View source for Transposing instrument

A '''transposing instrument''' is any of those instruments whose score notation is written at a different pitch to the actual “sound” of the instrument. The various members of the [[clarinet]] [[flute]] [[saxophone]], [[horn]] families, trumpets and cornets, kettledrums, and the [[double bass]] are all considered “transposing instruments”.

It is so to allow a performer to play any of a particular family of instruments in the correct pitch without having to mentally transpose the written notes as he plays. A concert flute and an [[alto flute]], for example, which are of different pitches, can be played using exactly the same fingering. The player of the alto flute, which is pitched a fourth below the standard concert flute, can play his instrument using notation that is written a fourth above the actual pitch of his instrument. He can play either instrument to a written score without having to think about it. It is up to the composer to get it right.

John Everingham wrote:

* The convention is to describe such instruments in terms of the note which is heard when the player reads and plays what he thinks of as a C. So, that clarinet is referred to as a B flat (Bb) clarinet. The arranger needs to write the music a whole tone higher on paper than the sound he wants to hear. In order to hear a C the arranger must write a D if the music, as written, will be played on a Bb clarinet. [http://www.saundrecs.co.uk/transpos.htm]

[[Category:Musical Instruments]]
[[Category:Musical Terms]]