Why are trumpets in B flat?

Answer 1

The Bb Trumpet has become the standard for bands because the sound it produces is generally said to sound better than the sound produced in other keyed trumpets.

Not all trumpet are in B-Flat. Trumpets are available in a variety of keys, including C, D, E-flat, A-flat, and a few others. However, the reason the B-flat trumpet is considered a B-flat instrument is because the lowest open natural note (not including pedal-tones) that can be played on it is a concert B-flat pitch.

Answer 2

The B flat is referring to the key a trumpet is in. For example, if you play the lowest open note on a B flat trumpet, it's a concert B flat.

(Yes, a concert B flat is a C note on trumpet.)

The "concert" pitch is the standard that a conductor uses so that his instruments are all playing in the right key. For example, a C on a standard trumpet and a B flat on Trombone sound like the same note, because they're both concert B flat.

A B flat trumpet is the standard trumpet. Only professionals or very advanced music majors in college use trumpets in other keys, such as E flat trumpets or C trumpets.

Answer 3

If that is the case, you are playing or listening to a B-flat trumpet. Why on earth do they do that? When a B-flat trumpet player plays what he/she thinks is the note C, the standard pitch B-flat will sound. The trumpet player doesn't have to know this as long as the music is written in the proper key so that the notes will sound the right pitches when playing in an ensemble. The reason is a bit strange at first. Instruments have very different ranges. violins, piccolos and other instruments will play in the higher registers, and bassoons, bass violins and others will play in the lower registers. There are all kinds of different ranges in between. So the question becomes: how to write the music for various instruments so that players will have a reasonably easy time reading it.

Imagine if every instrument had to use only the clefs as they are used for piano music. All those instruments with higher ranges would be using lots of leger lines, and they are not comfortable to read; they would also take up much more paper. The same problem, in the other direction, would hold for instruments with lower ranges. The problem is addressed in a couple of different ways. Violinists and other musicians know how to read clefs that are different from the standard G and F clefs of the piano. In other cases, the written notes for a given instrument are transposed upward or downward by a whole step or more, so that dependence on leger lines for most of that instrument's music is minimized.

Answer 4

Bells on instruments help to project the sound which comes out of them. A trumpet with no bell would have a dull, quiet sound.

Answer 5

All trumpets aren't B-flat. However, B-flat trumpets are B-flat because the lowest open note is a concert B-Flat.