 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Schmedake
Date: 2002-07-18 16:50
I just got back into playing Clarinet and in the process of loading up with a lot of gadgets I purchased an digital tuner. The salesman indicated that since the tuner is for a C instrument it will register F# when I play a G. I'm not too bright, but why would this be the case? Isn't a G note a G note regardless what instrument plays it?
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Author: beejay
Date: 2002-07-18 17:16
When you play G on a bflat clarinet, the tuner will register F natural. When you play G on an A clarinet, the tuner will register E. The tuner will give you the concert pitch, ie the note played by a piano, violon or other non-transposing instrument. Tha clarinet is a transposing instrument -- in other words to be in tune with the C of a piano (or a tuner) you have to play D on a bflat clarinet or Dsharp on an A clarinet. If the rest of the band is playing in Bflat and you have a Bflat clarinet, you get to play in the nice easy key (for you) of C. Still confused? Do a search and you will find a whole bunch of information in the archives by people who've explained it much better than me. If you have one of those Korg or similar tuners, make sure it is set to the same level as your instrument. In the United States, that would be 440 herz. Here, in France, it would be 442 herz. That's refers to the number of vibrations needed to produce the note of A at concert pitch of C. By the way, there ain't no such thing as a stupid question on this bulletin board.
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Author: Mark Sloss
Date: 2002-07-18 17:17
Bob,
(long winded answer follows)
Not a stupid question. However, it is a stupid salesman. Many orchestral instruments are referred to as "transposing" instruments. This largely harkens back to when unsophisticated instruments like recorders were actually made in different sizes to play in different keys. Even though modern instruments are quite sophisticated in terms of their "keying", we still play transposing clarinets either because the music lays better in the key of the instrument, or because the composer specifically was drawing on the unique sonorities of different pitched instruments in the same family, like between Bb and A soprano clarinets.
Your Bb clarinet is described as such because when playing a 'C' scale as fingered on the instrument, it sounds in the key of Bb in absolute pitch. This is one whole tone (or two semitones) away from the key of C. So, play 'C' on your clarinet, hear 'Bb'. This is fairly natural and comfortable unless you are blessed/cursed with hearing in absolute pitch and can't internalize the transposition.
The tuner "hears" the absolute pitches, so your 'C' will register on the tuner as 'Bb'. If you play 'G', it will register 'F' (not F# as you were told), and so on. If you play in an orchestra, the oboe (not a transposing instrument) will sound a concert 'A', and you would therefore tune your Bb clarinet against a 'B' as played, or your A clarinet against a 'C' as played.
As you fool around with your tuner, you'll get used to thinking in terms of your instrument sounding a whole step below what you are fingering. Also, read the manual for the tuner. Some of the more sophisticated ones can be adjusted to read out the transposed pitches.
Good luck with the wonderful world of transposition!
M.
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2002-07-19 03:20
And be aware that if you play in an ensemble, the director will almost always refer to your notes in the concert pitches, and the same with the key signature.
This was not a stupid question at all, but rather a very normal question for players of transposing instruments (most clarinets, saxes, and nearly all brass, but not flute, oboe, strings, mallets and keyboards.)
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-07-19 04:28
I wouldn't usually correct an error here ... as I often make errors in postings however:
Recorders were not made in different sizes to accommodate different keys of music. In fact the Renaissance Recorder (the prototype to the "modern" Baroque recorder still in use) was essentially made in 4 different "voices" - soprano, alto, tenor and bass. These were aligned with the human voice.
Furthermore, Renaissance music was not written in a specific "key", but usually in "C" - or what we would think of as C major/minor today. More often, their music was modal, it wasn't until the very early Baroque that a standardised method of notation using key signatures etc was "perfected" our "baroque" cousins.
GBK - I'm sure you'd be able to clarify my "fractured fairytale" historical approach, here?
Steps of his pedistal
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-07-19 06:10
Diz's summation on early recorders is quite correct, and he certainly needs no help from me.
I will add that in the 15th century the only "key signature" (intentionally in quotes) that seems to appear is the use of 1 flat (mainly written for the lower voices - hence the common term "partial signature")
In the 16th century, modal use was more frequent, and occasionally one does encounter 2 flats.
It was not until the middle of the 17th century that sharps were generally adopted as key signatures. The widespread use of the natural sign soon followed.
The 4 voices of the Renaissance recorder (soprano/discant, alto, tenor and bass) had as their lowest notes c, f, c, and f respectively, hence the use of 1 (or 2) flats....GBK
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Author: Mark Sloss
Date: 2002-07-19 14:25
Fascinating how a passing reference turns into a discourse on recorder history. Let that be a lesson never to oversimplify. I suppose I should have said "range" as opposed to "key". Everybody has seen different sized recorders in their 3rd grade music classes, so it made a reasonable visual reference.
Go far enough back into history and reference "c" had no meaning at all. Pretty much would have depended on the church in which you were singing and whether the "lead" monk had a cold that day. Common practice for instrument makers eventually evolved to have an "A" pitched at about 415Hz (or in France even as low as 396Hz) for recorders.
The point that got lost (my fault) was that the instruments were sized to change their range and character, which in today's well-tempered world equates to transposition (be it in semitones or full octaves).
But, the bottom line is this -- who cares? Let's talk about clarinets. Next somebody will start talking about saxophones...
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-07-19 14:39
The history of the saxophone begins in 1814 with the birth Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax born 6 November in Dinant, Belgium....
Oh, sorry...I thought that was an invitation to start talking about saxophones...GBK
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Author: Mark Sloss
Date: 2002-07-19 15:05
AAAAAAAAAAAAAgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
:-)
Ironically, I had a saxophone student this week come in playing at about an A415. To quote the great Dr. Smith "Oh, the pain, the pain...".
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