The trumpet is the soprano voice of the brass family. The most common
trumpets are pitched in Bb,
or Eb. The Piccolo Trumpet is pitched in A or Bb. Other forms
of trumpet include the flugelhorn and cornet, which are more
accurately described as saxhorns. Although cornets are relatively
rare in orchestral writing, flugelhorns have seen a surge in
popularity in recent years. They are an alto voice, and are
pitched in Bb with a written range from F#3 to C6.
Here
are the written trumpet transpositions.
In these pages, the trumpets are demonstrated
by:
Use the navigation bar above to explore the trumpet pages.
The icon will launch a movie of Alistair explaining a relevant point of trumpet technique.
The icon will give an audio clip, which will either play automatically or open a new window.
The icon will play an illustrative music example from the Philharmonia's recorded archive.
Be sure to visit the 'player's tips and tricks' section for
some very useful advice about aspects of trumpet writing.
