A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from concert pitch Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the four major auditory attributes of sounds along with loudness, timbre and sound source location. When the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, also known as, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is widely known as one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in Classical music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive,, would play. On a transposing instrument, a concert C is written as a different note; the concert pitch that is played for a written C determines the key that an instrument transposes in. For example, a B♭ clarinetist The clarinet is a musical instrument that is a part of the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino (meaning a type of trumpet), as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed. In jazz contexts, it playing a written C would sound a concert B♭. Transposing harmonia A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air, supplied by foot-operated or hand-operated bellows, being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion or electronic keyboards with a transpose function can also play a different set of pitches from what is notated, but these are not usually called transposing instruments.

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Reasons for transposing

Though writing for transposing instruments entails more work for a composer or arranger, there are several reasons why instruments are transposed.

Transposition at the octave

See also octave clef A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined.

If an instrument has a range that is too high or too low for their music to be easily written on bass or treble clef, the music may be written either an octave In music, an octave ( Play ) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. Using notes, this would be the same note up or down 12 semi-tones on the chromatic scale. For example, an A4 note would be one octave lower than an A5 note, and one octave higher than an A3 note. The octave relationship is a higher or an octave lower than it sounds, in order to reduce the use of ledger lines A ledger line or leger line is musical notation to inscribe notes outside the lines and spaces of the regular musical staffs. A line slightly longer than the note is drawn parallel to the staff, above or below, spaced at the same distances as the notes within the staff. Instruments that "transpose at the octave" are not playing in a different key In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the key of B-flat major, and so from concert pitch instruments, but sound an octave higher or lower than written. Some instruments with extremely high or low ranges use a two-octave transposition.

Music for the contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences and the double bass The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, bass violin or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The double bass is a standard member of the string section of the symphony orchestra and smaller string ensembles in Western classical music. In addition, it is used in is written on the bass clef A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined, one octave In music, an octave ( Play ) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. Using notes, this would be the same note up or down 12 semi-tones on the chromatic scale. For example, an A4 note would be one octave lower than an A5 note, and one octave higher than an A3 note. The octave relationship is a higher than concert pitch. Music for the guitar The guitar is a plucked string instrument, played either with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number but sometimes more, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings and, frequently, the tenor voice is written on the treble clef A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined, one octave In music, an octave ( Play ) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. Using notes, this would be the same note up or down 12 semi-tones on the chromatic scale. For example, an A4 note would be one octave lower than an A5 note, and one octave higher than an A3 note. The octave relationship is a higher than concert pitch. Music for the piccolo The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name "ottavino," the name by which the instrument is referred to in the is written on the treble clef, one octave In music, an octave ( Play ) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. Using notes, this would be the same note up or down 12 semi-tones on the chromatic scale. For example, an A4 note would be one octave lower than an A5 note, and one octave higher than an A3 note. The octave relationship is a lower than concert pitch. If these instruments did not transpose at the octave, many of their pitches would have to be written with frequent ledger lines above or below the staff, making reading comparatively cumbersome.

Historical reasons

Historically, some instruments have come to be accepted (and widely manufactured) with a certain transposition as a standard, and most music written for those instruments would be transposed. Were non-transposed versions to be used, any pieces written for the instrument would have to be "de-transposed" into a C key, which would entail additional work.

Families of instruments

Many instruments are members of a family of instruments that differ mainly in size, such as the saxophone, clarinet, flute, etc. The instruments in these families have differing ranges In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range. The range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note, with the members sounding lower as they get larger. It is desirable for all members of the same instrument family to have the same fingerings, so that a player can play any member of the family using the same fingerings. As a result, these instruments are transposed based on their range such that each written note is fingered the same way on each instrument.

Instruments that transpose this way are often referred to as being in a certain "key", such as the A clarinet (clarinet in A), or the F horn The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about 12–13 feet of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player (or less frequently, a hornist) (horn in F). The instrument's key tells which pitch will sound when the player plays a note written as "C". A player of a B♭ clarinet who reads a written C will sound a B♭, while the player of an F horn will read the same note and sound an F.

The flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as Edge-blown aerophones family contains instruments with different transpositions. The standard concert flute is a non-transposing instrument with a range from middle C up about 3 octaves. The alto flute The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range. It is a transposing instrument and, like the piccolo and bass flute, uses the same fingerings is a very similar instrument, but longer, and hence pitched lower, with a range starting from the G below middle C. The fingering that would produce a C on a standard flute produces the G a fourth In music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitches of two notes lower on the alto flute.

The situation is similar in other families of instruments. For example, clarinets The clarinet is a musical instrument that is a part of the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino (meaning a type of trumpet), as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed. In jazz contexts, it come in various pitches (A, B♭, C, E♭), with music transposed appropriately for each so that the player can maintain the same fingerings for the same written notes. For reasons of timbre or to minimize switching between different instruments, expert clarinet players sometimes use a different instrument than their part calls for — usually substituting the B♭ for the A or vice-versa — transposing the parts at sight instead.[citation needed] Advanced trumpet The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape, and are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a players may do this also, usually with the B♭ and C instruments.[citation needed]

In some families of instruments, the non-transposing C version had fallen into disuse; the clarinet family is one example, where only the B♭ and A members are common, but in recent years, there is a tendency to utilize the C clarinet when called for. Horns are another example.

Some families containing transposing instruments:

Before valves became common about 1800, the horn The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about 12–13 feet of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player (or less frequently, a hornist) could play only the notes of the overtone series Pitched musical instruments are often based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous frequencies simultaneously. At these resonant frequencies, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves. Interaction with from a single fundamental pitch. This fundamental could be changed by inserting one of a set of crooks A crook, also sometimes called a shank, is an exchangeable segment of tubing in a natural horn which is used to change the length of the pipe, altering the fundamental pitch and harmonic series which the instrument can sound, and thus the key in which it plays into the instrument, shortening or lengthening the total length of its sounding tube. As a result, all horn music was written as if for a fundamental pitch of C, but the crooks could make a single instrument a transposing instrument into almost any key. Changing the crooks was a time-consuming process, so it took place only between pieces or movements. The introduction of valves made this process unnecessary (although Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as they were later called). Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs: wrote horn parts as if crooks were still in use, evoking the tradition which was quickly becoming archaic). While an F transposition became standard in the early 19th century, composers differed in whether they expected the instruments to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth, especially when written in bass clef A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined.

There are a few families of instruments which have instruments of various sizes and ranges, but whose music is rarely or never transposed. The recorder The English Flute or recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple. It is distinguished from other family is one of these. The higher members of the family (soprano and above) transpose at the octave, as do the bass instruments (bass and great bass). However, they are referred to as "C-fingered" or "F-fingered" depending on the lowest note, which is fingered the same on all sizes. A player may go from one C-fingered instrument to another easily, and from one F-fingered instrument to another easily, but switching between the two requires learning a new set of fingerings or the ability to transpose the music at sight.

Tone and sound quality

Because of tone quality issues, some C (concert pitch) instruments — the C melody saxophone The C melody saxophone is a saxophone pitched in the key of C, one whole step above the tenor saxophone. In the UK it is sometimes referred to as a "C Tenor", and in France as a "Tenor en Ut". The C melody was part of the series of saxophones pitched in C and F, intended by the instrument's inventor, Adolphe Sax, for orchestral, C soprano saxophone, and C soprano clarinet, for example — have declined in popularity in favor of the standard versions (B♭ soprano The soprano saxophone was invented in 1840 and is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument. The soprano is the third in size of the saxophone family which consists, as generally accepted, of the sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, and contrabass. Benedikt Eppelsheim has constructed a new "Soprillo" saxophone, which and tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding a major ninth lower than the written; B♭ and A clarinets).

It was found that sometimes instruments sounded better when built in certain keys. For instance, the C clarinet was not a very pleasant sounding instrument, nor was the D or the E♭ clarinet; it was generally agreed that the B♭ clarinet was the most pleasant sounding, and for this reason was the one which remained in dominant use in the present day. This is also true of the B♭ trumpet, as well as several other instruments, such as the French horn and the trombone (which, outside the United Kingdom brass band A British-style brass band is a musical ensemble comprising a standardised range of brass and percussion instruments. The modern form of the brass band in the United Kingdom dates back to the 19th century, with a vibrant tradition of competition based around local industry and communities. The Stalybridge Old Band was formed in 1809 and was tradition, is not treated as a transposing instrument, although its basic overtone series is B♭ or E♭).

Mechanical and physical considerations

On woodwind instruments A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air 1. against a sharp edge, or 2. through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate. Most of these instruments are made of wood, but can be made of other materials, such as metals or plastics there is one major scale whose execution involves (more or less) simply picking up each finger sequentially from the bottom to top. This is usually the scale which reads as a C scale (the major scale with no sharps or flats) on that instrument. If it is a transposing instrument, the note written as C sounds as the note of the instrument's transposition — on an E♭ alto saxophone, that note sounds as a concert E♭, on an A clarinet, that note sounds as a concert A. The bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature. The bassoon is a non-transposing instrument known for its is an exception; it is not a transposing instrument, yet its "home" scale is F.

Brass instruments A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments", when played with no valves engaged (or, for trombones, with the slide all the way in) play a series of notes which form the overtone series based on some fundamental pitch, e.g., the B♭ trumpet, when played with no valves being pressed, can play the overtones based on B♭ (although not the fundamental pitch). Usually, that pitch is the note which indicates the transposition of that brass instrument. Trombones are an exception — they do not transpose, instead reading at concert pitch, although tenor and bass trombones are pitched in B♭, alto trombone in E♭. Music for baritone or euphonium is sometimes written in bass clef at concert pitch also.

In the cases above, there is some reason to consider a certain pitch the "home" note of an instrument, and that pitch is usually written as C for that instrument. The concert pitch of that note is what determines how we refer to the transposition of that instrument.

With the exception of the bass trombone, all of the instruments in United Kingdom brass band music (including cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, euphonium, baritone horn, tenor trombone, and even the bass tuba) are notated in treble clef as transposing instruments in either B♭ or E♭.

On the conductor's score

In conductors' scores, music for transposing instruments is generally written in transposed form, just as in the players' parts. A few publishers, especially of modern music, provide conductors with scores written entirely in concert pitch, making the pitch relationships of the entire score easier for the conductor to see.

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The alto sax is an Eb . transposing instrument. . When they play a written C it sounds like the Eb below. So the note written is a 6th above the note heard. To compensate, you must transpose the written music UP a sixth. ...

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