hey, I was wondering if someone could help me out since there are conflicting answers all over the internet:

I need to know what transposition the EUROPEAN PARTS for the following instruments are in a SYMPHONIC WIND BAND and in what clef/transposition they are notated:

Bass Clarinet (Bb I know, treble clef, I know, how much lower does it actually sound?!)
Bb Bass (Also Bb... Bass clef, but at what pitch does it sound? I've been told both that it's written one tone above concert pitch and someone else told me a tone+an octave...)

I specifically mentioned EUROPEAN and SYMPHONIC WIND BAND because the instruments are treated differently in a Brass Band, and also in an American score.

Much thanks!

Hi everyone,

Iam wondering if anyone could give me any advice on transposing music because i recently bought the piano/vocal book for Alicia Keys Songs in A Minor and most of the songs have been transposed up one half step (i dont know what this means) the original keys have been written underneath the music but i have no idea how to do it as im only grade 1 so dont really understand, but i would like to play the music the way it sounds on the cd. does anyone have any advice?

Hi lovely laydee

Transposing is not that difficult, but to start with you would ideally tackle excercises a couple of grades down from where you are, so it's probably a tall order for you at the moment!

You can demonstrate it for yourself by playing a slow scale of C, then playing the scale again, but with each note one semitone (half-step) down, - so B instead of C, C# instead of D. You should end up playing the scale of B major which has 5 sharps.

Half a step ( a semitone) - is actually a tiny amount, so unless you have perfect pitch it is unlikely you will notice the difference in the songs. They have probably been transposed to put them into an easier key. (The original key may well mean the accompaniments have a lot of sharps or flats, and would be around grade 3 or 4 to play). A minor would become A flat minor, or G# minor, pretty horrendous keys!

They may also have been simplified a bit, which could be another reason they don't sound quite the same as on the cd. Without actually seeing the music, it's difficult to say more, but I hope this is useful. Don't be discouraged - I would have a shot at playing as written to start with.

Maggie

One half step is called a semitone. It is the distance between C and C# for example. If a piece has been transposed up a semitone, then you need to play the closest key to the left to make it sound the same as the |CD. I hope this helps.

Have you asked your teacher to help?

I don't know if this will help or not but here goes;
if the music you have has been transposed up one half step (semitone) then you need to transpose it down a half step. So on a piano the note that you want would be 1 key down from what is written eg C would be a B and an Ab would become a G.
Hope that wasn't too confusing and I hope this helps

if it has been transposed up a step i think it means the notes have been raised by a semitne
e.g a C would then be a Csharp

try and play the top part and see if it fits with the cd
Dont know if this helps but hope it does!!!

Natalie

Thanks everyone for your help, i definitely understand it all a bit better now