How to change key in an instrument that is not concert pitch
So I'm writing a piece for concert band, and at one point the song is in the key of E.
However, on the Eb Alto Saxophone page, the key is C#, which is an obnoxious amount of sharps. I want to change it so that the key is Db instead of C#, but when I change the key in the saxophone part to Db, it changes to concert Db instead of the saxophone key of Db.
Is there any way to change the key or are my saxophonists just going to have to suck it up and play in a key with 7 sharps?
Comments
I played alto sax and preferred C# to Db, but if you want to change to the key of Db see https://musescore.org/en/node/260491.
In reply to I played alto sax and… by mike320
thanks for your help!
I'm a saxophonist too and I usually prefer sharps to flats too, but seven sharps is ridiculous. Five flats is kind of a pain too, though. Basically either way it's a bad time for saxophones ¯_(ツ)_/¯
In reply to thanks for your help! I'm a… by pearly-bird
Just to chime in as another Eb sax player ... You may want to look at what your part looks like before you decide whether to use C# or Db. I was playing in a group where the tune - rock style - was in E. My part was written as 5 flats. But the actual riff I had to play was "Fb Cb Bb Cb" - so really horrible accidentals on top of 5 flats.
I was able to pull in the chart to Musescore and changed it to 7 sharps, and went thru to fix up the oddball enharmonic notes that showed up and it's a MUCH cleaner part (also on just one page) after my rework.
Also, it looks like I better get used to 5 flats, because that's how the arranger does things with Sibelius, I think.
In reply to I played alto sax and… by mike320
Also I'm still confused. In the transposition menu it still switches to concert key. When I select to transpose to Db it still switches to the concert Db key. Is there a way to get around this??
In reply to Also I'm still confused. In… by pearly-bird
Put the score in transposed pitch so you can see what's happening. Transpose the entire part to Concert Gb (so the sax will be in Eb), then down a major second with key change to Db.
In reply to Put the score in transposed… by mike320
ah okay! thanks for the clarification!