Trumpet notes: a fingering chart for every note

Each valve sends the air through an extra loop of tubing. Longer tubing means a lower note, so every valve you press takes the pitch down.

Your lips do the rest. With no valves pressed, a trumpet can still play C, G, the C above it, E and G, just by buzzing faster or slower.

• Valve 2 lowers the note by a half step.
• Valve 1 lowers it by a whole step.
• Valves 1 and 2 together, or valve 3 alone, lower it by one and a half steps.
• Adding more valves goes lower still, down to all three: three whole steps.

Almost every beginner starts on this scale, from the C below the staff up to the C in the third space. Learn it before anything else.

1. C: open (no valves).
2. D: 1 and 3.
3. E: 1 and 2.
4. F: 1.
5. G: open.
6. A: 1 and 2.
7. B: 2.
8. C: open.

Here is the whole normal range, as it is written in trumpet music. A sharp and the flat above it are the same note, so they share a fingering.

• Low F♯ / G♭: 1-2-3
• Low G: 1-3
• Low G♯ / A♭: 2-3
• Low A: 1-2
• Low A♯ / B♭: 1
• Low B: 2
• Low C: open
• C♯ / D♭: 1-2-3
• D: 1-3
• D♯ / E♭: 2-3
• E: 1-2
• F: 1
• F♯ / G♭: 2
• G: open
• G♯ / A♭: 2-3
• A: 1-2
• A♯ / B♭: 1
• B: 2
• C (third space): open

Above the staff the fingerings repeat, but the lip notes sit much closer together. That is why high notes feel slippery: a small change in air jumps to the next one.

For most players, high C is the goal. Lead players in big bands go past it to double high C, an octave higher still.

• C♯ / D♭: 1-2
• D: 1
• D♯ / E♭: 2
• E: open
• F: 1
• F♯ / G♭: 2
• G (above the staff): open
• G♯ / A♭: 2-3
• A: 1-2
• A♯ / B♭: 1
• B: 2
• High C: open

Lip slurs are the practice that gets you there: move between open notes, G to C to E, without touching the valves.

Most trumpets are B-flat trumpets. When one plays the note written as C, the sound that comes out is the B-flat one whole step below.

So trumpet music is written a whole step higher than it sounds. The real, sounding note is called concert pitch.

• To match a piano’s C, a trumpet player reads and fingers D.
• A trumpet part in D major sounds in C major.
• Orchestras often use a C trumpet instead, which sounds exactly as written.

HitJam’s trumpet is a real recorded trumpet, every note tuned. Like a piano, it plays concert pitch, so the letters sound the notes you would hear from a B-flat trumpet.

At the starting octave, these keys play the first scale above, written C up to C:

1. J: low C (sounds B♭)
2. Q: D (sounds C)
3. W: E (sounds D)
4. 3: F (sounds E♭)
5. R: G (sounds F)
6. T: A (sounds G)
7. Y: B (sounds A)
8. 7: C (sounds B♭)

Switch Labels to note names and each key shows the note it sounds. A MIDI keyboard works too, and hitting it hard gives a louder, brassier note.