60 Fun Facts About Trumpet

In which key is the most common trumpet pitched?

It is a transposing instrument, sounding lower than written.

How many valves does a standard modern trumpet have?

Some piccolo trumpets add a fourth valve that lowers the pitch a perfect fourth.

Roughly how long is the tubing of a B♭ trumpet?

The tube is usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape.

What produces the sound of a trumpet?

The buzz starts a standing wave in the air column inside the instrument.

What is the technical term for the shape and tension of a brass player's lips?

Changing lip aperture and tension lets the player choose among the overtones.

By how much does the first valve of a trumpet lower the pitch?

The second valve lowers it a half step and the third one and a half steps.

How many different tubing lengths do a trumpet's valves produce?

There are eight combinations, but the third valve alone equals the 1–2 combination.

Which type of valve is more common on trumpets in German-style orchestras?

Most trumpets elsewhere use piston valves.

What do orchestral trumpeters learn to do at sight when parts are written for D or E♭ instruments?

They usually play such parts on the more common B♭ or C trumpet.

Which musicians usually play the bass trumpet?

Its mouthpiece resembles a trombone's.

How does a cornet's bore differ from a trumpet's?

The trumpet stays cylindrical up to the bell section, giving it a brighter sound.

Who patented the improved piston valve in 1838 that became the model for modern brass valves?

Parisian cornet makers had adopted it by the 1830s in place of Stölzel valves.

The German word Flügel in flugelhorn means what?

An 18th-century ducal hunt leader called a Flügelmeister used the horn to direct his wing of the hunt.

Which jazz musician was renowned for playing the compact pocket trumpet?

Many pocket models suffer from poor intonation and a limited dynamic range.

What was a natural trumpet unable to do?

Its coiled tube had no valves, so players changed crooks to change key.

What is the high Baroque trumpet register developed by players like Cesare Bendinelli called?

Bach and Handel wrote for it, and modern players tackle it on the piccolo trumpet.

Which Belgian maker invented the piccolo trumpet in D, also known as the Bach trumpet?

It was built to handle the high parts in Bach and Handel.

Who played the piccolo trumpet solo on the Beatles' Penny Lane?

McCartney had seen him play Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto on BBC television.

Which Greek straight trumpet, 62 inches long, featured in contests at the ancient Olympics?

Homer's Iliad contains the earliest reference to its sound.

Who found Tutankhamun's silver and bronze trumpets in 1922?

They are considered the oldest playable trumpets in the world.

In what year did the BBC broadcast Tutankhamun's trumpets being played to 150 million listeners?

The presenter later claimed the silver trumpet shattered during a rehearsal.

For which virtuoso did Haydn write his Trumpet Concerto in E♭ in 1796?

He did not premiere it until 1800, on an instrument of his own design.

What kind of trumpet did Weidinger develop to play chromatically through its whole range?

Haydn's concerto shows it off with chromatic shifts.

Which composer completed a Trumpet Concerto in E major in December 1803?

Like Haydn's, it was written for the same Viennese virtuoso.

Which bugle call signals lights out and is played at US military funerals?

It is also known as Butterfield's Lullaby after the Union general who arranged it.

Which Union general arranged the lights-out bugle call in its present form?

He was a Medal of Honor recipient.

Why is a bugle limited to the notes of the harmonic series?

Standard bugle calls use just the five notes of the bugle scale.

Which two nicknames did Louis Armstrong go by?

He shifted jazz from collective improvisation to solo performance.

On which date did Louis Armstrong often claim to have been born?

Records suggest August 4, 1901, but the date has been heavily debated.

Which Louis Armstrong recording is on the Voyager Golden Record?

The disc is a sample of Earth's sights and sounds sent into space.

For which song did Louis Armstrong win the 1965 Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance?

He also appeared in the 1969 film of the musical.

What did Miles Davis famously play close to the microphone in the 1950s?

An early version was patented by Chicago ballroom owner Paddy Harmon.

Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is built entirely on what approach?

Each player was given a set of scales rather than a chord sequence; Coltrane took the idea further.

Which 1970 Miles Davis album sold a million copies and sparked jazz fusion's popularity?

He then retired for five years due to poor health before returning in the 1980s.

Which saxophonist's bebop quintet gave Miles Davis his professional debut?

He had left the Juilliard School to join it.

How did Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell come to point upward?

It happened at a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's in Manhattan in January 1953.

Which Dizzy Gillespie tune, written in 1942 with Earl Hines's band, is known for its syncopated bass line?

His other compositions include Woody 'n' You and Groovin' High.

Whose orchestra did Dizzy Gillespie join at the end of the 1930s?

He would recommend Fats Navarro as his replacement in Billy Eckstine's band a few years later.

Which Wynton Marsalis work was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music?

He is also the only musician to win jazz and classical Grammys in the same year.

Which song became a hit with a Chet Baker solo and followed him for the rest of his career?

He recorded it with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which he joined in 1952.

In which city did Chet Baker die after falling from a hotel window in 1988?

A plaque outside the Hotel Prins Hendrik commemorates him.

At what age did Clifford Brown die in a 1956 car crash?

He left behind only four years of recordings, including Joy Spring and Daahoud.

Which singer did Harry James's band feature on a $75-a-week contract, making it his first big orchestra?

James wanted to rename him Frankie Satin; the singer refused.

Bix Beiderbecke, the jazz cornetist, was a native of which city?

He taught himself by ear, which led to a non-standard fingering technique.

Herb Alpert is the only artist to top the Hot 100 as both a vocalist and what?

He sang This Guy's in Love with You in 1968 and played Rise in 1979.

Which record label did Herb Alpert co-found with Jerry Moss?

He led the Tijuana Brass through the 1960s.

Which trumpeter led the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson?

He took over the band in 1967 after starting as first-chair trumpeter in 1962.

Which Cuban trumpeter defected while touring with Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra?

Sandoval became a US citizen in 1998 and received Kennedy Center Honors in 2024.

Which Mexican virtuoso was known as the Heifetz of the Trumpet?

He popularised La Virgen de la Macarena, the bullfighter's song, in the US.

Adolph Bud Herseth was principal trumpet of which orchestra from 1948 to 2001?

He then served as principal trumpet emeritus until 2004.

Which brass maker, founded in 1918 by an Austrian-born trumpeter, later moved to Elkhart?

Its founder began by making mouthpieces after a repairman destroyed his own on tour; Selmer bought the firm in 1961 and moved production to Elkhart in 1965.

Which British trumpeter played Haydn's concerto as a soloist at the 2009 Last Night of the Proms?

She has won three Classic BRIT Awards and was Gramophone's Artist of the Year in 2013.

The 'flumpet', designed by David Monette in 1989 for Art Farmer, is a hybrid of a trumpet and what?

It is pitched in B-flat with three piston valves, giving Farmer a darker sound than a standard trumpet.

Using standard technique, what is the lowest written note on the trumpet?

Fingering charts usually stop at the high C two octaves above middle C, though there is no real upper limit.

Whose Complete Conservatory Method remains the classic trumpet and cornet tutor?

Merri Franquin's rival Complete Method fell into obscurity until Maurice André publicly endorsed it.

The slide trumpet of the Renaissance was essentially a natural trumpet with what added?

The single slide was awkward because the entire instrument had to move; some designs survived in 18th-century England.

Renold Schilke's 'tuning-bell' trumpet was designed to reduce what?

Removing the usual brace between the bell and valve body let the main tuning slide stay pushed in, improving response.

A herald trumpet's bell section is built straight so that it can carry what?

It is mostly used for ceremonial fanfares and parades.

Which orchestra, along with Mnozil Brass, still uses the distinctive Vienna valve trumpet?

Rotary-valve trumpets are the norm in German and Austrian orchestras more generally.

Which Central Asian civilisation of the 3rd millennium BC made trumpets with decorated swellings?

Other early examples include Tutankhamun's trumpets, Scandinavian bronze lurs and metal trumpets from China.