Transposing Instruments

Introduction

Some instruments read notes on the page that are different from the actual pitches that sound when played. These are called transposing instruments. 

Transposing Music

Musical scores often contain one ore more parts that require the conversion, or transposition, of notated pitches into sounding pitches before we can actually dig into the music and analyze it. 

While it will benefit you in the real world to memorize which instruments transpose to what keys, this is not necessary for the AP Music Theory course or exam. Instead, you will be given the specific level and direction of transposition. For example, you may be asked to identify the sounding pitches that correspond to the notated pitches of a "Clarinet in Bb sounding a Major 2nd below notated pitch." 

Consider the following excerpt:

This part is written for Horn in F sounding a Perfect 5th below notated pitch. Let's write the sounding pitches out. To do this, there are are a few different strategies we could use:

Let's use the second approach. First, transpose the E down a perfect fifth to an A. Then, the next note is up a perfect fourth, which becomes a D. Then, down a minor second to C. Then, back up to D, and so on. Finish the excerpt, then check your answer below.

Practice

Given the following score, identify what each note would be on the labeled instruments: