Pitch of Brass Instruments

Pitch Of Brass Instruments

The pitch of a brass instrument is determined by the fundamental frequency and the frequencies of the overtones, which typically follow a harmonic series. The fundamental is not playable in some instruments. The table below provides the pitch of the second overtone (an octave above the fundamental) for some common brass instruments in descending order of pitch. This is notated as middle C in brass band music.

B♭4 or A4 piccolo trumpet
E♭4 soprano trumpet or cornet
B♭3 trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, soprano trombone
E♭3 alto horn, alto trombone, alto trumpet
B♭2 tenor trombone, baritone horn, euphonium, B♭ horn, bass trumpet
F2 F horn
E♭2 or F2 bass tuba
B♭1 contrabass tuba, sousaphone

Read more about Pitch Of Brass Instruments:  Range

Famous quotes containing the words pitch of, pitch, brass and/or instruments:

    I saw the Arab map.
    It resembled a mare shuffling on,
    dragging its history like saddlebags,
    nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.
    Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)

    I dream that I have brought
    To such a pitch my thought
    That coming time can say,
    “He shadowed in a glass
    What thing her body was.”
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Uncle Ben’s brass bullet-mould
    And powder horn, and Major Bogan’s face
    Above the fire, in the half-light, plainly said
    There’s naught to kill but the animated dead;
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.
    Denis Diderot (1713–84)