6. Valves on the trumpet
Alexander saw Papa sitting by the piano and sat next to him with his trumpet.
“Papa, I’ve been pushing these buttons, and the sound changes. How come?”
“Well, these buttons are called valves: 1, 2, and 3. The first valve closest to your mouth is 1. The middle valve is 2. And valve 3 is the last one.”4
Alexander was playing with the valves and pushing them with his left hand.
“The proper way to hold a trumpet is to hold the trumpet valve casing in your left hand. Grab the middle of the valve case like this.” [See picture]
Papa showed Alexander how to hold the trumpet and then continued explaining. “Now put you right index finger on valve 1, your middle finger on valve 2, and your ring finger on valve 3.”
“Like this?”
“Yes. Very good.”
“Now blow into the trumpet, and play an ‘open’ note.”
“What is an open note?”
“An open note is played on the trumpet when no valves are pushed down.”
Alexander played a note.
“Good. Listen to me play this note on the piano, and you try to play the same note.”
Alexander blew into the trumpet and played the same note.
“Ok. Do you know what note you just played?”
“No.”
“You played a G.”
“What is G?”
“It is a note in the middle of the music staff. We’ll talk more about that later.”
“That’s what I’ve been playing all this time?”
“Sometimes you played G, and other times you were playing a low C. This is another note that is played ‘open.’”
“Now play G again, and then push down valve 2 to see what happens.”
“Hey, the sound went lower.”
“That’s right. Valve 2 lowers the pitch by ½ step.”
“How does it do that?”
“Think of the trumpet as a long, curved pipe—almost five feet long! It doesn’t look five feet long all curled together, but it is. It has three valves that can direct the sound into an extra loop of pipe. When you push down valve 1, the sound goes through the valve one loop of pipe closest to your mouth. When you push down valve 2, the sound goes through this smaller loop of pipe. And when you push down valve 3, the sound goes through this longer loop of pipe. The longer the pipe loop, the lower the pitch change.”
“What happens if I push down two valves?”
“Very good question. Valve two lowers the pitch a ½ step through the smallest loop. Valve 1 lowers the pitch 1 full step. And valve 3 lowers the pitch 1 ½ steps. So, if you push valve 1 and 2, the pitch is lowered 1 + 1/2 steps, which is 1 ½ steps.”
“Oh, so you just add the numbers?”
“That’s right. What is the pitch change if you push valves 2 and 3?”
“Uh… that would be ½ + 1 ½?”
“Yes, that’s right, and this equals 2.”
“OK, so that would be 2 steps lower!”
“Excellent. Now tell me what happens when you push valves 1 and 3? The pitch lowers 1 + 1 ½. “So, that is 2 ½ steps lower.”
“Wonderful. There are seven possible valve combinations used to produce all the notes in music.”
“Just seven?”
“Well, there are really eight, but only seven are used. Let’s try this ten step exercise.”
Bobby played G, and then played lower notes by pressing the valves as follows.
- G is the ‘open’ note. No valves are pushed.
- The middle valve is number two and lengthens the tube to change pitch a half step down to F#.
- Valve one lengthens the tube to change the pitch a full step down to F.
- Valves one and two lengthen the tube to change the pitch 1 ½ steps down to E.
- Valve three also lengthens the tube to change the pitch 1 ½ steps down to E.
- Valves two and three lengthen the tube to change the pitch 2 steps down to Eb.
- Valves one and three lengthen the tube to change the pitch 2 ½ steps down to D.
- Valves one, two, and three lengthen the tube to change the pitch a full three steps down to Db.
- The next lower ½ step down is C. What do you think is the finger position on the valves to play C?
- What valve do you think needs to be pushed down to lower the pitch another ½ step?
“As I said before, there are really eight finger positions on the trumpet which are used to play any note. But the first and second valve position (1 ½) is preferred over using the third valve (also 1 ½). So, even though there are eight possible finger positions, only seven are needed and used to play all the notes in a scale.”
Alexander was having fun using the different valve positions on the finger chart to play different notes.
Lesson 6.
- Valves on the trumpet change the pitch and allow trumpeters to play all the notes in a scale.
- Practice matching the valve positions (finger positions) with the notes listed above.
