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Celebrating its 20th anniversary the festival “Chopin and His Europe” included the thematic title “And the Rest of the World”, featuring world-renowned pianists and international and national top ensembles and orchestras. As usual the event explored Chopin's music through diverse perspectives, spanning four centuries of repertoire. Piano Street presents a selection of concerts videos including an interview with the festival’s founder, Chopin Institute’s Stanislaw Leszczynski. Read more >>

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Topic: transposing piano music to eb saxophone (Read 4616 times)

keyofc

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transposing piano music to eb saxophone

on: May 01, 2012, 05:04:07 AM

Hello,

It's been long time since I needed to do this -
and thought it would be easy - but can't remember how to transpose
a piece of music for one of the saxophone players that will be playing
with us.

I thought you went down a minor 3rd. My piece is in G - if I go down a minor 3rd
I'm at e (relative minor). It doesn't make sense - how can it turn into a minor tune?
I know I'm missing something here - anyone know how to do this?
thanks

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keyboardclass

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Posts: 2009

Re: transposing piano music to eb saxophone

Reply #1 on: May 01, 2012, 05:28:48 AM

It's called an Eb sax because when you play a C it comes out as concert Eb. If you want a G the sax plays an E.

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quantum

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Re: transposing piano music to eb saxophone

Reply #2 on: May 01, 2012, 08:17:04 AM

You transpose down a minor 3rd. The the pitch G is transposed to E. Remember you also have to change key signature: so G major is transposed to E major and G minor is transposed to E minor.

It seems you are transposing letter names without changing the key. In such case you would still be using the pitch classes from the G major scale resulting in E Aeolian.

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ahinton

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Re: transposing piano music to eb saxophone

Reply #3 on: May 01, 2012, 08:36:48 AM

Whether the transposition is up or down depends on which E flat saxophone you're talking about. All saxes are pitched in either B flat or E flat; those pitched in B flat are the soprano, tenor and bass and those pitched in E flat are the (rare) sopranino, alto, baritone and contrabass.

Best,

Alistair

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Alistair Hinton
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The Sorabji Archive

oxy60

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Re: transposing piano music to eb saxophone

Reply #4 on: May 01, 2012, 03:46:25 PM

Quote from: ahinton on May 01, 2012, 08:36:48 AM

Whether the transposition is up or down depends on which E flat saxophone you're talking about. All saxes are pitched in either B flat or E flat; those pitched in B flat are the soprano, tenor and bass and those pitched in E flat are the (rare) sopranino, alto, baritone and contrabass.

Best,

Alistair

Exactly! The one thing you want to avoid is being a sax player in a guitar band. Guitar players like sharp keys because it gives them open strings to not finger. The one sharp key G major results (add two sharps for the Bb two flats tenor sax) in a three sharp key of A for my tenor man. Rule of thumb: add one sharp for every flat.

Now you see why the D trumpet was invented.

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keyofc

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Posts: 635

Re: transposing piano music to eb saxophone

Reply #5 on: May 01, 2012, 08:47:43 PM

Quantum,

THanks for your reply. THat makes sense!

Thanks everyone for your comments!

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