Trumpet fingering chart — every note with its grip

How to read the chart

One row is one note. On the left it stands as it appears on the page, next to it as it really sounds, and on the right the fingering. The three circles are the three valves in the order the fingers rest on them, the first being closest to the mouthpiece. A filled circle means pressed down.

The digits beside them are the usual shorthand. "13" means first and third valve, with the second left up. A note with no valve is called open and is found with the lip alone.

Where the fingerings come from

Valve 1 lowers by two semitones, valve 2 by one, valve 3 by three. That makes seven steps reachable: open, then 2, then 1, then 1 and 2 together, then 2 and 3, then 1 and 3, and finally all three. Those are exactly the steps from zero to six semitones, with no gap and none of them twice.

The natural notes supply the starting points. They are not evenly spaced: wide apart at the bottom, closer and closer higher up. That is why the low register needs all six lowerings, while up top one or two valves already close the gap to the next note.

One subtlety hides in this: three semitones can be fingered two ways, with the third valve alone or with the first and second together. The first and second is the usual choice. The third slide then stays free for correction, because the low combinations sit a little sharp by nature.

Why some notes have two fingerings

Where a note lies so that two natural notes can reach it, there are two fingerings. One starts from the lower natural note and needs little lowering, the other from the higher one and needs more valves.

The chart puts the usual one first. Usual means: from the lowest possible natural note, because that one speaks most reliably. The others are not a last resort but a tool — in fast passages a second fingering sometimes saves the whole finger change, and up high the more comfortable lip tension makes the note easier to hit.

Why the trumpet sounds lower than it is written

The ordinary trumpet is in B♭. That means: when the player fingers the written note learned as the very first one, what actually sounds is a note a major second lower. That is why the whole chart appears twice — on the left as it stands on the page, beside it what a piano would play along with it.

This is not a quirk of this one instrument but the rule for half the wind band. How it all hangs together and how to convert between the two columns is at Transposing.

What stands next to it

The note values and their lengths: Note values. How to read music at all: How to read sheet music.