music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush Hey, it’s Sparkythe music theory dog! kids! Dear Sparky: Q: What does it mean that certain instruments are “transposing instruments”? Does that affect how I should write music for them? -A.M., Dana Point, CA A: WOOF!*

*translation: transposing instruments are instruments which play play in a different key than what is on the page.

for example, when a clarinetist sees and plays a G, & œ & œ it actually sounds like an f!

woodwind instruments the reason depends on brass instruments, like come in different sizes to why? the type of instrument! woodwinds, were built in cover a larger range. many different keys... rather than learn new fingerings for each especially since early brass instruments didn’t size of instrument, it’s easier to have one have valves, and thus could only play the set of fingerings that works on all of them! harmonic overtones of a single note!

bw & œ w w & bw bw w Even after valves became common, instruments were still available in a variety of keys... and it made sense alto saxophone alto bass saxophone

tenor saxophone to write their music so that fingerings baritone saxophone baritone soprano saxophone were across the board! sopranino saxophone consistent contrabass saxophone Eventually, of course, instruments in certain keys were preferred for their timbre and range, and became much bœ ? œ ? ? ? more common! & & œ & bœ œ bœ bœ

so what does all this mean if you trumpet in b flat horn in f just want to write some music? first, figure out if your instrument transposes... and if it does, how: bari sax tenor sax bass clarinet double bass contrabassoon alto sax alto clarinet french horn english horn alto flute cornet trumpet soprano sax b flat clarinet cello viola violin tuba trombone oboe flute e flat clarinet xylophone piccolo glockenspiel

when you play a written note on:

it will P8+M6 P8+M2 one major perfect perfect Major as minor one two sound: lower lower octave sixth fifth fourth second written third octave octaves lower lower lower lower lower higher higher higher

then, account for it! > the good news: b > . ˙ most music notation if an instrument sounds a perfect fifth lower, & b Œ ˙ b Œ œ œ. & software can handle tranpose their part a perfect fifth higher! want this? write this! all this automatically! DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY IS ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more