Brass Trainer

Positions and fingerings for trumpet, trombone, French horn, mellophone, baritone, and tuba.

About Brass Trainer

Know every fingering and position without thinking

Brass Trainer shows a written note and you answer with its fingering or slide position. It covers trumpet, trombone, French horn (single F or double F/B♭), mellophone, baritone, and tuba, with Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced ranges. Common alternate fingerings are accepted, and you hear the note when you answer, so fingering, pitch, and notation connect.

Rounds are short 10- or 15-note sprints, or free practice. Missed notes come back later in the round, so the ones you don't know yet get extra practice.

How to practice

  1. 01Pick your instrument and start at the Beginner range, even if you already play.
  2. 02Finger along on your instrument, or move your arm for slide positions, as you answer.
  3. 03When you miss a note, play it on your horn right away to lock it in.
  4. 04Move up a range once you finish a 15-note sprint with no misses.
  5. 05Do a sprint before you practice new music with high or low notes.

One fingering, many notes

Every valve combination or slide position gives a length of tubing, and each length can play a whole series of notes called partials, or the harmonic series. Your embouchure and air choose the partial and the fingering chooses the tubing. That is why the open fingering on trumpet can play C, G, C, E, and more.

Each valve adds tubing: valve 2 lowers the pitch a half step, valve 1 a whole step, and valve 3 a step and a half. Trombone positions do the same job with the slide. Each position out lowers the pitch by a half step.

Who it's for

Beginning brass players learning fingerings, students switching instruments (trumpet to horn, or trombone to baritone), and directors who want quick fingering checks during sectionals.