Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2002/04

From: Bill Page <bill.page@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Transposing on the fly
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 17:25:26 -0500

My father was a proficient pianist and teacher. I never became very good at
piano (there was this thing called "practice" that I just never could get
the hang of), but early in my days as a budding clarinet player my dad
decided that, when we were playing together from sheet music or the hymnal
or just for fun, it was easier for me to transpose than it was for him.

When I picked up the saxophone he didn't see any need to change his opinion,
so I learned those transpositions, as well. Later, in jazz bands or theater
orchestra pits, I found myself playing from books with multiple instruments
required, while I usually only had one or two...so if I was going to play
the parts (forget the intrinsic question of not playing them on the
requisite instrument), I had to be able to transpose quickly.

(Back to the piano -- like many music ed majors, I had to pass a piano
proficiency jury around the end of my second year at college. Part of the
test, at my alma mater, was to sight-read a tune (usually a hymn, being a
good Baptist school), then transpose it. I was handed a short common meter
piece in E-flat, which I promptly played in F...when the (bored) professor
muttered, "okay, take it up a step," one of the other (maybe less bored?)
profs said, "he just did." I only had to play it once!)

Bill Page
seldom playing in Kenosha, WI

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