My first article on transposing instruments was a brief overview of instrument transposition, if you’re looking to write for these instruments and don’t play them yourself. This is just a small follow-up with a little more detail for the most common transposing instruments. The thing to keep in mind is that not all transposing instruments transpose equally. For instance, some saxes sound almost entirely in the bass clef, but all saxophone music is written in treble clef to make it easier for sax players to switch from one to another. Here I’ve provided a chart with the transpositions for the common saxophones, trumpet, clarinet, and French horn, to show you the differences.
B-flat instruments transpose up by the interval of a major second, but in the case of the tenor sax, it’s a major second plus an octave. E-flat instruments transpose up by the interval of a major sixth, but in the case of the baritone sax, it’s a major sixth plus an octave. French horns transpose by the interval of a perfect fifth.
For the ranges of these instruments, I could recommend an inexpensive and incredibly helpful book called Orchestration Handbook by Don B. Ray, M.A. Here is a link to that book on SheetMusicPlus.com. Click here. But for a simple cheat sheet on transposing, see my chart below.
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
