Music Question

[infrogmation]

So when I call a tune in B-flat (for the horns), and the electric guitar player asks "What key is that for ME?" what do I tell him?

Is there a handy link to a chart of whatever this is about?

Comments

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

Depends on what the horn instrumentation is.

Unless you have some weird group like JUST trumpets and clarinets and tenor sax, "in Bb" usually means "in concert Bb", and the guitar player would be in Bb also. Not a very common key for guitar music, but very common for brass and winds.

Generally the bandleader calls out the concert key and it's the musicians' jobs to figure out what the transposition is for their instrument. Trombonists and guitarists are lucky.

Um, B-flat?

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Trombone is normally written in C even though it's a B-flat instrument, same as most other bass clef instruments, right? Whatever key it's in for you, it's in for keyboards, guitar, strings, flute, and oboe. It's the horns that have to adjust--when you call B-flat, the trumpet, clarinet, and soprano and tenor sax play in C, alto and bari sax in G, and any other funky instruments in their own funky transpositions.

Until I saw your second question, I assumed you wanted a good flip answer. The best serious answer (http://www.orchestralibrary.com/reftables/rang.html) to the second that I find is a little weak on identifying which of several choices is "normal" for modern players, and it would be especially nice if somebody put this information together with a transposition wheel, (http://www.gospelmusic.org.uk/resources/transposition_wheel_shock.htm) but maybe I'll have to put that on my own list of projects that never seem to get done.

One of the just-right little details I loved in Back to the Future was when Marty called a "blues in B," which really meant B-flat because why would horns ever play in sharp keys, until he broke out in his heavy metal solo and forgot and suddenly it was B-natural because why would a guitar band ever play in flat keys? Either some sharp-eyed production assistant had experience playing both jazz and rock--or else they brought in a second guitar double for the solo who never even heard what it was coming out of. Either way, the perfection of it made me laugh out loud in the dead silence that followed.

Re: Um, B-flat?

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. The traditional New Orleans front line wind instruments of cornet/trumpet, clarinet, and trombone are all B-flat (or we consider ourselves to be). I've heard some classically trained musicians say things like "the trombone is actually pitched in C but is PLAYED in B-flat". Perhaps if I played with groups doing a different type of music I'd need to understand what that actually means. -- Your illiterate cyber-pal

What clef do you read (if any)?

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of trombones as reading bass-clef parts written in C, but if you read treble clef I guess your part would be written in B-flat. In the latter case, if it's B-flat for you and all the other B-flat horns, then it's A-flat for all the C instruments.

A-sitting on a gate

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Well, the key it's in is C and the key it's played in is B-flat, but the name of the key that it's in is F-sharp and the name of the key is called D-blunt. But the instrument is scored H-round except that the key of the score is known as M-unnatural and the key of the score is played as X-dehydrated.

Play By Air

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wanted a serious answer. I'm an ear player with no music theory education. In the jazz and brass bands this has not been a problem for me, but I was subbing in a rockish band; the electric guitarist was the leader. I took my cue from him, but at the end of the set the audience wanted a "Second Line" number and he turned to me to lead it off.