Please help with transposing if you play ALTO SAXAPHONE!?!
Question: Please help with transposing if you play ALTO SAXAPHONE!!?
I don't understand that if you play a G on alto sax then how do you find what concert pitch it is!? Can you please explain!?Www@Enter-QA@Com
Answers:
This is kind of confusing for some people!. One of the best explanations I have heard to explain this is called "The Rule of C"!. If you play a C (the instruments fingering of C) it will sound the pitch of the instrument!. For alto saxophone, it will sound an Eb since it is an Eb instrument!. A tenor saxophone (clarinet and trumpet too) will sound a Bb as they are Bb instruments!. So to figure out how to adjust it, think of how many half steps are between the note the instrument is playing (e!.g!. C) and what it is sounding (Eb on alto saxophone)!. There are three half steps (c to c#/db, c#/db to d, d to d#/eb)!. So when you take whatever note the saxophone plays, you will raise it three half steps to get concert pitch!. To figure out what note you would play on alto FROM concert pitch, you will will lower concert pitch three half steps!.
The reason he wanted Cb instead of B is that you have then modulated through the enharmonic spelling!. For example, an Ab minor chord is Ab, Cb, and Eb!. It is not Ab, B and Eb!. If you were then to do a reverse transposition, you would not be playing in Ab, you would be in G#, and it will mess up with your later transpositions!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
The reason he wanted Cb instead of B is that you have then modulated through the enharmonic spelling!. For example, an Ab minor chord is Ab, Cb, and Eb!. It is not Ab, B and Eb!. If you were then to do a reverse transposition, you would not be playing in Ab, you would be in G#, and it will mess up with your later transpositions!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
I think from concert pitch you go up a major sixth, so from sax you'd go down the same interval!. So I believe the pitch would be a Bb!.Www@Enter-QA@Com