Rotary and Piston trumpets are very different in many ways whilst also being similar in many ways. Many people do not know that two different types of trumpets exist until someone tells them that. The rotary valve trumpet its much smoother and cleaner than the piston trumpet which has a more crisp feel and has a more direct sound.

Rotary means that the valves spin in either clockwise or counter-clockwise motion. When a valve spins, it changes the path of the air making the air have to travel more to get to the end of the instrument. This can be compared to a train, when the control is switched, the tracks switch and the train either goes onto another set of tracks or stays on the same tracks that its been on. When thinking about the sound difference between the different valves, it can be hard to compare to anything that on person has heard before. Think of a french horn, that is the most distinguishable instrument that has a rotary valve system.

Piston Valves move like the pistons in a car engine, up and down. When piston valves are activated there are only two possibilities, the air is going where the path is with the valve up or the air is going where the valve is down, this is why the sound is more crisp with the piston trumpet versus the rotary. The rotary has air flowing all the way when the valve is being activated, at one point, the air is going through both valve systems, valve active and not active.

A very interesting concept is putting the rotary valve system onto a piston valve trumpet. One person named thomas gansch has done exactly that. He is a swiss, professional trumpet player in the “mnozil brass”. His objective was to be able to play with one hand and also have the amazing sound of a rotary valve trumpet. He partnered with schagerl, a trumpet manufacturer, and created his dream trumpet. The main obstacle was being able to fit the valves vertically because of the size of the valve. To keep the normal shape of a trumpet, the valves would hit into the pipe leading into the bell, so what he did was bent the bell around and down below the valves.