Grade 5: Tranposing Instruments
Some instruments are called transposing instruments. This means that they do not sound as they are written.
Some examples of transposing instruments are clarinets, horns and trumpets.
The clarinet in A plays notes an interval of a minor 3rd lower. The melody written
actually sounds like this:
What the instruments sounds like when it is played is called “concert pitch”. If you want the clarinet in A to sound as C in concert pitch, you have to write it a minor 3rd higher.
The trumpet in B-flat sounds a major 2nd lower (all Cs, for example, sound as B-flat).
If the melody above is written for the trumpet in B-flat, it will sound like this:
If you want a melody played on the trumpet in B-flat to sound like this at concert pitch
you have to write it a major 2nd higher like this:
