Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Trumpet Lesson - Learn to Play Happy Birthday to You

In this trumpet lesson you will learn to play the melody to the song Happy Birthday To You without sheet music. It is a melody that is well worth learning by heart for special occasions!

The most common trumpet is a transposing instrument pitched in Bb. That is the instrument you probably are playing. This means that when you play a melody in C-major on your trumpet it will actually sound as if played in Bb-major.

In this trumpet lesson you will find the lyrics to the song Happy Birthday To You line by line in F-major with the chord symbols written in Eb-major for guitar or piano or some other chord instrument. The chord symbols are placed before the syllable where you are to play it.

Below the lyrics you will find the notes to play on your trumpet. In this lesson we will use the note names suggesting that you know how to play the notes on your trumpet. You will also find a system for showing the length of the notes.

In case you need to refresh the notes and how they are played on your trumpet you will find a fingering chart here for the notes we will use:

C = 000, D = 101, E = 110, F = 100, G = 000, A = 110, Bb = 100, C5 = 000 (1 indications pressed and 0 not press valves)

We shall now start this lesson by learning the melody to the first line of lyrics:

Happy (Eb) birthday to (Bb7) you

C4 CDCFE

The first note has the number 4 after the note name indicating that it is to be played in the lowest octave on your trumpet. The number four indicates that this is the fourth octave on an traditional piano keyboard.

I guess that you can play the rhythm of the melody by heart but we will also use a system for showing you the time value of the notes. The shortest notes are indicated with the number 1. In traditional sheet music notation this would be an eight note.

The number two means that a note has twice the value of the length 1. The value 4 means that the note has four times the value of number 1. Here comes the corresponding rhythms for the previous melody:

1 1 2 2 2 4

Let's continue with the melody and from now on I notate the rhythms below the notes:

happy (Bb7) birthday to (Eb) you

CCDCGF
1 1 2 2 2 4

Happy (Eb) birthday dear (Ab) ...

CC C5 A4 FED
1 1 2 2 2 2 2

The note C5 is the C note in the next octave. After this note you have the note A4 which indicates that you will go back to the lowest octave again playing the following notes the same way.

Happy birthday to you

Bb Bb AFGF
1 1 2 2 2 4

Now you have played the complete melody. I suggest that you learn the melody by heart line by line on your trumpet. You will never know when you have a reason to play the melody for someone!














  • 3 Tips to Making Money Online Easily With the economy in its current condition, people are fearful of their finances. It's no mystery that making money online has been the most sought after stream of income and the most difficult to master. However, having a…
  • How To Start An Internet Business With Little Or No Money At All One of the really cool things about starting your very own internet business is that it can be done rather quickly and inexpensively. In fact some of the most profitable internet businesses started with little and in some cases no money…
  • Robinair 15600 Two-Stage AC Vacuum Pump - Why You Need a Robinair 15600 and Where to Get One CheapWhen working on any air conditioning system, the ability to pull a hard vacuum to remove all moisture from the system is critical. One of the best tools available to the A/C technician is the Robinair 15600 two-stage vacuum pump. This…
  • Private Real Estate Syndicated Funds - A Passive Way to Invest in Real Estate In today's economy, one thing is guaranteed. The world is trying to ditch the US dollar as the reserve currency and keeping your money in CDs and money market accounts is straight forward unsafe. For decades savers and investors…
  • One More Article About Auto Insurance What Is Auto Insurance? Auto insurance is a product that is purchased and also that can pay for damages to your vehicle or others' vehicles in the event of a car accident or non-accident related harm. Each state has its laws…