Grand Rounds with Dr. Barbara Hull: Bb or C trumpet? How do you decide which trumpet to use?

Confused as to which instrument to perform a specific work on? Here are a few considerations that may help you decide.

[@laurashea-clark3640]

I would add one more consideration - how the notes lie on the instrument. Sometimes I’ll switch from one to the other to end up in a better key. I may use a b-flat rotary to avoid playing in C with a lot of open notes that I can’t adjust with my slide. Or maybe on C trumpet I have a lot of in the staff e-flat to d-flat combinations requiring constant slide adjustments, but if I switch to b-flat it’s now f and e-flat. 😊

[@batrumpeter]

Yes, absolutely. Good point!