4 Learning & Playing Tuba/Trumpet/Euphonium/Baritone/Flugelhorn/French Horn/Cornet

In this video, Brett Youens describes the logic behind the system of overtones on valved brass instruments, with the tuba used as an example.

http://www.geocities.com/freewillyb/

(Transcript)
Hi. Let's talk a little more about valved brass instruments and how they work. As you know by now this is a tuba, but could just as well be a trumpet, or a euphonium, or a French horn, or a flugelhorn. They all work on the same principles.

The principle we want to talk about today is "overtones". Overtones are all the notes that you can produce on your instrument without the usage of the valves. So let's say you play a trumpet in C. What does that mean? That means, the lowest note you can produce on your instrument -- without valves -- is a C. That's called the fundamental. But you can, of course, produce many other notes above that, and those are called overtones. So we have a fundamental and many, many overtones. Let's say you play Euphonium in Bb. That means the fundamental is a Bb -- that's the lowest note you can play without the usage of the valves -- and then you have many other overtones above that.

One thing to know about the overtones -- and we won't get into the mathematics today -- but one thing to know about the overtones is that they get closer and closer to each other as we go higher and higher up. So if the lowest note is here, and the next note is here, then the next note after that might be here, and the next one would be, maybe, here, the next one here, and the next one here, and at some point they get very, very close together as we go up into infinity.

So let's take a look today at a piano keyboard that has the notes of a trumpet in C marked with red beads. You see that the lowest note is a C. C is always the note below the black twins on a piano, and as we go higher and higher, the notes get closer and closer together, and then at some point you can even see, the notes are right next to each other. And, again, this would go off into infinity, so that the notes are very, very close to each other.

So, that's the general layout of these overtones. But let's take an example, so that we know exactly which notes we'll be dealing with. And you can do this in the following manner. Let's look right here: These three notes happen to make up a major chord. Now how do I know that that's a major chord? "Major chord" means that between these two notes there are three keys, and between these two notes there are 2 keys. So if you have this constellation, that's a major chord.

So let's take these red beads, and let's make a major chord above the fundamental, and then we'll take another major chord there, and then we'll take another C major chord there. Basically, these are the overtones, it's just that here we have a couple too many. In the first chord, we only need the lowest note. In the next chord, we need everything except for the middle one, and in the third chord, we need all three. So, these are the first six notes that a trumpet in C can play, without using the valves. Now, as you see, there are many, many other notes, but these are the first six. There's actually an instrument called the bugle, which does not even have valves. That means, everything that the bugle plays has to be played within the system of overtones. For example...

So, now you know a little more about the logic behind the system of overtones on valved brass instruments.

Category:

Education

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• learn
• tuba
• trumpet
• euphonium
• baritone
• flugelhorn
• cornet
• how
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• brass
• instruments
• overtones
• logic
• system
• online
• harmonics

[paploothelearned]

I didn't hear this mentioned on the video so I wanted to clarify for a beginner that might be confused: On a trumpet the fundamental is not playable in a normal way (that is, via vibration of the air column), so for any beginner player, the first 6 notes would be read as C G C E G Bb, though for a Bb trumpet is concert Bb F Bb D F Ab. The lower harmonic is available through pedal tones, but these are made in a different way and are too difficult for beginners.

[PianoWallaby]

@paploothelearned Thanks for the comment!

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Okay, what about under-tones? A.K.A. "Pedal tones."

[PianoWallaby]

Pedal tones are the "fundamental tones" on your instrument. They are not always themselves producible. In any case you must be very relaxed in order to acheive them. I would say the pedal Bb on a bass trombone is probably the most common usage in brass instruments.

[coloredmarker]

heyy i play the clarinet now at the Ahern middle school but i asked my teacher (Mr. Murphy) if i could swich and of couse he said yes:)

[PianoWallaby]

Great!

[KH2fanatic2010]

you look like seth green :)

[gta1172]

great iam using the cornet

[PianoWallaby]

You're welcome! I am glad you have enjoyed and learned from the videos. Good luck with your further studies!

[kaaaaaatieS]

This is really awesome

I've been a clarinet player for about 7 years and I've been thinking about switching to a brass instrument for college. So now with your help i can semi teach myself the basics! thanks =]