I’d like to second this question. I used to see ads in guitar magazines all the time for programs promising to teach perfect pitch by training the listener to recognize the “colors” of individual pitches. I’m sure it must be BS, but I’ve always been curious as to precisely what the content is for these kinds of courses.
Like most musicians, I can recognize intervals, melodies and most harmonies pretty well, but recogning the exact pitch of a single note out of context is beyond me.
Ah, understood. Yes, there’s two completely different uses for that terminology (and using if for the definitions of clefs, bass clef = F4 clef, treble clef = G2 clef)
So when they say its in the key of G, that means G is the exact midpoint in the range of notes in the song? Like the highest note will be 5 steps higher than G and the lowest is 5 lower, or is it just an approximation?
When you sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” (just a f’rinstance) you start on the 5th note of the key signature. You could write it like this:
Oh- -oh say can you see, by the dawn's ear- ly light
5 3 1 3 5 1+ 3+ 2+ 1+ 3 4# 5
In the key of C, this means you’re singing in this range:
CDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABCCDEFGABC
^ ^
But in the key of F, you are singing in this range:
CDEFGAB**CDEFGABCDE**FGABCCDEFGABC
^ ^
Or you could sing it in a higher octave in the key of F:
CDEFGAB**CDEFGABCDE**FGABCCDEFGABC
^ ^
So if you can’t sing as high as that E (in the key of C) you can just start lower down — of course, be sure to tell your accompanist that too, because if you’re singing in A and he’s playing in C, it’s gonna sound pretty awful.
One such perfect pitch program is this one and, well, the website doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. $119 for the course too. I’ll just keep guessing everything’s a B flat until someone tells me this is a good idea…
I can’t speak for those particular programs, but twenty years ago, I couldn’t do any of those tricks, but I can do many of them now.
All it took was time, lots of practice, and a piano that was in very good tune (mine is digital). Keep trying it, test yourself. I believe it’s something many people can indeed learn.
Mostly what I can recognize are certain chords or inversions. For instance, in the end credits of Galaxy Quest there’s a bit where the piano plays a Bb in 2nd inversion. I know it’s 2nd inversion B flat because it’s the same chord and inversion at the start of “Downtown” in Little Shop of Horrors, which I know how to play.
Not really.
In the key of G, you will use the notes G A B C D E F# G.
In the key of Bb, you will use the notes Bb C D Eb F G A Bb.
In the key of E, you will use the notes E F# G# A B C# D# E.
However, which notes you sing depend on the song. The range of the song depends on the composer and, possibly, the singer the song was written for:
CDEFGAB**CDEFG**ABCDEFGABC -- Mary Had a Little Lamb in C
CDEF**GABCDEFG**ABCDEFGABC -- Happy Birthday in C
CDEFGAB**CDEFGABCDEFG**ABC -- The Star Spangled Banner in C
CDEFGAB**CDEFGA**BCDEFGABC -- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in C
I’ve only been skimming this thread lightly, so forgive me if it has been well-covered already.
The reason for different instruments’ music being written in different keys relative to “concert” pitch relates to the system of fingering native to each instrument class.
Let’s take the best example of a class: Saxophones, which are commonly available as Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone. Soprano and Tenor are called B-flat instruments, Alto and Bari are E-flat. All are transposing except an odd bird called a C Melody Sax.
Adolphe Sax was a pretty smart cookie, and designed the entire family in a rational way from scratch, unlike most other instruments that just evolved over time.
To play a pitch called “A”, the second space up on a treble clef, you press the same keys on all four of these instruments. If you learn to play scales on one, you can play the same notes pretty well on all the others. (Embouchure, distance between fingers and hands vary but those can be adjusted for relatively easily.)
Similarly, playing “A” on a B-flat clarinet is the same fingering as “A” on an A or E-flat Clarinet.
Now, all these A’s won’t sound at the same 440 Hz A-concert pitch, because these are transposing instruments! So it is up to the person who writes down the music to compensate and transpose from concert (true) pitch to the pitch on paper that produces the desired result. This may include octave, clef and key signature changes.
The end result is all saxophones read in the same clef and same note range on paper and a player of one sax can handle another kind without much trouble. The drawback is no piano music can be played on a sax without transposition (except a C-Melody Sax, which was probably why it was invented).
Simarly, a trumpet player who learns on a B-flat trumpet, the most common kind, can switch to a D-trumpet, a piccolo trumpet, or even a valve trombone without a major shift in fingering.
I hope sax cats appreciate what Adolphe did for them.
No, the key has nothing to do with the range. Anything in the key of G Major will have a key signature of one sharp (F#), which defines where the Tonic (primary note) is, or G.
No. It just means that the song is played on the notes of the G major scale. The “root” of the melody (in this case G) is often (but not always) the lowest note in the song, but there is no requirement for where it has to be placed in the range of notes as long as all the notes are in the scale of G.
By the way, sometimes notes are played which are technically outside the scale (meaning they’re outside the key as well). These notes are called “accidentals” (but they’re not really accidental, that’s just what they’re called).
Maybe. For some reason, my brain goes into conniptions when thinking about Bb instruments.
But, a Bb instrument that is reading music and plays a ‘C’ is sounding a concert Bb. So… yeah, you’re right. They sound one whole step lower than written.
I see the name David Burge at the bottom of the web page you link to, which means it is the same system that was being sold 20 years ago in Guitar Player, Keyboard, and other music magazines.
I’ve put together a few examples for anyone still puzzled by transposing instruments.
C major scale, notated. Played on a piano (a non-transposing instrument), it sounds like this.
The exact same music, played on the clarinet, produces this. The clarinet produces a lower pitch when faced with a notated ‘C’. The E flat clarinet produces this. And the bass clarinet makes a much lower sound, still using the same notation.
If we want to combine the instruments so that they’re all playing the same pitches as those from the piano, we need different notation for each instrument. This score has three scales, each notated in a different key. The result when played on the respective instruments is a unison sound.
I don’t believe it applies to notes played simultaneously, otherwise a piano could not be detuned properly.
Rather, I believe it is the ability to perceive that two notes played in succession are not the same exact frequency. I seem to recall reading it in The Acoustic Foundations of Music, by John Backus. I don’t have the book handy.
This page from Hyperphysics at Geogia State University says the human ear can distinguish between 440 Hz and 441 Hz, which some calculation tells me is almost 4 cents.
The idea as I understand it is that if I played two fifths in succession, and the first was a perfect 3/2 fifth, and the top note in the second one were detuned by 1 cent as in Equal Temperament, most ears could not tell the difference, unless both intervals were sustained long enough to hear the beats play out.
For a time, there were two ranges of saxophones. One alternated Eb and Bb tunings, and the other alternated C and F. This second range generally fell out of favor a while back, but for whatever reason, the C melody sax held on throughout the swing era.
Here’s a question for guitaritsts: Do you prefer to use a capo or do you adjust the tuning of your instruments to play in a particular key? For example, I hear a lot of rock music played in Eb/D# instead of the “default” E, which would involve tuning down a half step as a capo would not be practical for such purposes. If a song is in F do you tune up the instruments a half step, use a capo or just play in that key without altering the default tuning?
Man, this is one of those things that just makes me feel so stupid, because you folks keep trying to explain it more simply and more simply, and I still don’t get it.
If A=440 Hz, why call them all A’s then, no matter where they appear on sheet music? Isn’t a tone value pretty universal, whether played on a piano or trumpet, telephone ring, clanging metal, birdcall, etc?
Does the key of an instrument depend on the range of notes it can play, and the “natural” or lowest note that instrument sounds? For my guitar and bass, the lowest string is E. The lowest strings on my mando and my wife’s fiddle is G. Are these instruments in different keys? What key is a piano in? A or C? Because on bass or mando I can just sight read piano music and play it. So what is the reason/purpose/value in describing them as being in different keys?
I don’t understand why they would say a trumpet plays in B flat, instead of simply saying it sounds best playing in a certain portion of the C scale.
Concert pitch A = 440Hz. What we’re talking about are instruments that are not in concert pitch, which means that an A on that instrument is not 440Hz.
This is going to confuse things further 
Instruments are not ‘in keys’. The transposition of an instrument is what is described by terms such as ‘Clarinet in B flat’ etc. The description is of how this instrument is related to concert pitch. It’s short for “a clarinet on which, when the player plays a C, produces a sound matching a concert pitch B flat”. Yes, it’s unfortunate that it is confusingly-similar to the way pieces of music are described as being in a particular key.
Concert pitch instruments, non-transposing instruments, are those for which this doesn’t apply. These include pianos, string instruments, double-reeds, percussion. These can be described as being ‘in C’, which just says “when they see a C, that’s what they produce”.
It’s pretty common for rock guitarists to tune down a half-step (you get a “heavier” tone and looser, “bendier” string action). Capos are pretty rare in rock music. Generally they’re used by those who want to play “open” chords in a higher key. Personally, I just play barre chords, as do most other rock guitarists.
Dinsdale, If I put a Bb trumpet to my lips, press no keys down, and blow a note about middle of the range, we call it C.
But because this particular trumpet’s name is a Bb trumpet, the actual pitch you hear is the same as a Bb on the piano, which we call “concert Bb”.
If I pick up another trumpet, say one called a D trumpet, use the same fingerings and about the same mouth shape and air pressure, the note called C on that trumpet will correspond to D on the piano.
Why do we call these notes C? Mostly convention and convenience. There’s no reason why we couldn’t call them Q flat or Nick’s Neat Note.
If you learn about the overtone series, you may understand why. It is an acoustic property of many devices (plucked strings, blown pipes, struck percussion, etc.) to have a “fundamental” tone when blown on/in or struck. But blowing harder or performing some other action will produce other, higher tones in addition, and they are called “harmonics” or “overtones”. There is a mathematical relationship of those to the fundamental.
In most instruments, the fundamental is sounded when the instrument is used as a “pure” pipe or unaltered string. (In a trumpet, with no valves pressed down, the length of the trumpet pipe is the longest possible.) Pressing keys or opening/closing holes just makes the length different, and that characteristic along with controlled air pressure and lip tension makes it possible to produce a wide range of tones.
The name of the instrument is usually associated with the fundamental pitch, so a Bb trumpet’s fundamental is Bb (concert).
Read my earlier posts about fingering across instruments in a group, like saxes. Think of how inconvenient it would be for a sax player if they had to learn 4 different fingerings for four saxes and how complicated playing scales would be, when they only need to know one set now. The burden now is on the copyist, not the player, to handle the tranposition.
Well, I think you understand it, just not the ‘why and wherefore’ of it.
Why are (primarially) wind and brass instruments ‘transposing’ instruments?
I think (and someone can correct me if I’m wrong) it has to do with what keys an instrument originally could play the most easily. Before valves and such, instruments had natural tones and harmonics that were easier to play than others, based on the length of the instrument, and other factors.
So, some keys were easier to play on some instruments than others, and some were practically impossible.
The key that an instrument most easily played in became its key, and was notated as ‘C’ for that instrument (it makes sense that the easiest key to play would be the easiest to notate, no?).
With instrument advances and tuning advances, the difference in playability between the keys becomes smaller, and so in that way transposition of orchestral instruments can be seen as a bit of a hold-over from earlier times.