Know your Trumpet Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1815

Before 1815, music written for trumpet was intended to be played by the natural trumpet. This ancestor to the modern trumpet had no valves. This meant that the natural trumpet player was limited to about seven notes. However, the comfortable range on a modern trumpet can span almost three octaves (about 18 notes).

Answer: G

Although G trumpet parts can be found, they are quite rare compared to D and E-flat parts. C trumpet parts, in fact are very common. Orchestras in America are now favoring the C trumpet over the B-flat as a standard.

Answer: Low D

The only fingering for Low D is 1 and 3. C in the staff can also be played by the false fingering 2 and 3, and Middle A can be played by 3. High A can in fact be played by several alternate fingerings.

Answer: False

Although it may seem that the trumpet makes the loudest sounds in the brass family, the trombone can actually play louder on the decibel scale. The French horn also has a claim to being the loudest.

Answer: Double A

The double high A is usually too high to be found in classical trumpet playing. However, it is found frequently in the Jazz lead trumpet playing of the Big Band era.

Answer: Vladimir Horowitz

Alan Vizzutti and Maurice André are both classical trumpet players, and Miles Davis is one of the most influential trumpeters in Jazz. But Vladimir Horowitz is a classical pianist.

Answer: tu tu ku, and sometimes tu ku tu

Triple tonguing is used on fast triplet passages within a piece. The standard triple tonguing pattern is tu tu ku, and is especially used during a set or chain of triplets. But some trumpet players will resort to tu ku tu when the triplet is isolated and emphasized.

Answer: Slightly on a low D, further on a low C#

Both the low C# and low D are naturally out of tune on the trumpet. However, the low C# is more out of tune than the D. This is corrected by lengthening the instrument slightly by pulling out the third valve slide.

Answer: Improving naturally sharp notes such as the high A

The first valve slide is not used nearly as much as the third valve slide. In fact, many older trumpets didn't have first valve slide triggers for easy movement. But if the high A on your horn is particularly sharp, trumpet players may choose to pull out the slide a little.

Answer: The lip changes the partial, and valve combinations create different sets of notes.

Different combinations of valves allow for a different set of notes, much like the different positions on a trombone. But to get from one note up to the next in the overtone series (partial), the lip does the work. Through a combination of both of these things, the modern trumpet is able to play all the notes in the scale.