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Re: Why transposing instruments?

Author: echi85
Date: 2017-12-10 00:17

If I understand your question correctly, the issue has to do with the instruments themselves. There are several factors as to why clarinets are pitched in Bb and A.

1.)Timbre. It's generally accepted that Bb/A clarinets have good tone quality. If you have ever played a C, D, or Eb clarinet, you will know that the timbre of these instruments is brighter and shriller compared to Bb/A.

2.)Intonation. C, D, and Eb clarinets have much poorer intonation compared to Bb/A. Having an instrument that plays in tune with itself is crucial.

3.)Range. It would be very impractical to have all instruments pitched in C. For example, a C clarinet that is pitched one octave above a standard C clarinet would be too small to play. It makes a lot more sense to have an Eb clarinet, only a 4th above Bb vs an octave. You have to fill in the gaps of range with practical instruments.

There also seems to be a misunderstanding as to why the clarinet is called a Bb/A clarinet. These are the pitches that sound whenever C is played on them. You can't call the clarinet pitched in F because F doesn't come out when you play C.

There are a variety of clefs for range reasons. I don't think it's unreasonable for a musician to learn the standard clefs in order to read scores.

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Matt74

2017-12-09 23:07

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2017-12-11 01:16

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2017-12-11 06:33

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2017-12-12 02:08

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2017-12-12 02:54

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2017-12-13 09:12

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2017-12-13 11:57

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2017-12-14 08:44

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2017-12-14 11:59

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2017-12-14 18:58

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Barry Vincent

2017-12-15 00:45

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Michael E. Shultz

2017-12-16 15:39

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clarnibass

2017-12-16 08:34

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Fuzzy

2017-12-16 19:47

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Matt74

2017-12-17 00:41

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

Barry Vincent

2017-12-17 03:14

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

jdbassplayer

2017-12-17 03:33

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

clarnibass

2017-12-20 09:26

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

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2017-12-22 02:17

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

kdk

2017-12-22 07:59

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

Matt74

2017-12-23 08:40

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

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2017-12-25 01:31

Re: Why transposing instruments? new

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2017-12-25 03:52

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2017-12-27 00:27

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2017-12-27 07:05

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