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 Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Michael 
Date:   2001-04-11 18:25

Can a person play a Cb or Fb on a Bb Clarinet? I'm just wondering, because I've never heard either of those notes on a Bb instrument.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Fred 
Date:   2001-04-11 18:32

Cb is a half-tone lower than C which is B-natural.
Fb is a half-tone lower than F which is E-natural.

Of course, there is a certain sickness of the mind involved when people put such music down on paper. But I was playing in six sharps recently . . . at the home . . . where we were being kept safely away from the general population.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Fred 
Date:   2001-04-11 18:36

That made me remember running across something I didn't know how to handle:

If you are transposing an oboe part on Bb clarinet - and the oboe part is in six sharps to start off with - what do you get when you go up a step and add two sharps?

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Mark Charette, Webmaster 
Date:   2001-04-11 19:40

A Cb is equivalent to a B and an Fb is equivalent to an E, so - yes, those notes are available and playable on a clarinet.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Douglas 
Date:   2001-04-11 20:49

Fred, you would be better off playing the oboe part on the A clarinet and playing the oboe part up a minor 3rd. The key signature for the clarinet would be 3 sharps. Otherwise, if you must use the Bb instrument, think in the clarinet key of Ab (enharmonic to the theoretical G# major which is what would result if you had a key signature of 8...yes...8 sharps.) If you use the key signature of Ab, you would actually be putting the oboe part up a diminished 3rd which is equivalent to the usual "put it up a major 2nd". This all gets a bit complicated, so you would probably want to write the part out.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Don Berger 
Date:   2001-04-11 22:00

The above is quite true, tho one should observe that [in the perfect sense] Cb and B nat are not the same note, however, in playing, one will "tune-up" the chord. With a bit of experience playing oboe parts, I'd suggest using a C clarinet [no trans. reqd.] to achieve a "brighter" tonality, or if having a computer-program [or manual] transposition made, go to an Eb clar for a near-oboe sound. Don

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Dee 
Date:   2001-04-12 01:15

Fred wrote:
>
> That made me remember running across something I didn't
> know how to handle:
>
> If you are transposing an oboe part on Bb clarinet - and the
> oboe part is in six sharps to start off with - what do you get
> when you go up a step and add two sharps?

Change the six sharps key, which is the key of F#, to its enharmonic equivalent of Gb, which happens to be six flats by the way. Then transpose it to Bb clarinet in the normal fashionby taking away two flats. Voila! You are in they key of four flats, which isn't too bad.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Shelly 
Date:   2001-04-12 02:05

Michael,
This makes much more sense if you are familiar with a piano keyboard. From one key to the next (whether the key is white or black) it is one half step or a semitone. from F to F# for example is one semitone. All of the natural notes (no accidentals) are white keys, A B C D E F G . All of the black keys are designated as sharps and flats. (Each black key is both a sharp and a flat! F# for example is the same key as Gb) All of the white keys are seperated by one black key EXCEPT B and C, and E and F. Because there is no black key between B and C, and E and F a B# is a C, a Cb is a B........ An E# is an F and an Fb is an E.

I hope that makes sense :)

Shelly

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: graham 
Date:   2001-04-12 08:02

Dee

There's no point shouting "Viola!" Typically violas can't play in anything like as difficult a key as four flats.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Dee 
Date:   2001-04-12 10:58

graham wrote:
>
> Dee
>
> There's no point shouting "Viola!" Typically violas can't play
> in anything like as difficult a key as four flats.

Look again. I typed Voila not Viola.

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: Al 
Date:   2001-04-13 16:09

.......and you can even play E# and B# on the Bb clarinet; or any other instrument for that matter. Now that you have the answer to your question above, can you figure out the E# and B#?

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 RE: Cb and Fb on Bb Clarinets?
Author: joseph o'kelly 
Date:   2001-04-17 23:19

Every note has a coresponding sharp and flat. Even double sharps and double flats exist. Example is that f double sharp is G natural.

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