The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sarah
Date: 1999-07-30 10:36
Help !! I need a quick review on transposing. I'm interested in playing my Bass Clarinet in church along with piano but it's been a long time since I've had to transpose anything. Thanks for the help.
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Author: Andrea Bergamin
Date: 1999-07-30 10:50
You have to play a tone higher (I hope you have a sib clarinet). Add two flats to the key and whenever you have to play a si or a mi you have to play it a flat higher. For example: do re MIb becomes re mi FA (not FAb); sol la SIb becomes la si DO (not DOb); sol fa# MIi# fa# becomes la sol# FA## sol# (not la sol# FA# sol#).
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Author: Therese
Date: 1999-07-30 12:02
you have to transpose to C, i'm assuming? Its more a process of getting into the swing of things. PLay everything up one step, and learn the finger patterns. Chance are, as long as the piece isn't "way out there", there will be noticeable finger patterns(ie arppegios, third interval) Also try to hear the note before you play it and hear where it fits into the chord. This way you will be able to tell if you're right or not quite easily. Once you get the hang of it, transposing is one of things that you just "get". Good luck.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-07-30 12:24
Sarah, Just in case you are not familiar with European terms, I'll put this in US terms.
If you have a Bb clarinet, take piano music or other music for instruments normally in C (flute, violin, oboe, etc) and transpose the music up one full step. The key signature will lose two flats (or gain two sharps). For example if the paino music is in the key of C concert, you will be in D. If it is in F concert, you will be in the key of G.
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-07-30 13:58
Reading a note higher and mentally changing the key sig are the easy parts (IMO). The thing you will probably have to watch out for are the accidentals. Use you knowledge of music theory to help yourself in this respect. For example, if the piece you are playing is in (concert) C, then you will be playing in D (2 sharps). Now say you see a run in the music with accidentals and you can see that the run is based on a D major scale, then you will simply play the run (as tep higher) based on the E major scale. You would have seen two accidentals in the run (F#,C#) which transpose to accidentals in your key (G#, D#). Basically, when you see an accidental in the music, you will have a "accidental" in your transposition - that is there will be a note that is not "in" the trasposed key.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Kevin Bowman
(who has been transposing a lot of Charlie Parker bebop on sight lately - whew!)
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Author: John
Date: 1999-07-30 14:57
I look at transposing a lot like Kevin Bowman does. You have to get yourself thinking in the new key signature of the piece you are transposing (ie D to E). I will often warm up with scales in the key just to get my fingers and mind set prior to performing a transposed part. Being really familiar with scales and arpeggios in every possible key is important. If you ever play in an orchestra, this will be an important skill, so learn to do it!
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Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-07-30 21:34
You can also just write the letter name of the note in the new key above the original symbol.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 1999-07-31 16:43
Learning to transpose in high school, I found it impractical to write in all the notes, but it did help me a lot to lightly pencil in some "crutches". For instance, I would write in the transposed key signature at the beginning and anywhere the key changed, with quotation marks around thekey signature letter so I wouldn't confuse it with the letter of the *note* I needed to play. At the beginning of a run, I'd write in the first note (without the quotation marks). Then I just followed the intervals. Same thing with the arpeggiated passages so common in wind music: if you have the first note, the intervals fall into place. It also helped me to work on the Klose exercises for arpeggios, scales and so forth and to play them in all the keys, to get used to playing the most common patterns without having to look at them one note at a time. Recognizing the pattern and realizing you already "have it in your fingers" is half the battle. I agree with people who said transposing is an important skill for a clarinet player -- and it's an easy one to just sort of skip learning! I don't think I would have learned to transpose if my piano teacher hadn't pushed me (to make me more useful as an accompanist for singers, who often need to take something up or down a note or two). I still find sight-transposing intimidating, but well worth the trouble of learning it.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 1999-07-31 18:52
The same "raise one note and add two sharps" also works to play F [french,english or basset horn] parts on an Eb inst. [alto cl or sax]. To me the more challenging trans. is to play Eb parts on a Bb, or vice versa [a 5 or 4 diff. +/- 1 #]. For dance band I mentally used clar chalemaux fingering for playing the alto sax parts on it, keeping in mind the octave-differing clar fingerings. Rots of Ruck!! Don
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