How Transposition - and Transposing Instruments - Work

[@Andrea-xw4xe]

It's refreshing to find someone who effectively incorporates explanations, demonstrations, and visual steps into their teaching approach. Many people claim to teach, but not everyone provides the clarity you do. Thank you!

[@RB-kd2tq]

I have zero music theory schooling, I’ve watched at least a 100 videos, read several explanations, even for dummies! Lol. Your video is the first one that took all the confusion completely out! Finally!! I get it!! Thank you so much!🎉. 😅

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Wow, thank you so much!! Glad it was a help. 😊

[@tylergarnica2425]

I just wanted to say you've helped me understand my college music notation class, your articulation is much simpler and less mentally demanding. Thank so much for effort into these videos

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Glad to help, Tyler! Tell all your friends ;-)

[@damianbiondo812]

There are such things as "melody saxophones" that are keyed in C. The soprano, like the tenor, sax is in Bb. When first invented, the sax came in the C/F family and the Bb/Eb family. The C/F family didn't take hold. So we're left with the Bb/Eb set, with the occasional appearance of a C melody horn, which are now all vintage and no longer manufactured.

[@curtpiazza1688]

Wow! Great video! Love the illustrations...and your drawings! This is the BEST instruction I 've seen on this challenging topic! Thanx so much!

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Thank you so much!

[@elizabethmaedammann5283]

Absolutely the best explanation ever! Thanks

[@jusroc6353]

Thank you Mr Watson for your video on transposing instruments. I am a hobbyist musician who uses a daw armed with sampler plug-ins. I am considering writing some parts for a real horn section using the daw, so having an understanding of how to transpose is useful. I will keep watching :-) thanks again

[@tonyselman2232]

At last I've got an explanation of transposition that I understand!

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Thanks!! 🙏

[@mummymoo-cow477]

Thank you so much! I have been battling to understand this and you made it so clear! ❤

[@arnoldlungu1595]

thanks man really been helped am an upcoming arranger of marches for brass band really really been help here

[@nemeik]

helped me feeling ready for my exam, thanks for this explanation!

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Great. So…how’d you do?

[@envrie9423]

This video is a life saver thank you!

[@defortempire]

Thanks for the tutorial sir. I understood the beginning part of the tutorial but got confused at the score looking at the master score. You said Bb clarinet and trumpet gonna sound a tone lower but from the master score, they sounded a tone higher. Also the Alto sax, you said it's gonna sound a Maj. 6th below, but in the master score, it sounded a Maj. 6th above. Same with the French horn. Please I really need to be cleared why it's that way Sir. Thanks.

[@seanmeyers3859]

Same here, I thought I totally understood the video until that part

[@jimrunfola]

Hey Doc, love the channel but I have a question that hopefully you can answer. If I am transcribing a solo on my tenor saxophone and want to enter it into finale, how can I put it in the correct key and have the notes displayed correctly? In other words, if my solo is in the key of tenor saxophone D Major, I put my finale score in D major (transposed score) and I enter a D (which is what the tenor is playing) I want it to display D, not the transposed note E. I’m using ver 26.3.1.643. I thought I could do this on an earlier version but can’t seem to find out how to do it now. Please help, thank you!

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

I got you! Check out this video for the answer, and much more! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYLLf3qIiKx8sJI

[@hiphoprajeshlifeksr220]

Good explanation sir very useful ❤❤❤❤

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

I’m glad it was helpful!

[@jackdeago3639]

Thank you so much

[@Play_on312]

There's one thing I don't understand. My alto recorder's lowest note is a f, and my soprano is a c. But I have to remember completely different notes and fingering for the two recorders. Isn't it the same for other instruments? Otherwise, thank you, the video was extremely helpful!

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Are you saying that the note B (on the third line of the staff) is fingered thumb and 1st finger on the soprano recorder, but that same written note is fingered differently on an alto recorder? If so, that is strange and unusual. Usually written notes are fingered the same way (but produce different sounds) on different instruments in the same FAMILY.

[@edithofr.i.emeraldisle5042]

thank you.....very clear.....

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jackdeago3639]

Can you talk specifically about classical guitar

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Guitar sounds an octave LOWER than written music. In that sense, it's like all the other transposing instruments mentioned in my video - SOUND is LOWER than SIGHT. But with guitar, it's an octave lower, so it's the same note name. For instance, if you see an A on the 2nd space of the treble clef staff (which sounds in concert pitch at 440 Hz), and a guitar plays that A, it will actually SOUND as the A two ledger lines beneath the treble clef staff (220 Hz).

[@johnlyon326]

Did I miss it? I now know that transposition is necessary to accommodate a larger version of a transposing instrument, but why do we want larger trumpets etc.?

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

Actually, with trumpets it’s usually the smaller ones (I.e. C Trumpet, D Trumpet, even Bb Piccolo Trumpet) that one finds. Regardless of size - larger or smaller - the reason transposing instruments makes practical sense is that it allows the PLAYER to only have to learn one set of fingerings.

[@johnlyon326]

@@ScottWatsonMusic Of course it does! Thanks so much.

[@dimitheodoro]

thank you for your precious explanation for us the dummy guitarists :P

[@snehilpulluri7256]

But why even have a concert pitch that causes this problem?

[@RachelNjau-i5s]

❤

[@georgefromgreece4119]

There isn't such a thing as a Clarinet in C? Ok. Welcome to the world of, except for Bb, G, A, Bnatural and C clarinets. Same for saxophones as the C melody.

[@ScottWatsonMusic]

I don’t know of a modern-day Clarinet in C. I have heard of the “C melody sax,” but even those are rare.