@tmd Agreed!

You might find what Denis Wick said quite interesting
First of all, the teacher does what he does; he then tells the student what he thinks he does. The student then does what he thinks the teacher said.

Excited to announce that Jaeger Brass and Trumpet4Fun are again open for business!

Hopefully we have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s of the business regulations here in Germany. We have connected both our channels: the trumpet work of Jaeger Brass and the educational mission of Trumpet4Fun under the rubric of Dr.Trumpet

The website www.DrTrumpet.de is live and has links to the two other sites. Already available for sale are Jaeger trumpets and mouthpieces (JaegerBrass) and books (Trumpet4Fun). Regretfully modifications and such have to wait a bit longer, whilst we are waiting for electricians (affected by Covid delays etc.) to wire up our machinery and lighting.

Please use email for sales enquiries until I can get a shopping cart functioning reliably.

People often ask "what is the difference between a trumpet and a cornet?" One major difference is the proportion of length before and after the valve section, i.e. where in the length of the instrument are the valves. Here is a graphic to illustrate this difference.

The pedal tone is the note whose half wavelength resonates in the trumpet. It normally sounds more than an octave below low C due to the end effect of the bell because It is not always clear to the sound wave where the tubing ends. T mathematics of this are way beyond most of us - I defer to Benade.

On flugelhorn and trombone/Baritone Horn the pedal tone tends to be exactly one octave lower. On didgeridoo (a cylindrical wooden trumpet) the pedal tone is about a 12th lower.

Here is a bit more: https://www.jaegerbrass.com/Blo/Entries/2019/12/explaining-brass-instruments---2-the-notes.html

A recent note from a concerned parent:

Please forgive my naive questions, what about xxxx for trumpets, I read people trying different xxxx for their trumpets. You have any thoughts on this?

My reply:

Thank you for your question, better to have admitted naivety than have an empty checkbook! Yes there are many different options available for trumpets;, lead pipes, bells, special valves, water keys. These are normally offered as an option when new - like cars having automatic or manual gearboxes. But as in the car comparison, it is a very big deal to change an existing setup, it is not just the different component, it is how it fits and affects the whole instrument.

A lot of people think a lot of things about brass instruments; brainwashing and self-delusion is rampant! Think of these examples:

I want a stronger water key spring so I need one with more coils.

Wrong! A fewer number of coils make a spring stronger; a straight piece of wire (no coils) is stronger than one with one coil.

My trumpet has too much resistance, there must be a blockage.

Probably wrong. If the trumpet is hard to play there is likely some leakage exactly where the sound wave wants to have high pressure (pressure antinode). The pressure wants to escape, therefore the player has to work harder to maintain the resonance. In this case I would check for leaky water key or joints, or worn valves.

Remember; there is no computer model that will predict what will happen if you change xxxx.

Data is empirical = knowledge comes from experimentation.

“I think” does not equal “It is”.

As a player/instrument designer and builder/teacher/writer my specialty is to talk about these things, to bring peace to playing situations and to encourage a better relationship between player and instrument. This is best done in person and it is why we have such a comfortable setting here - my workshop/factory and the large music room. It is also why we started the not for profit foundation “The Recreational Musician” dba “Trumpet4Fun”.

Arm yourself with reputable equipment and concentrate on playing music.

People buy Jaeger trumpets from me.

I was there! It was a truly magnificent concert. Burghausen is 30 minutes up the road for me and there is a lot of jazz happening there, I play in their monthly Jam sessions. I also spent 3 days in a masterclass with Jon Faddis, a wonderful warm human being.

Check out this new $2.60 eBook (same price as a cup of coffee!)

for
Recreational trumpet players and their teachers
or
Band Directors without a brass background
or
Beginners and their parents

http://www.jaegerbrass.com/products/publications.html

I have often been surprised at the lack of students' understanding of how trumpets work, so am fated to write some brief articles to help them. Here is the first effort:
http://www.jaegerbrass.com/Blo/Entries/2019/12/explaining-brass-instruments---1-the-basics.html

There is some confusing and incorrect information about various trumpet brands in this thread. BTW here are some photos on this page of an ascending valve trumpet I finished in my South Salem, NY workshop last week.
http://www.jaegerbrass.com/jaeger-ascending-c.html

Bon Voyage! In the meantime I will cover you in Augsburg. VIEL SPASS!

Petrucci Music Library
https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/8/8c/IMSLP599943-PMLP1617-Brahms_Symphony_No.4_-_Trumpets_in_Bb.pdf

If the Czech Republic will allow dual citizenship, I would go for it.

I was there! It was a truly magnificent concert. Burghausen is 30 minutes up the road for me and there is a lot of jazz happening there, I play in their monthly Jam sessions. I also spent 3 days in a masterclass with Jon Faddis, a wonderful warm human being.

@trumpetsplus In reply to the OP. Yes there is a timbre difference using valves; this helps me, when listening to recordings, identify what notes are being played - i.e. is it an A on a Bb trumpet or a G on a C trumpet.

About C trumpet intonation (mentioned earlier in this thread), pushing my barrow slightly, when I build a C trumpet I have slightly different length proportions before and after the valve block, plus some additional in-house decisions on the lead pipe. Jeff Christiana, when he was the big honcho for Bach trumpets was astounded at the playability and intonation of my C trumpets.

@rowuk I will be around 5-15 August and would love to see you. My Gutenstein dates are the week of the 21st.

Last week there was I really helpful exchange of views on the "Difference between Cornet and Trumpet" thread all of a sudden after over 2 years of silence. If that thread had been locked it would likely not have happened as it was resurrected by a new member who likely would not have jumped through the hoops to have it opened up.

@trumpetb Thank you for your kind words. So much of trumpet design and playing can only easily be described by metaphor. Take the common instructions from teachers "use more air". Well, when one actually measures the amount of air going through the trumpet, or considers the length of a phrase, one realises that these instruments are not pneumatic circuits. But the instruction is valid! In trumpet design all we can do is experiment to see what works - when a computer simulation can predict what will happen when a particular brace is moved I will hang up my mouthpiece!

As far as the sharp and gentle curves are concerned, bearing in mind that sound waves love straight lines, I like to imagine the pathway as something like the attached sketch, where each time the wave (the red line) hits the wall some higher frequencies are lost (like the boom box in a car several corners away - you hear the bass but not the treble). In the sketch the gentle curve of the tuning slide has many more collisions than the sharp valve slide bend.

Please remember this is ONLY A THOUGHT - and as I have often said
I think does not equal it is

@trumpetb The valve crooks, having a sharper bend than a tuning slide, have less affect on the timbre than the tuning slide. I wrote a possible reason for this.

Yes, I can usually detect what notes/valve combinations a trumpet player is playing. I think this is timbral, although I do have a highly developed ear for pitch (but not perfect pitch). I am glad that the trumpet retains its personality vis a vis the changes in timbre which allow me to observe this. Let us not attempt to emulate the computer!

Interesting thread, I started it solely to point out the self evident differences between the 2 instruments: Trumpet (French Besson design) and Cornet (Besson Brass Band design). Others have postulated a "this for that" description of design elements, but instrument design is much more complex. We know that putting a shepherd's crook bell (like Adams has) or introducing an extra coil (like I have on Jaeger ascending valve instruments and Puje does on their trumpets) on a trumpet will not magically turn it into a cornet.

Bends alone do not change tonality immensely or hugely...

If this were the case the after market tuning slides - D shaped, rounded etc, would not make a difference. It is generally accepted that they do.

An acoustics engineer once remarked to me "Sound waves love straight lines." When I change my regular main slide (quite square) with a very round one there is a distinct loss of higher harmonics. I imagine a straight line going along a curved tube; the more gentle the curve the more reflections from the sides, the more reflections, the more highs are lost. This is only a thought, but the change in timbre I describe is real and I can demonstrate this quite easily. My friends at Taylor trumpets made a bell with a sharp acute angle rather than the conventional curve; they tell me (and I believe them) that the trumpet sound is not compromised by this arrangement.

Valve slide crooks have quite sharp bends and the sound wave only bounces off the side of the tube twice to achieve 180 degrees; Tuning slide and Bell bows have much more gradual bends and the timbre can be modified by the shape of these. In fact these bends are one of the many important factors we consider when designing trumpets.