Piccolo trumpet
The piccolo trumpet is the smallest member of the trumpet family, pitched one octave higher than the standard B♭ trumpet. Most piccolo trumpets are built to play in either B♭ or A, using a separate leadpipe for each key. The tubing in the B♭ piccolo trumpet is one-half the length of that in a standard B♭ trumpet. Piccolo trumpets in G, F, and even high C are also manufactured, but are rarer.
Brass instrument
Sopranino trumpet
423.233
(Valved aerophone sounded by lip vibration)
Modern piccolo developed from the valved Bach trumpet in D, late 19th century
The piccolo trumpet should not be confused with the pocket trumpet, which plays in the same pitch as the regular B♭ trumpet.[2]
Use in "Penny Lane" and elsewhere[edit]
The piccolo trumpet solo in the Beatles' "Penny Lane", which introduced the instrument to pop music, was played by David Mason. Paul McCartney was dissatisfied with the initial attempts at the song's instrumental fill (one of which is released on Anthology 2), and was inspired to use the instrument after hearing Mason's performance in a BBC radio broadcast of the second Brandenburg Concerto and asking George Martin what the "tremendously high" trumpet was.[10] Eventually Mason recorded the solo using a piccolo trumpet in A.[11] The piccolo trumpet was also used to quote Bach's Invention no. 8 in F major (BWV 779) during the fade-out of "All You Need Is Love".
Use of the instrument is now commonplace in many musical genres. Maurice André, Otto Sauter, Guy Touvron, Reinhold Friedrich, Adolf Scherbaum, Ludwig Güttler, Wynton Marsalis, Matthias Höfs and Håkan Hardenberger are some well-known piccolo trumpet players.