From the viewpoint of a horn player, the keys a guitarist wants to choose are usually harder for two reasons: because we on transposing instruments have to play in more difficult key signatures, and because we are more likely to have to overcome intonation problems inherent in horns.

For example, the key of concert E is F# for me on a Bb trumpet. It’s C# for an Eb alto sax. Both are keys most horn players will admit they find to be harder than C, F and G

And then there is intonation.

Trumpets and saxes are one enormous compromise when it comes to pitch. On all trumpets, regardless of key, the low D and C# below the staff are WAY sharp and have to be adjusted by a short slide. If you were to write something featuring a trumpet, you would want to avoid featuring those notes. Similarly, the E at the top of the staff is usually flat for most trumpets. On some songs, I use alternate fingering and my tuning slide to make it better, but using a tiny trumpet tuning slide is a gamble every time.

This is way too much detail for most of you but it may give you a sense of how brass players think. There’s dozens more examples like the ones I gave. The better you play, the more these subtleties are important. Guitarists, if you had a nut in the wrong place, and every time you played a note it was “off”, you’d take it in for repair. But we can’t.

BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors