For those still with me, I can tell you I was strictly taught that a cornet player should NEVER - absolutely NEVER - play any note by using the third valve by itself. The correct fingering for such notes as the lower 'E' and the 'A' within the stave was first and second valve combined. The reason for the ban on using the third instead was - I think - that the note would be very slightly out of tune.
But I noticed later in life that many trumpeters - particularly jazz players - habitually and instinctively use third valve alone. You may be surprised to hear that the third valve by itself gets you 'G' AND 'A' AND 'B' above the stave, which the classically-trained are taught always to play as an open note, 1st with 2nd, and 2nd respectively.
So you can go right up the C scale in the higher octave with this simple fingering: C = 0 / D = 1 / E = 0 / F = 1 / G = 3 / A = 3 / B = 3 / C = 0. What a useful trick!
If you find that hard to believe, just try it.
This example of false fingering now seems to me to do no harm and to bring the required result. Unfortunately, the discovery came too late to affect my own playing. The classical rules were ingrained and I was too old to learn new tricks.
Here's another example of false fingering. The higher 'D' within the stave is correctly played with first valve only; and that's how I was taught to play it. But you can also get it (ever so slightly sharp) with a combination of first and third valves.
The most interesting example of this that I am aware of occurs in the 1927 recording by Louis Armstrong of Potato Head Blues - one of the most important and influential recordings in the history of jazz. If you need to, you can find it on You Tube. Note the final stop-time solo (following the Johnny Dodds clarinet chorus) that Louis plays: in the 9th and 10th bars Louis produces an amazing flutter on that 'D'; and he achieves this by hitting the note ten times in a row, alternating the fingering between first valve and first with third.
As you probably know, when you use the second valve, you are lowering an open note by a semi-tone; when you use the first valve, you are lowering the note by a tone; when you use the third valve, you lower it by one and a half tones. This suggests that the third valve can at any time substitute for the first and second together, as either fingering lowers the note by one and a half tones. However, manufacturers do not make the third valve slide exactly the same length as the two other slides combined. That's why the tuning of falsely-fingered notes is not absolutely spot on.
Apart from most of the harmonics (notes played without depressing any valves) all notes in most keys are ever so slightly out of tune and there’s no way of avoiding this. The designers of brass instruments have to compromise in the lengths of the tubing (just as pianos are tuned by ‘equal temperament’).
But enough of this heavy stuff. If you want to study the subject further, start by looking up ‘equal temperament’ on the Internet.
I just want to make a point about the consequences for cornets and trumpets. For every note, we have a ‘correct’ fingering (making the best use of the instrument’s design) but most notes also have at least one ‘false’ fingering which produces the note very slightly sharp or flat – but only to the extent that a passer-by would hardly notice.
I said above that it is possible to play G and A and B above the stave all by depressing third valve alone. In fact you can get any of the following eight notes on a trumpet or cornet with third valve alone:
At a pinch, you can even get the high C above these notes with 3rd valve only.
But please don’t tell anybody this little secret. You would get me into big trouble with serious trumpet tutors. Let’s just keep it between ourselves.
It’s not just third valve that provides some useful false fingering, of course. Here are the third and fourth bars of the most famous cadenza in all jazz – Louis Armstrong’s introduction to West End Blues. I am showing here the classically-correct fingering for the bar of descending quavers.
But if you have trouble playing that, just consider this: you can use first valve alone on five successive notes!
Reminder: don’t let anybody know I told you.
