Types of Trumpet
Trumpets can be considered as a whole category of instruments, including cornets, flugelhorns, and trumpets. Within each subcategory are instruments in different pitches, with different typical characteristics, used for various reasons, which might include tone quality, responsiveness, or simply that using a trumpet in a different pitch makes the fingerings or intonation easier!
And even for trumpets (or cornets, or flugelhorns) of a given pitch, there are wide variations in sound and playing characteristics based on materials, bore, and other subtleties.
Below is a loosely classified list of many (but not all) of the various types of trumpet.
Types of Trumpet
Cornets
A cornet is similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in Bb. There is also a soprano cornet in Eb and cornets in A and C.
Cornet in Bb
The main soprano brass instrument in concert bands and British brass bands. There is also a Cornet in A that is rarely used.
The main physical distinction between cornets and trumpets is that they are more conical in bore, meaning the tubing starts smaller and gets gradually larger throughout the length of the instrument (see Cornets are also dimensionally shorter than trumpets, but only because they are wrapped more tightly — the tubing is the same length. But putting the center of weight closer to the player makes it easier to hold the instrument up, especially for younger players.
The traditional cornet has a “Shepherd’s Crook” bend in the bell stem. Others use the “American Wrap”, which more closely resembles a trumpet in both appearance and sound.
Left top: Getzen 800DLX Bb cornet with Shepherd’s Crook bell stem.
Left bottom: Bach 181SML Bb cornet with American Wrap bell stem.
Cornets in C and Eb
Like trumpets, cornets also come in different pitches, due to different tubing lengths.
The C cornet is much like the Bb cornet, but slightly shorter in tubing, accounting for it being a whole step higher in pitch. It is rarely used, but might be applied, for example in an orchestral setting that calls for cornet.
The Eb Cornet is one of the standard instruments in British style brass bands, and plays the highest musical lines — often descant lines that add color to the main melody.
Trumpets
Trumpets are distinguished by their more elongated shapes and their cylindrical bore, which gives them a more strident sound capable of being heard individually over an orchestra or band. But trumpets can be made to sound full and rich, or bright and brassy, or warm and mellow, depending on its materials, finish, and bore.
Trumpet in Bb
The main trumpet used in jazz bands and concert bands, and frequently in orchestras and brass ensembles. The Bb trumpet is the single largest-selling brass instrument, and is made by most of the manufacturers listed on the Manufacturers page.
On left: Bach Stradivarius Bb trumpet, in silver plated brass.
On right: King Bb student model trumpet in lacquered yellow brass.
C Trumpet
The C trumpet is slightly shorter than the Bb trumpet, but otherwise looks very similar except for the shorter main tuning slide crook. Other things being equal (which they often are not), as a higher pitched instrument, it has a slightly brighter, more compact sound, but as the main instrument used by orchestral trumpet players, it must be capable of huge volumes of sound.
The C trumpet is also played frequently in brass quintet and large brass ensemble playing.
Trumpets in D and Eb
These trumpets tend to be “specialty” trumpets, but they are used often enough that professional players invariably own them.
Other than music specifically written for them (mostly baroque and early classical music), one of the frequent uses of D and Eb trumpets is in playing technical orchestral music in which fingering is a challenge for the C trumpet. Players will also select one of these instruments for its lighter, brighter sound in orchestral or chamber settings.
D and Eb trumpets are designed in two fundamentally different ways. One way is to have a fixed, braced bell (like a standard Bb or C trumpet) and perhaps have a separate, longer, standard tuning slide and perhaps additional valve slides to change the key. Another is to have the tuning slide at the joint between the 1st valve and the bell stem, which not only slides in and out but allows swapping of the bell to get the different key. Either method works. The fixed bell makes for a more stable and potentially bigger sound for orchestral playing, while the sliding bell plays lighter and more responsively.
Trumpets in HIgh F and G
These trumpets are even more specialized, and are so rarely used that many professionals do not own them. There is no music that I am aware of written for these instruments, so their use is mostly confined to “problem solving”… either music that is in high tessitura but awkward on the piccolo trumpet, or to address fingering challenges when the lighter, brighter sound of the smaller horn is not an issue.
The F, G, and E trumpets are used for chamber and solo literature. Like the D/Eb trumpets, players can typically convert from G to F or even E by swapping out the bell and valve slides.
The main tuning slide is usually at the joint between the first valve and the bell stem (which is where the bell conversion occurs).
Note the optional 4th valve on this model, which lowers the pitch by 5 half-steps to enable playing between low F# and pedal C (the fundamental).
Piccolo Trumpet
All professionals own at least one piccolo trumpet. Designs vary, but piccolo trumpets nearly all have 4 valves to enable its “low” register (which is the middle register on most trumpets), and are convertible between high A and Bb, or even C. Tuning and key changing is accomplished using a slide at the joint between mouthpiece receiver and the leadpipe.
The piccolo trumpet is used extensively for baroque literature originally written for valveless trumpets through the 18th century. This is also one of what I call “money horns”, used to play in weddings and religious services, as well as studio work.
Flugelhorn
The Flugelhorn is the most highly conical of the high brass instruments played by trumpeters. Because of its conical bore, it produces the warmest, most mellow sound, but the most difficult high register. Frankly, it is very rewarding to play, and is used extensively by jazz soloists. There is also a flugelhorn in classic British-style brass bands. The “classical” solo literature is limited but expanding, as is the use of flugelhorn in orchestras.
Flugelhorns are almost all in Bb, with tuning accomplished using a slide at the joint between the mouthpiece receiver and leadpipe.
Left: Getzen 3895GB flugelhorn with gold-brass bell. This one has 3 valves, but many flugelhorns have a fourth valve.
Bass Trumpet
Not only are there many different makers of trumpets, but there are also many types of trumpets. Instruments which play like (and look much like) trumpets include: