Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [transposition]

The shifting of a melody, a harmonic progression or an entire musical piece to another key, while maintaining the same tone structure, i.e. the same succession of whole tones and semitones and remaining melodic intervals.

Transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes (pitches or pitch classes) up or down in pitch by a constant interval.

171 questions
28
votes
3 answers

Why do films sometimes transpose everything by a quarter step?

Sometimes when playing along to music, you notice that the recording is transposed not by a semitone or a whole tone (whereby you could just play along on any normally tuned instrument), but by an interval that requires tuning down/up by a quarter…
Markus Schlafli
  • 383
  • 3
  • 5
8
votes
3 answers

Transposing trombones and tubas from bass clef to treble clef

I'm a new boy at transposition school(!). (I play piano so am familiar with which note is which in the two clefs.) I play clarinets, Bb and A. We only use treble clef, so it's a simply process of raising the key by a two semitones (Bb clarinet) or…
Clive
  • 81
  • 1
  • 2
6
votes
1 answer

When is diatonic transposition useful?

Chromatic transposition, which moves each note by the same number of semitones (e.g. C E G to D F# A) is clearly useful to change the key of a song. I just heard of diatonic transposition, which moves each note by the same number of steps in the…
Anna
  • 1,797
  • 13
  • 25
6
votes
2 answers

Transposition: written pitch vs sounding pitch

I have a small doubt in melody writing of grade 8 standard. The given question is: Write a 12 bar melody for Clarinet in Bb using the notes of D Mixolydian Mode in written pitch rather than sounding pitch. My question is: should I write the…
SRIRAM M
  • 61
  • 4
6
votes
9 answers

Note-naming when transposing by semitone

I'm new in music theory and also a junior web developer. I created a simple script that converts letter notes by semitone. I'm confused on how to transpose notes. My current understanding is when you go up by one semitone, the notes became sharps.…
enrique
  • 71
  • 5
5
votes
3 answers

transposition while playing

I have sheet music for a song in F major. The original recording of the song is in E so I want to play in that key. All I know is that E is a half step below F. I could just look at all the notes on the sheet music and think that they should be…
user20754
4
votes
3 answers

Strategies for transposing in real time

I recently went to a ukulele meet-up to play some music and meet some people and I bought the song book that they use. It consists of mostly pop/rock songs and old folk tunes however, they have all been transposed to keys that are easy to play on…
b3ko
  • 7,120
  • 1
  • 18
  • 32
4
votes
2 answers

When playing a bass part on piano do you play it in the right octave or one octave up as written?

I am learning to play a song on the piano which shows the guitar chords, bass guitar notation as well as the piano notation. As usual, the bass guitar part is written one octave higher than what the bass guitar is playing. For example, the low E on…
user35708
3
votes
1 answer

Transposing a Cello part to be played by a B flat Bass Clarinet

I have a cello part written in bass clef. I want to transpose the part to be played by a B flat bass clarinet who reads only treble clef. How? For example, a G (being the bottom line on the bass clef) on the cello part in the key of C would be what…
Traci
  • 31
  • 2
3
votes
8 answers

Transposing Second Waltz (Shostakovich) for Bb clarinet?

I would like to transpose parts of Shostakovich's second waltz for the Bb clarinet. However, I have had no formal instruction in music theory, and the resources online are somewhat unclear. Could someone describe the method to transpose this piece?…
AnonymousPhysicist
  • 31
  • 2
3
votes
1 answer

Are Rubank Method books for transposing instruments written in concert pitch?

I want to learn to play written music for the e-flat alto, and b-flat tenor saxophones. I have seen many recommendations for using the Rubank Method books to practice. I understand transposing instruments vs. concert pitch, but I find no clear…
Peter Buxton
  • 145
  • 7
2
votes
2 answers

how can i transpose pitches from a minor key to another minor key?

I am looking to transpose a melody from e minor to f minor. Is there any easier way to do it other than looking at the degree of each note and matching it to the wanted key? Also, how to I transpose notes with accidentals? I have pasted a link for…
shay
  • 35
  • 2
2
votes
5 answers

When does a song sound bad in its parallel major / minor key?

I've recently been getting into transposing songs into their parallel major / minor keys. I've recently tried the Princess Mononoke Theme by Joe Hisaishi, but it just sounds weird when we transpose it from minor to major. I understand that the…
hlin117
  • 123
  • 4
2
votes
0 answers

If a certain transposing instrument plays a Bb, but it sounds like a C, why not just call it a C?

Why call it a Bb, if it sounds like a C? Why not just write it as a C?
big papa
  • 21
  • 1
1
vote
3 answers

Why are art songs frequently performed in a different key from the sheet music?

In IMSLP, "Der Leiermann" is in A minor. But this performance is transposed to G minor. Are my key identifications correct, and if so, why would Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Alfred Brendel (the pianist) lower the key?
iddober
  • 6,632
  • 14
  • 47
  • 69
1
2