Aaaargh - got my exam tomorrow and I still keep on getting the questions wrong where I am asked "which instrument of the orchestra could play this at the same pitch?" Any tips? Do I have to learn all the instruments or is it likely to be one of a few?

If the question means "which instruments are not transposing", then it's probably easier to list those that are transposing (usually), clarinet, trumpet and french horn being the most common.

Chris

Thanks but I mean the type of question where they have a piece of music (usually for voice or piano) and say "which other instrument could play this?"

I guess you need to know the ranges of the instruments too. Any book on orchestration should give you that, and you probably only need to know a few to cover all the pieces you're likely to get asked about.

Chris

I wonder if this is any help .... scroll down to find something on instruments' ranges.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory26.htm

page 29 of the same has more detailed information - but the quick-reference keyboard picture with ranges indicated on p26 may be enough - especially if time is short!

If you have an idea of high, middle and low pitched instruments in each instrument group you've a good chance of getting the right answer here.
Do remember that it doesn't matter if it's a transposing instrument as long as it can play those 'sounding' notes. Was having a discussion with my piano teacher about the confusion this can cause if you get yourself tied up over it.

You can probably cover any plausible melodic phrase with four instruments:

Contra bassoon, top note middle C, lowest note Bb three octaves and a tone lower;

Orchestral horn in F, lowest normal note concert Bb, two octaves and a tone below middle C, highest normal note concert F an octave and a half above middle C;

Bb clarinet, lowest note D below middle C, highest note G two and a half octaves above middle C;

Piccolo, lowest note D line treble clef (concert pitch), highest note E three octaves and a tone higher (i.e. four octaves and a third above middle C).

These are standard professional ranges given in Blatter's "Instrumentation and Orchestration", but many professionals can play higher on all these instruments, and many horn players could play lower too.

I don't know the nature of your exam question in detail. In serious orchestration, ranges are only a fraction of what you need to know. Normal bassoon fingering systems have several impossible trills; horns and bassoons are not very agile in their lower registers; all the woodwind instruments have dynamic limitations in parts of their ranges; and when you are laying out a flute part, it can be useful to know, e.g., that a long note can be fingered with the left hand alone, so that the flautist hold it while turning the page with the right.

The exam question is purely related to whether an instrument can play the notes.
The question usually says 'as sounded' but I don;t think it's necessary to worry too much about transposing instrument apart from those which transpose at the octave.
Sometimes you are asked to name an instrument form a pspecified instrument group or to name an instrument from an instrument gorup that is different from the one you first put.

As a matter of interest, what exam it this?

Chris

Grade 5 theory.
If it's not then I misunderstood the original question...

Yes it's grade 5 theory - forgot to put that! Thanks for the tips and links - will work through them now.

Hi Tortellini

If I remeber rightly for Grade 5 it was usually a flute or violin for the treble and a cello or bassoon for the bass. I don't remember it giving you questions where you had to think about transposing instruments. I could be wrong though and maybe someone that has sat Grade 5 more recently than me can confirm this.

ET

Thanks. That chart was a big help to me on my Grade V. I printed it off and studied it.