Transposition from "C" instruments to Bb and Eb saxophones.
I am having some difficulty wrapping my head around a transposition issue. I have some sheet music written for "C" instruments in the key of B Major. My transposition table states that transposing from C instruments to Bb instruments brings the song to the key of C# / Db and for Eb instruments to G# / Ab. The key of C# minor equals the key of E on my Circle of Fifths, while Db Major equals the key of Bb minor on my circle. It gets even crazier with Eb instruments as G# minor, which equals B Major, the key for C instruments, while Ab equals F minor.
Musescore wants to transpose for tenor sax (Bb) from B to Db, which is a real pain for saxophones, whereas if it were to be transposed to the key of E, it would be much more doable for saxophones - however I am transposing for the purpose of playing (in key) along with the original song on Spotify...
What key do I want to transpose to for tenor and baritone saxophones and why the discrepancy?
Thanks in advance.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| toes_flute.mscz | 29.81 KB |
Comments
Some of what you wrote is a bit confusing. For one thing, Db is not enharmonic with E but rather C#. When I set up a score with a flute and tenor sax, apply the key of B major to the score, I get the tenor sax in the key of C# major/A# minor as expected and sounds like what you want.
transpose_to_sharps.mscz
I also added the alto sax to the score and since MuseScore does not support key signatures with double sharps or flats, it is in the key of Ab major. As an Alto and Bari Sax player, I would prefer the key signature of Ab to G#.
Please clarify what you are trying to achieve because your attached score does nothing to clarify what you want.
First, your song appears to be in a major key, so let's complete put minor keys out of mind here - they have no relevance here and I think are just confusing the issue.
Your song is in B major, period. If you right click the staff and do Staff Properties / Change Instrument and then select a Bb instrument like tenor saxphone, MuseScore uses the key of C# major, which is completely correct. Not sure what you are doing that is causing you to see Db major, but of course that would be equally correct, and some people have said they would prefer that. In any case, E major is just plain wrong. If you want a key with sharps, you will need seven of them - C# major.
In reply to First, your song appears to… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. I am still getting to grips with transposing. I also tried changing the instrument to Eb (baritone) sax and ended up with almost all of the notes consisting of accidentals.
In reply to Thanks. I am still getting… by globetrotterdk
Yes, unfortunately MuseScore does need to switch to a flat key signature at that point since eight sharps would not make sense, and we don't automatically respell the notes accordingly. However, that is easy to fix by doing Ctrl+A to select all, then Up then Down to raise and lower the pitch but respelling with flats. Probably other methods would work as well.
In reply to Yes, unfortunately MuseScore… by Marc Sabatella
I am giving it a try. I also had to adjust the octave in some places. Fingers crossed :)
In reply to Thanks. I am still getting… by globetrotterdk
"...ended up with almost all of the notes consisting of accidentals"
You should not end up with accidentals unless they are in the concert pitch key also.
Can you upload a score that you have transposed that has all of the accidentals? I have some suspicions of what you may have done, but would like to confirm it.
In reply to "...ended up with almost all… by mike320
Thanks. Here is the file. I transposed by changing the instrument from flute (key of C) to baritone saxophone (key of Eb).
In reply to Thanks. Here is the file. I… by globetrotterdk
I understand why the accidentals appeared. You went from a sharp based key to a flat based key. As Marc suggest select all then press the up followed by the down arrows to change the sharps to flats. I've seen people do crazy things to transpose a score and I feared you had done one of those.
Make everybody happy - transpose the original from B to F (one flat) for your C instruments, G (one sharp) for your Bb instruments and D (two sharps) for the E-flatters. Also, if the title implies that this is written for a flute then you need to transpose it up a bit anyway since most flutes can't play a low A, G etc.
In reply to Make everybody happy -… by underquark
Thanks. I am "everybody". The most important thing for me is to be able to practice the song using the recording (and being in key regardless of instrument).