When I’m reading down saxophone music and I see a written pitch, the pitch that sounds is different from the one written. This is because saxophones are in a class of instruments known as “transposing instruments”. Other common instruments in this class are trumpets and clarinets. Here is a brief explanation of this phenomenon and a helpful chart for you non-transposing instrument players if you’re looking to write for these instruments.
There are different reasons why a given instrument may be written in transposition. Some are transposed for ease of reading and others because of acoustic concerns. For instance, the most commonly used trumpet is a B-flat instrument, meaning when the player sees a C written on the page, and the player affects the finger and lip position to achieve a C, the pitch that comes out is a B-flat. There are concert-pitch trumpets (non-transposing), but those are mostly only used in orchestras. The B-flat trumpet has become the standard because it has a different, and apparently more desirable, tone color to it (on account of it’s slightly larger design).
Saxophones transpose for a variety of reasons. First of all, there are two classes of saxophone in terms of transposition (there are 7 types of saxophone total, and 4 that are commonly used): E-flat and B-flat. This is due to acoustic concerns: the intonation and tone color of a saxophone is most desirable when the instrument is of a certain length and tone-hole arrangement. But, in order standardize the fingering patterns for the sax, they are transposed so that a sax player can read music and use the same fingerings for the same notes across the range of saxes. If a C is played on an alto, it will sound different from a C played on a tenor, but the fingering for that C will be the same.
Here’s how it works: if it’s a “B-flat” instrument, that means that when the player sees a C, the sounding pitch is B-flat. Similarly, if it’s an E-flat instrument, the sounding pitch of a written C is E-flat.
So, here’s a chart of all 12 notes and their transposed notes for the most common transpositions (E-flat and B-flat). Keep this in mind too: the overall key signature transposes too. So, if you write a tune in C, a B-flat instrument player will play that tune in the key of D.
more articles by Brien Henderson
- Anatomy of the Blues Scale
- A Great Site for Old Music
- Every Musician Should Read This
- Saxes: Work Your Pinkies!, part 1
- Spice Things Up With The Tritone Sub
- Writing Your Own Music: How To Get Started
- Intro to chords in Jazz
June 1st, 2007 at 2:01 pm
This is really just an introduction to the idea of transposing instruments. There’s a lot more meat in “Transposing Instruments, part 2.”
June 6th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
[…] or F#, B, and D (for soprano/tenor). If that last part doesn’t make any sense see my articles, “Transposing Instruments” and “Transposing Instruments, part […]