrases. However, that is not something that a beginner is going to be doing.

I'd advise the beginner to fork out the money for an Arbans book and use the fingerings in there---basically it's the same as the posted fingering chart. What I'm finding in a lot of recent instruction books is a very confusing way of showing the fingerings. I'm used to Arbans which shows the valves to be pushed as if I were actually playing the instrument---i.e. from the view of the mouthpiece. There are books out there now with the fingerings from the view of the bell. If you have one of these books, '1 and 2' is, in Arbans' '2 and 3'. This may be the problem you are having with these different fingering charts that you are looking at.

Why these books are doing this I just don't know. Pick up a copy of Arbans, use it and you can't go wrong.

__________________
Gabriel is NOT a woodwind player!

Tootsall

What Bill said. Get an Arbans and start working on it. In fact, just about any good "beginning band" book for trumpet/cornet should have a good fingering chart in it and will also slowly lead you through the first set of major key signatures and their attendant minor keys.

Alternate fingerings should only be used, IMO, when you have one of two possible "needs": really fast and tricky "runs" (One I can think of is in "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite March" on the 2nd part... top of staff Ab, G, F, Eb, Ab, G, F, Eb done in 1/8 notes slurred in cut time at a tempo that works out to be about 1 second per bar.... the 2-3 fingering used for Ab can also be used on the Eb, cutting the number of "fingerings required" to 3 from the 4 you would otherwise have). The other "need" is if you have a horn with particularly "quirky" intonation problems. I used to have a rather flat E at top of staff with a particular trumpet/mouthpiece combination...using 1-2 for the same note would bring it up to an acceptable (but still not accurate) pitch. (that's when I got to thinking that maybe I was ready to step up to the Schilke).

BUT FOR NOW.... just play 'em straight and as shown in the book.

Oh...and if you buy an Arbans? Take it to your local KopiKo or Kinko's, or other "office service" outlet and have them a) trim the spine off the book, b) laminate the front and back covers, and c) perforate and reassemble it with those plastic coil backings. The book will now lie flat, the spine won't "break", and you won't lose pages. The covers will stay in once piece and the book will retain it's integrity far longer.