ThePiccoloBb.A

Trumpetby V incent Cichowicz

Selmer

With the adveflt of the a-valve piccolo trumpetnuch of the formidable music ol lhe pasl has been

sreatly lacililaled. Although the piccolo trumpelas sucb is not new, the present in8irumeDts are soimproved in terms of quaiity, response and intonat ion that lhe choice of p laying lh is music on themis no lon8er a question of tradinS one set o[ diffi-culti$ fo. another. This however requires m un-de.standin8 of lhe instrumenl, its potential andanapproach I o achieve familiarity and control.

The piccolo B, {Al t.umpel is equipped with a 4thvalve which edds a perlect 4lh downward 1o the

PJ,AYiD NOTATION ACTUAL PITCR

Therefore music which descended below the ca'tALi l r l ) of lhe 3-vJhF rnslrument tsnd n osl ba-roque nusic cal led for these notes) can now beplayed on the4-valve iDstrument with relative ease.l r wi l l be seen lhar lhp dddi l ion ot IhF 4lh rJIre incombination wilhany or all of lh€ olher valves nolo y allows us to descend beyond the ranse oI a3-valve irutrument but allows us a larser numberof aliernare tineerin8s which can be used for technical faci l i ly or iD adiusl in lonal ion,

The followins tinserine chart will show the possibi l i t ies:

le

1t

2 o I

ti

1 2T

I2

3 4

1

tT

42 T

T

3

L1

zT

1Tt

z

41T

2 0 2 It

7 2

4T

.1

t 34 3 z

l z

!!!

t 1Ii

T1

T

coryighlF1972's.h''.|b'd'|'dim

I,

I 2 o 2 0 2 '|2

3T

It

4T

2a

13

3

4

zI 1 3 1

i

There fl.c a few more possibililies bul lhis con'pr ises a pra. t i .a l , :hnrt lo covcr many al terndt ives.

Note: A pedal [C] can be produced on the i.strumenl, b! l is of ientoo t lat forany pracl icalusaae.

Nolat ion is in played pi tchcs notes wi l l soundon€ octdve higher. (Bhpilch)

except when the tessilura is exceptional ly demandins such as in the Bach ljrondcnbD.s Conco.loNo. 2, AMiDof Moss orthe Ch. is lmds Orolor io, Ex-ample: l f 6 player nornal ly plays on a VincenlBach No. 1 lor e{tuivaletrl). usually a lC, 1y.C o.1%C will work well in most situations. lf a playe.uses aBach JC, 5C. o.7C he can often use lh€ latr,€mouthpiece jn the pic.olo.

Now i f lhe part icular part b too strenuous or thequai i ty of sound or iDtonat iod is faul ly, then theuse of a smalter noulhpi€ce is reconmended. Ex'ample: Bach 7D or 7DW. 7E or 7EW o. 1ovtrC.' AI-ter a player lamiliarizes himself wilh lhe instru-ment he is usually able 10 d€cide for himself wh€na chanse is desirable. One word of warnin8r Themouthpiece cotrtemplated must be tested ov€. lhefull ransc of the inslfument, with great emphasison lhe middle and lower tone! ol the resis ler andlhen movin8 inlo the upper reaches of lbe inst.umeDtas par l ofa nos'cal I inc. Indiscr iminate s l r ik-insofsinSlehish lonesisnol a usefut way to judsea par l i .u lar mouthpiece (or instrumeDl l and canbe dis i l lusionins;hen these sanc tores are usedinamusicalcontexl .TUNINGSincc no inslrumenl made is absolutely perleclby itself in intoDation, il is necessa.y for a playerlo learn or "psych out lhe instrumenl land him-sel f l mighl addl lo get musi0alresul ts.

' l hree notes a.e v i ta l in deiermiDing where thetuninS bi t is to be sel for 8ood overal l intonat ion.Pi lchcd in B. we tuDethusly l

(8b PtrcH) coNcERTRECISTER PITCII

HOLDING THE INSTRUMENTThere are luo possibi l i t ie6 tor manipulat ion of lhe4lh valve. The first. {the one I personally pEfer)is using the fi.sl finger of the left hand. The olheris lo use the l i t t le ta lhJl inger of lhe r ighl hrnd.

One should t fy bolh nethods tor a per iod of t in€belore decidins on onc or ihe other. Most players( includine Maurice Andrel preler the i i rs l method.

CHOICE OF MOUTHPIECEThis is a most importanl oonsiderat ion in obtaining lhe proper resul ts l ron these insl .uments.Mdny playFrs \pFrn ro Bet lh. L, . l rFsuhe bv usinEmuulhpic ' ns c imi l i " r ro rhlrr nurmal moulhpiecFs.

1!'R ITTE:'{

PLAY}:D SOUNDINGP!

a)

Pitched in A we wouldlune thusly:

PLATED Sotrn-r

lr the three-notes aiJlerfecrly spaced fo. run-ing, one is indeed forlunalciaod hc needn't con. . 'n t i - 'e l t w, lh dnv dl l r l i l i .ms. Howcvpr more. , , . ( i r*con hinself wirh any alrcrgiions. However more

'a , r* : ' , . / -n,. , , .Lurp.di i , .h i r"-1,1dr_S, b

" .h,Lld b '

ivoided !d'0rally as rb€,r usually hrve tit rdvcse citocr on

l:';:::p::;:l;" t '

SOtrn-DING

oft€n than not one may have to compensate be-cause one or more ot these notes may noi be ab-solutely p€rfecr and a iudicrous runins of the in-strumenl will result in senerally Cood overall in-

EXAMPLETOclavetoo wide

One should tune to the lower note since it is eas-ie. lo "humor" or lip down the sharp nole than toraise lh€ f lat one. I should make clear that I amspeaking of ve.y small disftepancies-if they a.elar8e, compensal ion may bc di f f icul l or impossi-ble to correct and then one should invest isate thepossibi l i ty of the mouthpiece not bein8 proper orbeing poorly fittedto tbe instrument. [Al this pointI am a8sumins that the player is sufficiently ad-vanced and skilled so as to somewhat elimiDaietbe possibility that the difficulties are basic play-in8 probl€ms,l Anothe. solution is of cotrrs€ to usealternale finge.ings for the upper noles- Rapidpassages usual ly.eedn' l be al t€red i f passedlhrou8h. Example:

They should be altered in notes of some lensth orthose which begin or terminate a passase. Exam-

Now lel u! take the opposi te problem-the oc-tovei3 too compressed." Example:

cd up . we c-n lhen e\pecl lhat the " f i f th ' l in dproperly piayed and constructed instrumentl wiilalso "line up" quite well. If it seems to deviate abii (sharp or flatl a luriher ninor adjustm€nt oflhc luning bi l can bc madc lo br ing i t c loser intune. However I preler an alternale tinSerins be-cause in the final analysis lhe octave is lhe mostoitical and I prcfer nol to dislurb its location too

' l he lst . 3rd and 4th valve s l idos should dlso be' ' runcd. This is prr t iuular ly t rue i l one is playinsrhc inslrumenl pirLhed in A. Pl ) lhe fo l lnwingsucces sion of notes:

Adjust the 1s1 valve s l ide unl i l sood whole-hal fs lep relat ions} ips are eslabl ishcd. ' lhe F-( l 'F rc la-l ionship is part i .u lar lv impor lant in cstabl ishing

' I he 3rd valve s l ide should be adjusted sini l iar-ly. Play the following succession of notcs and trylo dchieve a balance between lhe lenSths ne.B-sary lo ke€p the Ab, G+, Er and D proportionally in

l f D s or C+ predoninaie in a s iven pieco of musrclhen t l ,e 3rd s l idc nay be len8thened morc Eener-Dusly. Famil iar i ly and usase wi l l soon indicalc thc

Th" Juurrh r - , \

e ql idp , .dn hF rer in rhp lo l lus inBnanner: I l lhe 4lh valve is used pr inrar i ly lo exlcndlhr ranse downward i l usual ly ha, to be pul led ourl ,etween ya" and 1s". I lowever, i l lhe 4rh valve wi l lbe used pr in. ipal ly for a l lernate f ingef ings i tshould be extended Dnty s l isht ly.

In evaluating these lesls a stroboscope can bepa.licula.lyuselul.

HOW TO PRACTICEA specific appmach is often iSnored with 8€ne.al-ly lFsq lhan idcdl resulrq. I malc the lo l lowrns s.n-e.al sussestions for a pra.tice proc€dure,

warm up and p.actice a fcw baeic exercises ona regular Bb o. C tfuhpel for about len to fifteenminutes. This atlows the player to "wA.m up" his

L

COMPRESSED

ASdin lhe solution is similar: tune ro the flat ooreandt ip down the sha.pone.

The middle note lthe fifth) of the three noieSroup can be used lo baldncF our" the Iuning.Let s assume we have the octaves pretty well lin-

enbou.hure aDd set or focus his playins on a la-miliar inst.umenl. Re$l a lew minutes and besinplayirg simple scale or arpeSgio patterns jn thelower register of lhc piccolo trumpet and thensradually work upwr.d. Allow about ten to fiftccn minutcs lo accompli$h this. lJse oI lyric, vocal-ise lype music dl th is poinl is par l icular ly helpfuland one s'ill begin playing lho inslrument wilh asrealer sensi l iv i ly fo. lhe response, l imbre andcontrol, $hich is not so roadily rchieved by menlypickins up thc instrumonl nnd lhen plunging in lowhatevcr l i teraiufe is at hand.

SUGGf, STED PRACTICE MATf,RIALThe 100 Eludes of E. Sachne can bs utilized wilhminor modificaiioDs as it affords nolattoD to bring

Re.ertly a seriee of solo pi€ces for the piccolotrumpet has been publish€d by cerard Billaudoland edited bv Jean Thilde which provides lhe play-er with an ex.ellent mbdium in which to explorethe resources ol th is inst .umenl.

Most baroque music in D najo. wiu be sreatly$implified by perfo.manc€ on th€ piccolo A lrum-pet. This allows the player lo play in the key oI Fon lhis instrument, avoidinS the awkward rineer,idgs enou.lered when thc same music is played

ILAYED O\ TRUMPET IN D

Needl€ss lo say, a lhorough comnand of trans-position is necessary and a player's imagination

PI,Al 'EI) ON PICC, IN B'

PLAYED ON PICC.IN A