Brass Family

Brass instruments are wind instruments in which the player's lips are the vibrating source of the sound. You press your lips into a mouthpiece and buzz them, and the long metal tube amplifies and shapes that buzz into a tone. The main members are the trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba, with relatives such as the cornet, flugelhorn, euphonium, baritone horn, mellophone and sousaphone. As with woodwinds, the name describes the usual material, but the family is defined by how the sound starts: the brass saxophone is a woodwind, because it uses a reed.

Harmonics: many notes from one tube

A brass tube without valves can play a whole series of notes, its harmonics, by changing the tension of the lips and the speed of the air. These notes follow the harmonic series: wide apart at the bottom and closer and closer together higher up. Bugle calls use these open harmonics. Natural horns also use them, but hand-stopping can supply pitches between them.

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Valves and slides

To play the notes between the harmonics, brass instruments change the length of the tube:

• Valves (trumpet, horn, tuba, euphonium) switch in extra loops of tubing. On most three-valve instruments, valve 1 lowers the pitch a whole step, valve 2 a half step and valve 3 a step and a half.
• A slide (trombone) makes the tube longer in seven positions, each a half step lower, with every shade in between.

The brass in ensembles

A symphony orchestra usually has four horns, two or three trumpets, three trombones and a tuba, printed in the score in that order, with the horns above the trumpets. The brass quintet has two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba. Concert and marching bands have large brass sections, jazz big bands have trumpet and trombone sections, and British-style brass bands use cornets, flugelhorn, tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones and basses.

Mutes and colors

Brass players change their sound with mutes placed in the bell: the straight mute (thin and edgy), cup mute (soft and muffled) and harmon mute (the buzzy jazz trumpet sound), among others. Horn players also change the color with the hand in the bell.

Transposition

The trumpet (usually in B♭) and the horn (usually in F) are transposing instruments. The trombone and tuba normally read at concert pitch in bass clef, except in British brass bands, where nearly all parts are written in treble clef and transposed.

Starting a brass instrument

Every brass instrument depends on a healthy embouchure and steady breath support, so beginners spend time on buzzing, long tones and lip slurs. The trumpet and trombone are common first choices; the horn suits players with a good ear for pitch; the tuba and euphonium suit anyone who loves a big, warm bass sound.