Transposing a piece of music means that you need to play it in a different key. Say the printed music which you were given is in F Major but for some reason, the vocalist needs to perform it in D Major, you might need to transpose your part. Since you are a C instrument this is fairly easy.
If you should ever need to transpose a piece of music here are the easy steps to follow:
- Determine your current printed part’s key signature.
- Determine the key of the transposition. (What key do you need to play in?)
- Determine the interval difference for the transposition. Example 1: Your printed part is in F Major and it needs to be transposed to G Major. The interval is up one step. Example 2: Your printed part is in F Major and it needs to be transposed to D Major. The interval is up a major 6th or down a minor 3rd.
- In Example 1 above you will need to transpose each note up 1 step/major 2nd and in Example 2 you will need to transpose each note up a Major 6th or alternately down a minor 3rd.
- Your new key signature can be determined from the Circle of 5ths chart which shows all key signatures. In Example 1 your new key signature changes from one flat to one sharp, and in Example 2 from one flat to two sharps.
Things to check…
Be sure to play the part through in the original key and then play the transposed version to you can confirm they sound the same – especially before arriving at rehearsal.
Can’t software do this for me?
Music composition software is able to do this for you if you are adept at scanning in the original part, correcting any mistakes made by the scanning process and then transposing the result with that feature of the software. Sibelius has this capability.
This type of software is really valuable because of the ability to print out your transposition rather than play from a manuscript type part.
Depending on the complexity of the original part, one option I use is to just type it into the software and transpose as you go. The software will play it back for you so you can hear any mistakes that need to be corrected. This option really works well when trying to create a bass flute part from an alto part for example or an alto flute part to double the 4th flute part. Usually quite a simple process.