Trumpets

So I've recently started hooting along to some songs by the Hair Traffic Control boys, playing at a couple of gigs, trumpeting on one or two songs, writing some new things. It has raised an interesting question in my mind - does trumpet work in a rock music setting?

The most common sighting of trumpets is in classical or jazz music. I think there is an obvious reason for this. The timbre of a trumpet is incredibly bright, narrow and piercing. And thus completely different to the timbre of guitars. So it sticks out like a sore thumb in a guitar band. As a classical or brass band player, one spends much of one's time adding melody and warmth to an overall sound. This is difficult if your sound is the most prominent and audible feature.

So should you attempt occasional trumpet lines in a guitar band; no brass no brass no brass and then a solo on top which stands out because of its loudness and textural difference? Jazz manages to blend both textural backing and prominent soloing because the timbres are all so similar, so in fact the reverse happens - there is a constant warmth of everything blended, and then when a solo is needed, everything else cuts out, leaving space.

Not to say that classical instruments are unwelcome in rock – string instruments turn up all the time and work very well (Grammatics, Nirvana, Cats in Paris, to name a few live acts), but then the timbre of a string instrument is, for obvious reasons, much closer to a guitar than a trumpet is.

I can only think of a couple of instances of trumpets in rock, and I'm not sure if any of them really work well. For the most part it's just gratuitous. The places it does work, is where there are other unusual instruments playing too, and it all contributes to a big twee mêlée, no one timbrely independent instrument sticking out over the rest. e.g. Calexico, Belle and Sebastian, Sufjan Stevens, &twee &twee...*

So with trumpet in a guitar band, is it best to stick to quiet constant playing adding warmth and subtle melody, or stick to obvious melodies over the top, punctuated bits of trumpet, to add to the 'epic' bits. The trouble with the first is that it is almost impossible for the trumpet to blend in entirely, and can easily end up as a constant unchanging horn mush at the back of the sound. The problem with the second is that it can sound crap, out of place and gratuitously baroque. Or Mexican, depending on how you play it. Or Christ forbid, you could end up with some horrible genre-fusion jazz-rock monster on your hands.

The reason, I should point out at this juncture, that jazz fusion worked (if for some reason you think it did...) was that it wasn't one jazz instrument with a rock band, or vice versa, but a mingle of equal parts of each.

This all also raises an important point. Either because the idea of a trumpet in rock, or simply the sound itself is so unusual, is it likely that a band would be defined because of its sound, not because of the quality of its music? This would obviously be a bad thing. I can think of a few people who are defined by their sound. And I'm not talking about style here, obviously I can think of plenty of people who have carved their own style, and it's a truly impressive and wonderful identity. But the Zutons? The Darkness? – a very distinct sound. I'm really just saying it's all too easy for it to be a gimmick.

Should a trumpet play in a rock band?

To be continued I suppose... I'll work on it.

*In my mind this is a hilarious pun on &c. &c.