b flat vs c trumpets help please

camel lips · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 687

When going from one to another, do the fingerings change, OR, do you change (transpose) the music? That is, when playing trumpet, do you always finger a C the same way regardless of which trumput you are playing, and you just make sure you are reading the Bb trumpet part when you are playing Bb trumpet?

Also, exactly _why_ would you go from a C trumpet to a Bb one?
In a land of confusion on that one

jophst · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:02 am Post subject:

A C trumpet is pitched exactly a whole step above a Bb trumpet. It is Concert Pitch actually.

A C trumpet is good for reading along with church (choir) music since you can read right off the page rather than transposing with a Bb which can be painful at times.

A low C on a C trumpet will sound like a low "D" on a Bb Trumpet.

A low C on an Eb trumpet will sound like a first space "F" on a Bb trumpet.

It just makes reading some literature a heck of a lot easier.
_________________
Bb - Yamaha Xeno 8335RGS
Picc - Yamaha 9830 w/PVA
Flugel - Yamaha Shew 6310Z
Laskey's 68MD,68C,PIC,68F,68DB

Coltssop01 · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:37 am Post subject:

and yes the fingerings for all trumpets are the same - a written C is always open etc.

Conversely, if you were playing tuba, you would have a different set of fingerings for each tuba (that seems like a lot of work to me)

bgwbold · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:04 am Post subject:

Another good set of rules: Going from Bb to C adds two flats and takes away two sharps from the key sig. The opposite is true going the other way. A lot of contemporary church choral music is in sharps, a lot of classical church music is in sharps, so learning the C transposition is real helpful. Once you learn it, it is kind of like riding a bike. You might get rusty, but you don't forget how to do it.

Mike