 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Gardner
Date: 2000-08-23 23:15
I'm confused!!!! How do I go about transposing C music to the clarinet. I guess that if a piece of piano music is written in the key of C--I would play it in key of Bb. What do I do if the piano music is written in the key of F or G.
There must be a formula.
Thanks
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2000-08-23 23:35
No. You have it backwards (if I understand you correctly). If it's in C on the piano you play it in D on the Bb clarinet. You add two sharps or subtract two flats or some combination thereof (so key of F concert, i.e., F on the piano, becomes G on clarinet). You also go up one step on the staff. So if you are reading the music for piano or concert key, as it is called, and you see a G, for example, you read A. Bb you read C. B natural you read C#. Eb becomes F, E becomes F#. You go up a whole step.
There have been many posts about this on this bb. You could look in the archives, searching "transposing". You can probably find other sites on sneezy that explain transposing, as well.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-08-24 06:02
The best way for me was to look at the circle of fifths. If a piece is written in concert Bb, all the C instruments will be in Bb (two flats). Bb instruments will be written in C (no flats or sharp, yea!) The Eb instruments will be in G with one sharp. If you're just playing by your self, just play it in the key as written. If you have a piano, flute or fiddle playing with you, just go clockwise two notches on the circle of fifths for your key signature and play one WHOLE step (two half steps) above whats written. For instance Them Bb, you C. Them C, you D, etc. Takes alittle practice but you can get used to it.
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Author: ron b.
Date: 2000-08-24 06:59
Hi, Bob -
Add two sharps (to the key signature) and play everything one note higher than the piano score is written. No fuss, no muss.
ron b.
Sac'to ron that is
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Author: dave
Date: 2000-08-24 20:31
I was really confused by this initially as well, but once you get the hang of it, it's not as complicated as you think. If you play the note of the key of your instrument on the piano, then that corresponds to a C on your instrument. So for a Bb clarinet, a Bb on the piano corresponds to a C on the clarinet. The rest is just shifting the scales by the same interval so:
Piano... Clarinet...
Bb C
C D
C# D#
D E
D# F
E F#
F G
F# G#
G A
G#... A#....
Now if I could just do that in my head; I usually write it in or use a notation program to do it for me. Hope this helps....
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Author: dave
Date: 2000-08-24 20:37
I had two nice neat columns when I did my previous
post but the spacing didn't come through. Anyway, the notes
down the left-hand border of the message relate to the
piano; the second note on each line goes under the clarinet
heading!
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Author: Sam
Date: 2000-08-24 23:09
All that you have to do:
When transposing form C(piano) to Bb (your clarinet) all you do is go *up* 1 whole tone (or 2 semitones).
Done.
The more you exercise this the more it becomes natural, you won't even have to think about it.
If you are playing different styles of music such as Jazz, etc. this becomes manditory. All pieces, even some big band parts will need to be transposed.
There are no short cuts to making this ability fluent. You just have to do the dirty work.
Sam
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Author: Meredith H
Date: 2000-08-28 02:04
I transposed the orchestral parts for Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor into parts for a brass band where all of the instruments are in either Bb or Eb. This included bass cleff, alto cleff and retransposing the F horn parts. That certainly got the brain working let me tell you. Everything worked rather well in the end and it even sounded prety good with our guest pianist. We tried using a computer to do it but my humble human brain worked out far better although it took hours and hours.
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Author: Jim
Date: 2000-08-29 04:47
Bob,
Be aware that many keyboards, digital pianos, and electronic organs have a transposer feature, and can match that instrument to the clarinet (or anything else) without transposing the music. I've done this to match my playing to the Allen organs (yes, there are two, and yes, I really prefer a pipe organ!) in our church, but not when the choir was also singing as the "new" key might have thrown them off.
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