Klarinet Archive - Posting 000038.txt from 1994/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Transposition
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 23:06:47 -0400

Jeff Bowles asks for transposition tricks. Damn good question. What I
am about to say may not be true at all, true in general, or even true, but
I have found that it works for me.

I don't transpose at all. Ever!! I simply change the clef. So if you can
master all the clefs, transposition becomes nothing more than reading the
piece in a different clef. If you can read alto, and tenor clefs, you can
do many of the transpositions you will need. But you may also have to
learn the odd ball clefs too.

I find that when I tried transposing one note at a time (a 3rd up or a 4th
down) I could never do it with facility and when the music got fast, I
fell apart. Adding 7 flats to the music works (when transposing to A
bass clarinet) only works if the music that you are reading does not have
too many accidentals in it and then you get double sharps and double
flats and go crazy. The Ride of the Walkyries is such a case. Adding
7 sharps (to reverse the above) also is a fast ticket to the funny farm.

But clef changing goes so smooth once you get it in your skin. And if,
as a bass clarinet player, you can read bass and treble, the others
fall into place, 1-2-3.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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