Cornet, Trumpet

The trumpet is the highest brass instrument in register, above the horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter. more...

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The most common trumpet by far is a transposing instrument pitched in B♭: the note read as Middle C sounds as a B♭, 2 semitones below. But there are many other trumpets in this family of instruments.

Construction

The trumpet is made of brass tubing bent into a rough spiral. The bore is, roughly speaking, cylindrical, but more precisely a complex series of tapers, smaller at the mouthpiece receiver and larger just before the flare of the bell begins. Careful design of these tapers is critical to the intonation of the instrument. Sound is produced by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound into the mouthpiece and starting a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet. The trumpet player can select the pitch from a range of overtones or harmonics by changing the lip aperture. There are three piston valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch. The first valve lowers the instrument's pitch by a whole step (2 semitones), the second valve by a half step (1 semitone), and the third valve by one-and-a-half steps (3 semitones). These valves alone and in combination make the instrument fully chromatic, i.e., able to play all twelve pitches of Western music. The sound is projected outward by the bell.

The mouthpiece has a circular rim which provides a comfortable environment for the lips' vibration. Directly behind the rim is the cup, which channels the air into a much smaller opening (the backbore or shank) which tapers out slightly to match the diameter of the trumpet's lead pipe. The dimensions of these parts of the mouthpiece affect the timbre or quality of sound, the ease of playability, and player comfort. A wider and deeper cup are often best suited for a fuller, more expansive sound, while shallow-cupped "pea-shooter" mouthpieces can facilitate execution in the extreme high register. A larger rim allows for more assured striking of the notes; a smaller rim improves endurance but decreases flexibility.

Types of trumpets

The most common type is the B♭ trumpet, but C, D, E♭, E, F, G and A trumpets are also available. The C trumpet is most commonly used in orchestral playing, where its slightly smaller size gives it a brighter, more lively sound than the B♭ trumpet. Because music written for early trumpets required the use of a different trumpet for every key (they did not have valves and were therefore not chromatic), and also because a player may choose to play a particular passage on a different trumpet from the one indicated on the written music, orchestra trumpet players are generally adept at transposing music at sight. Being able to play music written for the B♭ trumpet on the C trumpet, and vice-versa, is fairly common. Each trumpet's range extends from the written F♯ immediately below Middle C, up to about three octaves higher. Standard repertoire rarely calls for notes beyond this range, and the fingering tables of most method books peak at the C (high C) two octaves above middle C. Fingerings above this are generally the same as those for the notes an octave lower. Several trumpeters have achieved fame for their proficiency in the extreme high register, among them Arturo Sandoval, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Chase and Maynard Ferguson, who helped make well-known the term double high C to describe the next octave above high C. It is also possible to produce pedal tones below the low F♯, although this technique is more often encountered as a sound-production exercise rather than as a written trumpet part. It is possible to play up to 3 octaves below middle C. Trumpets equipped with a fourth valve (which lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth) can produce these notes 'normally', i.e, not as pedal tones.

Read more at Wikipedia.org