T his glossary provides a helpful list of terms that are useful to trumpet players, as well as all students of music. Where possible links to visual and audio resources are used to aid with he definition, so be sure to check out any links that are included in the definitions.

If there are any terms that you feel should be added, please let us know!

Adagio
A tempo marking indicating a very slow tempo.
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Allegretto
A tempo marking indicating a quick temp that is slower than allegro.
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Andante
A tempo marking indicating a moderately slow tempo.
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Andantino
A tempo marking indiacting a slow temp that is quicker than andante.
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Appogiatura
Any grace note or embellishment.
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Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a writen progression up and down a chord, such as " C E G C E G G E C G E C."
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Articulation
Articulation is the act of cleanly beginning and ending a note. Music can be articulated short (staccato) or long (lagato), or a mixture of anything in between. Articulation is achieved on a trumpet by using the tongue as sort of a valve for air. The tongue should release air according to how the note should sound. "Attack" is also used to describe articulation.
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Bar
A bar is the same as one measure.
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Bath
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A bath is just that--a bath for a trumpet. The entire instrument is dismantled and cleaned in warm soap water, rinsed, dried, and reassembled. It is advisable to bath your trumpet about once a month.
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Bell
The bell is the part of a trumpet that begins at the valve casing and ends in the flared open end. It is responsible for many factors of tone production, and it should be kept free of dents. For a more in-depth discussion of bells, see the Parts of a Trumpet.
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B flat Trumpet
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A B flat ( usually written B) is the most common type of trumpet in most beginner through high school playing ensembles. They are most common in bands and in jazz ensembles. For an in depth discussion of the B trumpet, check out its page.
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Bravura
Bravura is a brilliant virtuoso style.

Buzz
"Buzzing" is the act of vibrating your lips in a mouthpiece. Usually when referring to buzzing, it indicates that the mouthpiece is not attached to the instrument. Buzzing helps to provide a good sound and good sense of pitch. Many great brass players and wind ensembles warm up only buzzing to help reinforce fundamentals. For a more detailed explanations of how to buzz, try the Buzzing a Mouthpiece section, which includes audio.
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Cantabile
(kahn-TAH-bley) Indicates a "singing style is to be used.
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Chord
A Chord is any combination of three or more notes.
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Chromatic
Chromatic means progressing in a scale in half steps, playing every note in a range. The chromatic scale from low G to high G is usually required of most middle and junior high school trumpet players.
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Clef
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The symbol a the beginning of the staff is a clef, and it indicates the pitch of that staff. Treble, or G clef, is used for trumpets.
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Con Sorda
Con sorda is Italian for "with mute." It is used in some older or foreign music to indicate for the trumpeter to insert a mute. When no specific mute is indicated, the straight mute is assumed what is to be used. When the mute is to be taken out, the words "senza sorda" are used. Con sorda may be abbreviated "con sord.."

Crescendo
A crescendo is a dynamic mrking that indicates a gradual rise in volume of music.
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Cup
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The cup is the rounded part of the inside of the mouthpiece. Cups are usually sized using a letter that has been stamped onto the outside of the mouthpiece. The systems for identification vary, however. While an "A" cup may be very deep for one manufacturer, it may be very shallow for another.
Cup size is an important consideration when choosing mouthpieces. A deeper cup usually aids in a richer, fuller sound while a shallow cup often has a thinner sound, but can aid in the upper register. It isn't encouraged that young trumpet players use shallow mouthpieces.
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Cup Mute
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The cup mute is similar to a straight mute with the exception that it includes an attached cup around the end. It provides a fuzzier sound.
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Diminuendo
A dynamic indicating a gradual decrease in the volume of music.
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Double Tonguing
Double Tonguing is the art of articulation with the tongue on the "up" and "down" strokes of the tongue. Normal, or single, tonguing allows the trumpeter to articulate using the "Ta" syllable, but using a double tonguing technique, a syllable such as "Ta Ka" is used. This allows trumpeters to cleanly articulate very fast passages. It takes many years to perfect a double tonguing technique.
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Dynamics
Dynamics are marking that indicate how loud or soft music should be. A detail explaination of them is here.
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Enharmonic
An enharmonic is a note that sounds the same but is written differently on the staff, such as F# and Gb.
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Fermata
A Fermata, sometimes called a "bird's eye because of its shape, indicates that a will be help as long as the director wishes. You should watch him or her for the release.
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Fingering
Fingering is either the act of depressing the valves in patterns or it is the actual pattern. As an example, the fingering for the note "A" is 1-2 (both the first and second valves are depresses simultaneously). Check out the Fingering Chart.
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Flat
A flat is a symbol () that lowers a note one-half step.
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Forte
A dynamic marking indicating that the passage should be played loud.
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Fortissimo
Fortissimo is a dynamic that indicates a passage should be played louder than forte.
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Fundemental
The fundemental is the root tone of a cord or series, suchas the Harmonic series.
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Giocoso
Giocoso is a style direction that indicates the passage should be joyful.
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Grace Note
A grace note is a small ornamentation on another note. It usually is very, very short (about a 32nd note) and is played slightly before another note. It takes is value from the preceeding note, not the note it is attached to.
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Harmonics
The notes produced naturally on a brass instrument like the trumpet without the aid of valves. See the Harmonic Series for more details.
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Harmon Mute
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A harmon mute is a tin metal mute that is made of two parts. The first fits in the bell. It is fat, hollow, and has a small hole in the center. The second resembles a thin metal mouthpiece, and the shank of it fits into the hole in the first part. The mute can be player with or with out this plunger. This mute creates a "Do-Wah" effect.
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Harmony
The area of music that deals with how notes aound together.
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Interval
An Interval is the distance in pitch between two tones.
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Intonation
Intonation is another word for tuning. Having good intonation is playing all notes in tune alone and with others. See Tuning Tendancies more more information.
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Key
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The key is the scale in which a piece of music is played. It is indicated by the key signature, an arrangement of sharps and flats on the staff. More more information of keys and key signature, check out Reading Music.
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Larghetto
A tempo marking indicating slow and dignified, but faster than Largo.
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Largo
Largo is a temp marking indicating very slow and with great dignity.
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Legato
Legato is a style direction that indicates the music should be plyed very smoothly, without any chops or breaks.
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Lento
A tempo marking indicating the passage should be very slow, but faster than largo.
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L'istesso Tempo
L'istesso temp is a temp direction that indicates the passage below should be played the same tempo as the previous one. This is often located where there is a style change and it is natural to cahnge tempos, but it is against the composer's wishes.
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Maestoso
A style marking that indicates the passage should be played majestically.
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Marcato
A style marking that indicates that the passage should be played with accents on all notes, ans the notes should be separated.
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Meno
A marking to indicate "less of." This can be used before several markings, commonly in "meno mosso, " with less motion.
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Moderato
Moderato is a tempo marking that indicates the tempo should be fairly moderate.
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Mordent
A mordent is a single note trill. It is indicated by a zig-zig over a note. The trumpeter should play the indicated note, raise it one step, and then return to the first pitch and hold it.All of this takes place very quickly.
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Mute
A mute is any apparatus that is used on the end of a bell to alter the sound of a trumpet. It doesn't necasarilly deaden the sound, but alters it. Check out the Mute Page for more details.
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Natural
A natural is a sign ( ) that restores the natural pitch of a note that has been altered by an accidental or by the key. It's effect last only until the end of the measure, except on tied notes.
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Octave
An octave is all of the notes from one note to the note that shares it's name in the next direction. An example would be all of the notes from low C to middle C.
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Pedal Tones
Pedal tones are notes that lie below the natural range of a trupmet (below low F#). It takes great control to play pedal tones, and greater control to keep they defined and focused. Many teachers use a study of pedal tones to help in adding upper range and in aiding tone quality.
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Pianissimo
Pinaissimo is a dynamic that indicates the passage should be played very softly.
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Piano
Piano is a dynamic that indicates a passge should be played quietly, but not as quiet as pianissimo.
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Pitch
Pitch is the relation of ane sound to another.
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Piu
A marking that indicates "more."
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Plunger mute
A plunger mute is a mute that is made from the rubber end of a toilet plunger. It can opened and shut on the bell to produced different sounds. See the Mutes page for more details.

poco
A marking that indicates "a little."
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Presto
Not a magician's word or a brand of spaghetti sauce, this is a tempo marking that means very fast, faster then allegro.
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Prestissimo
A tempo marking that indicates that the passage should be played as fast as humanly possible.
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Rallentando
A tempo marking indicating that the passage should slow down.
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Rhythm
Rhythm is the arrangement of short and long notes, and accented and unaccented notes.
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Ritardando
Ritardando is a tempo marking that indicates that the passge should be reatrded gradually. IT is usually abbreviated rit. or ritard.
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Rubato
Changing the tempo slightly in places for musical effect. The temp itself shouldn't change, because as time is taken away from some places, it should be given back.
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Scale
A Scale is a formal progression of notes on an octave, such as a chromatic or major scale.
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Sforzando
A sforzando is a dynamic marking indicating that a note should be played with sudden force. It is written sfz.
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Slur
A curved symbol that indicates that two or more notes should be played without articulating (tonguing).
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Snake
A snake is a tool used to clean out the inside of a trumpet. It is about 2.5 feet long and made of a tightly coiled spring with nylon brushes on each end. To learn about snakes and their use, check out Trumpet Maintainace.
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Staccato
A staccato marking is a simple dot placed above a note. It indocates that the note should be articulated short and slightly detached.
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Staff
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The staff is the five parallel horizonal lines on which music is written.
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Straight mute
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A straight mute is the most common kind of mute. It is inserted into the bell of a trumpet and stays in because of the friction of corks on the cone. A straight mute gives a trumpet a more "tinny," or "metallic" sound. See the Mute page for more details.
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Syncopation
Syncopation is the alteration of the natural accent by shifting the accent to a weaker beat.
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Tempo
The tempo is the speed at which music prgresses.
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Tenuto
A tenuto indicates that a note should be held slightly longer than normal. It is abbreviated ten.
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Tone Quality
Tone Quality is the "pureness" of sound produced on the trumpet. It is one of the hardest areas of trumpet playing to achieve. It takes many, many years to develop the tone quality of accomplished trumpeters, so do not de discouraged.
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Trill
A trill is an effect produced by rapidly alternating between two notes.
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Triplet
A triplet is a group of three notes that are played in the space where two notes would noramlly go. They are indicates with a "3" above the grouping.
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Valves
JavaScript Demonstration
Valves are the part of a trumpet the re route the air column to make it longer or shorter, changing the pitch of a note. "Valves" is a loose term; it often referrs to the pistons, or the whole assembly. YOu ca learn more about valves in How Valves Work and Parts of Trumpet.
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Vibrato
Vibrato is a noticable vibration in pitch that can be used for musical effect. It can be produced on the trumpet by shaking your hand, moving your jaw, or vibrating your diaphram while playing.
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