How Can Notes Which Are Not in the Harmonic Scale Be Played?
Before the invention of valves or slides (as used with the slide trombone), the answer was quick and simple: they can’t. This was an enormous drawback for both composers and musicians. The key to the other notes was the length of the tube. Instead of changing to another instrument (with different tube length and different natural scale) in the middle of a tune, which would have required acrobatic skills, valves which opened some extra tubes were invented. The modern trumpet, which was first built in around the year 1815, has three valves which allow the player to lower the pitch of the whole natural scale by anything from one to six semitones8. From the first harmonic up to the top of the range, the biggest gap in the scale is between the first and second harmonics, a gap of seven semitones. By using the valves, any note can be lowered by up to six semitones, so this gap is filled in. It is therefore possible to play a complete chromatic scale over the full range of the instrument. The
