Transposition Help!

[swenghk]

Okay, I know this may not be piano related, but I know most of the people on here are VERY helpful. So how do I transpose from A to B flat, from B to B flat, and from F to B flat for trumpet? I'm going to a music school in Poland this summer and I have to transpose my orchestral music. Thanks!

[arturgajewski]

People. correct me if I'm wrong but transposing is just sliding the root left or right with amount of certain interval.

If you want to transpose C, C, D, E by two intervals, it will be D, D, E, F and by one interval will be C#, C#, D#, F

Learning the circle of fifths also helps when it comes to transposing music.

If you want to go the easy way, copy your notes into a notation software and let the software transpose for you. MuseScore is a freeware application for creating sheet music.

[bleicher]

Slightly more complicated than that, because first of all you have to work out what interval you need to transpose by, depending on the transposition of your instrument and the transposition of the music.

An A trumpet sounds a minor third lower than written (so written C is concert A) whereas a Bb trumpet sounds a tone lower (written C is concert Bb). Therefore to play A trumpet music on a Bb trumpet, transpose down a semitone. To pay B trumpet music on a Bb trumpet transpose up a semitone.

An F trumpet sounds a perfect 5th lower than written (written C is concert F below) so to play F trumpet music on a Bb trumpet you need to play a perfect 4th lower than written.

Hope this makes sense!

Brass players in orchestras have to learn to transpose at sight, and I'm full of admiration for those who can do it.

Natalie

[arturgajewski]

As this is a piano forum I was writing from a point of view of a piano player, not a trumpet player

[keypeg]

Okay, I know this may not be piano related, but I know most of the people on here are VERY helpful. So how do I transpose from A to B flat, from B to B flat, and from F to B flat for trumpet? I'm going to a music school in Poland this summer and I have to transpose my orchestral music. Thanks!

First, can we be sure of what you are trying to do?  I think that what the school wants involves the following:
You have music which is written in "concert pitch" (the pitch that piano is tuned to and music is usually written in).  When music is written in concert pitch, then when you see C# in the score, and you play the key that gives C#, we will hear the pitch C#.

Trumpets are transposing instruments and it took me a while to wrap my head around that.  The reason that music is written the way it is for trumpets has to do with "fingering" and the act of playing.  A trumpeter usually can play different types of trumpets: one "in F", one "in Bb" etc.  If our trumpeter picks up the F instrument and does a particular physical thing which is like fingering, he will get the pitch of F.  If he does the same thing with a Bb instrument, he'll get Bb.  Here's the problem: When we read music, when we see a note on the score, our bodies automatically do something to produce what we see.  On piano, if you see Bb, you reach for the top of the three black keys.  But if our poor trumpeter sees the note Bb written down, he has to do one thing with the Bb trumpet, and another thing with the F trumpet, or he'll get a different pitch.  The coordination between what's on the page, and what his body does, has a disconnect.

What they came up with is a notation for transposing instruments.  It means that when the trumpeter sees a note the second space down in the treble clef which we call "C", he does the same physical action on either instrument.  The notation is related to what is done physically, rather than pitch.  The disconnect is gone.  The reference note is what we call "C".

In notation for a Bb trumpet, playing the "C" makes us hear the pitch Bb.  If it is for an F trumpet, playing the "C" makes us hear the pitch F.  Therefore, if you have music in concert pitch (what we actually hear - what is on the piano), and you want to write it in transposed notation for a transposing instrument, you want that Bb trumpet to play the pitch everyone else is playing.

Supposing that your music is normally in Bb major (concert pitch).  The notation for piano has two flats.  But the trumpeter who plays notated "C" will also produce Bb.  So the music for this transposing instrument, (Bb trumpet) will be written in the key signature of C, because C sounds like Bb.  All the notes on the trumpet will sound a semitone lower than written.

If your original music is in C, then the trumpet music would be written in Db, because when he plays notated Db, it will sound a semitone lower = C and then you have the same pitches.  (You could write it in C# but that's a lot of sharps).

Going back to the question:

o how do I transpose from A to B flat, from B to B flat, and from F to B flat for trumpet?

You are not transposing "to Bb" - you are being asked to transpose music that is originally in A (major?) for a Bb transposing instrument.   The tonic of your new key signature will be a semitone higher than the A (Bb) so your key signature would be the key signature of Bb major.  After changing your key signature, you have to slide all the notes up one, since A becomes Bb, etc.  Then you have to adjust your accidentals.  Supposing for example that in the original there is a D# (4th degree note raised by a semitone).  In Bb major, your fourth degree note is Eb in the signature.  To raise that note you would use a natural sign to change Eb to Enat.