B-flat Bass-Tenor Clef Transposition Hack

Tip from my upcoming book, 100 LAST Orchestration Tips: Transposing Bass B-flat instruments Using Tenor Clef.
Watch my tip about using bass clef to transpose E-flat instruments, from my recent book 100 MORE Orchestration Tips:
• E-flat Transposition R...
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[@georgebernard5783]

As a trumpet player, I use this trick in reverse. I look at tenor clef as if I were reading a part in B flat

[@DeGuerre]

Cool, now I just need to learn to read tenor clef. Before you ask: I'm a cellist. I can play tenor clef fluently, but I can't read it.

[@user-dv6py1be9v]

A similar trick works to transpose Eb instruments to concert pitch using the bass clef Edit : Just saw that you did a video on that one too, go watch for an in depth explanation

[@vacuumlover1]

As a auxiliary clarinet player primarily playing bass clarinet, THANK YOU. I’m playing bassoon parts for Harold in Italy and I’m dying over here

[@OrchestrationOnline]

So glad I could help!

[@kovachito]

Whenever the last tips come out, it would be great to keep improving and understanding some masterpieces of orchestration. Thank you,Thomas for your always nice and useful videos. Grettings.

[@JMHV]

It's worth pointing out that the german tenorhorn is it's own thing, and not entirely synonymous with the baritone horn. The wagner tuba-like oval body (and sometimes also bell) is often a good way to distinguish between the two. Mahler's use of this military band instrument is notable for how far removed it is from the orchestral and symphonic world, or even just concert music in general.

[@NeilABliss]

As a trombonist this is old hat. Moveable C is basically how we transpose at sight. But it does open a few questions. Like, why is an Alto trombone in Eb instead of D? If it was in D then the Alto clef would read and feel just like Tenor clef on the tenor trombone.

[@OrchestrationOnline]

Perhaps so, but hopefully this new hat for developing orchestrators and band arrangers will result in better-scored parts for you. 🙂 As for the reasons for Alto bone being in E-flat, I think that has to do with just pitching it in 4ths related to the B-flat tenor - up to E-flat for alto, down to F for the old-style bass trombones of yesteryear.

[@NeilABliss]

@@OrchestrationOnline concur.

[@carlobugliarello5143]

Hi, congratulations on your work, you always make interesting videos, I am a 59 years old Italian composition student (still young eh eh eh), we Italians really like opera but, in orchestration books I never find any advice on writing for human voices (tenor, soprano, baritone etc,). Could you tell us something about this topic? Thank you. Greetings from Rome, Italy.

[@itznoxy7193]

Seconded. I feel like the human voice is the forgotten section in so much of orchestral music pedagogy. Not mentioned once in either 100 orchestration tips books or even in the Adler.

[@johnbowman3630]

Fantastic stuff Thomas; do you have a video with transposition tips for F Horns by chance? As an intermediate score-reader this is often a tripping point for me.

[@evansentnote]

Do you mean writing or reading? I usually write in transposed score to maintain my awareness of instrument range and idiosyncrasies. For F horn, I usually momentarily switch my thinking by a 5th to think in the horn’s key. That’s not always the case for my writing though, and I draw significantly on my own several years of practice on horn, which has been enough to know much better how to write for it.

[@jonathanp935]

When will the final fantastique lecture come?

[@enriquesanchez2001]

Thomas has been silent on this, for some unknown reason which become clear soon. ♥

[@dmac3903]

i no how to transpose ever instrument and every clef, but when da gringos start talkin bout cups n feet n ounce all i can think of are trumpet mutes an organ pedals n of course trombounce. as my ear training professor used to sae, just because u got perfect pitch dont mean u aint an imperfect bitch

[@eboone]

What

[@johnbowman3630]

🤡