How to Transpose Music for

Your Instrument
What Is a Transposing Instrument?
It is a musical instrument whose notes are written in a different key from the pitches that sound when it
plays. For example, a B flat Clarinet, or French Horn in F. When the concert key is C, a B flat clarinet
will sound a B flat when it sees the note C. When a french horn sees the note C, it sill sound an F below
C.

Why are there transposing instruments?

Many instruments differ in size. The flute, clarinet and saxophone are all very different sizes. They all
have different ranges (different highest and lowest notes) and the larger the instrument, the lower the
notes it can produce. Most instruments in the woodwind family, for example, use the same fingering so
that a woodwind player can play several instruments, based on using the same fingering patterns. As a
result, instruments are transposed based on their range, and that the fingering is identical.

Concert Key and Instrument Key

Instruments that transpose are said to be in a certain "key." Examples would include, B flat clarinet,
horn in F (french horn) B flat trumpet, etc. The key the instrument is in indicates which pitch will
sound when the player plays C. Clarinets in B flat that read a C will sound a B flat below C. A french
horn player that reads C will sound an F below C.

Transposing for Your Instrument

So if an instrument will sound notes lower than C, then you would have to write the pitch higher than C
to get the right pitch. Clarinets in B flat will sound a whole step lower than the pitch it sees on paper.
So to get it in the right key, you have to write the part a whole step higher to sound a C. That means
you would have to write a D in order for the clarinet to sound C. So when concert key is C, your key
signature is D. If you are in the concert key of G, then your clarinet part needs to be in the key of A,
and so forth.

For French Horn, which is in F, a middle C will sound a perfect 5thbelow the written pitch
(sounding F below middle C). Therefore, to sound a C, you need to write the key
signature a 5th higher than concert key. So for horns in F, if the concert key is C, then
horns in F are in the key of G.
So whatever the concert key is, you compensate by going the opposite direction at
whatever interval the instrument is away from C. So an E flat instrument usually sounds
a 6th lower than middle C, on a low E flat. So you would have to write it a
6th higher than C to be in the right key (A flat).

Remember the basic rule is that whatever interval lower or higher the instrument sounds
from written C, you transpose in the opposite direction to get the right pitch to sound. If
the instrument soundslower than C, then you transpose by going the same
distancehigher than middle C.