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Where's the choice for "Yes, but not fluently and with lots of mistakes"?

I chose "yes" because that is what I do, all day, every day. When I am teaching beginning band I play the kid's line for them on whatever instrument I have in my hand. I have to be able to play the flute line on trumpet - the bassoon line on clarinet - the trumpet line on saxophone.

I get four student teachers per year and this is the number one skill that they lack. They can tell me all of the recommended literature for performance majors on their particular instrument when the kid gets to college, but fall down if they have to play a concert pitch line on their own horn. If you are an aspiring band director... let me implore you to gain this skill!

Rant over.

GC wrote:Where's the choice for "Yes, but not fluently and with lots of mistakes"?

What he said.

Some "adjacent keys" are anything but easy. Try playing a Db piccolo part at concert pitch on your tuba.

How about "I can play any clef I know on any instrument I know?" which is similar to the rant post. The transposing comes if it is a squeak part played on a bass instrument, or a bass part played on squeak instrument, and the transposition is ocatave(s) one way or the other.

However, I cannot play any Db clef on any instrument and hope I never need to. Until recently I never even knew there was such a thing as a Db piccolo. What will they think of next?

MA, who reads everything in concert pitch anyway, hence the "clefs"

tuben wrote:Can you transpose at sight?

I guess I interpreted this question differently from everyone else.

I thought it was more about can you take a piece of music with say 3 flats and transpose the key signature and play it in 1 sharp (or 2 flats, or any other key).

In other words, not about transposing instruments but the ability to switch keys on the fly on your instrument.

A little clarification seems in order by the OP.

Were Db piccolos originally just High Pitch C piccolos?

I think that "transposing" is not something that is routinely asked of a tubist. I was never "taught" to transpose, although I have done it, on occasion.

Trumpet, and horn players transpose, as a basic part of their skills, and I marvel at my colleagues' abilities in this area. It is something that is required of them, in their everyday playing.

On the other hand, I am quite surprised when they are, in turn, amazed that I play tubas in four different keys. I consider fluidity of transposition much more impressive!

It all just comes down to whatever you are used to doing.

Any key, any time. I agree with the other band director in the need for a director to be able to play any part on your instrument.

One should be able to play a concert pitch on your instrument if you are going to teach or play for a living.

Tom Mason

Hey- if trumpetists can do it (gasp!) than surely we tubists should be able to!

I tend to be a 'by ear' kind of player (thus, I am a lousy sight reader). The other day at choir rehersal, the pianist was playing a half step low (electric piano) and I was able to keep up (on trumpet) with out too much trouble. Of course it was much easier once I informed her of this, but that's beside the point...

I've found it really depends on how you read music. If you read music as a bunch of scalar lines and intervals, then transposition is easy. If you read it as a series of individual named note, then its a problem. I've discovered in the last year that I can transpose quite effectively simply because once I have the first note, everything else follows from there. Cautionary accidentals still throw me off in a Bflat treble part though.

Andy Anders at Arkansas Tech got me into taking 30+ minutes a day transposing.

It is an extremely valuable tool, and I do it right after my warm up every day. When you can transpose, you open up Numerous playing opportunities! Anything you can do to make yourself a versatile musician, means more opportunities for you to do what you love (play the tuba).

My favorite method/exercise books, although some tuba copies are available, aren't written for the tuba.

I'm well-rounded, but it has nothing to do with transposition!

(the tuba and I were born for each other... )

Bob1062 wrote:I was good at it until I had to do it

Yeah, I probably should have prefaced my statement by stating I am not that great at it. Even though I work on it.


(this edit, provided by a lesson/rehearsal today where I bitched the entire time about having to transpose a part that should have been easy)

bloke wrote:Being drilled in solfege with moveable and fixed "do" should help someone become good at this.

bloke "I think you have to practice doing it and keep it up."

A) I don't know. All musical education around here starts with a separate solfege course where the kids have to jump through many musical hoops. (Exams at amateur level with sightreading in seven clefs and all keys were only abolished a decade or so ago)
Most twelve year olds here have solfege skills I didn't achieve until my final years conservatory in Holland, but still the baritone sax sitting next to me in band this weekend who didn't have the part to an easy march couldn't sight-read my part. (Transposed Bb Bass clef, to be read one tone down for bari)
so
B) yes, you definately need practice and keep it up. As a (former) french horn player I've noticed my skills in transposing especially Bb, C and B nat. parts is going down fast...

one knowledgeable and dependable source tells me the Db piccolo is a creature of "Stars and Stripes" for orchestra. Putting the solo into G made it a bear to play, so an instrument was made 1/2 step higher.