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Thread: Transposing question...

  1. #1
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    Transposing question...

    I have a Piccolo part in 'Db' that I need to xpose to Piccolo in 'C'. Do I raise the notes up a half step or lower it a half step?. I always get confused on this one.

    Thanks.
    Rick Floyd
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  2. #2
    If a transposing instrument sounds up a half step, like a Db picc, then its music needs to be written down a half step to compensate. So a written Db is really a C. You'd transpose back up a half step for a C part.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
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  3. #3
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    Thanks Dave. I was about to go the wrong way.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  4. #4
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    Almost as much fun as sightreading when some joker throws in tenor or alto clef parts....

    DG

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by davewerden View Post
    If a transposing instrument sounds up a half step, like a Db picc, then its music needs to be written down a half step to compensate. So a written Db is really a C. You'd transpose back up a half step for a C part.
    David,
    Did you mean the written C sounds like Db? The Db piccolo (a strange beast, in my opinion), sounds a minor ninth higher than written.
    Dean L. Surkin
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by dsurkin View Post
    David,
    Did you mean the written C sounds like Db? The Db piccolo (a strange beast, in my opinion), sounds a minor ninth higher than written.
    I actually forgot about the octave, but in this case it doesn't matter. The goal is to produce a C piccolo part, so just the half-step move should do the trick.


    Thanks for catching that, though - we want to maintain accuracy in case someone with a different need might look at this thread.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
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  7. #7
    Poor piccolo player. The Db piccolo was created because so many composers, especially band composers, are in love with flat key signatures. Heck the instruments are all Bb and Eb, for the most part, so it's not such a big deal. For anyone playing a C-pitch instrument, though, particularly woodwinds, playing in key signatures with more than four flats is a real pain. And since composers see the piccolo as this nimble little instrument, they write really fast, difficult passages for it, in keys like Ab and Db. So, to cope, the Db piccolo was created, letting the clever piccolo players play that nasty stuff in the native key of the instrument. Problem solved.

    Most serious pic players have both a C and a Db instrument. That's because Ab and Db are just awful to play on almost every C-pitch instrument. Awful. Since I was an oboist, I often had to face that stuff in marches and other band music. Terrible. And they don't make a Db oboe.

    So, once the music is transposed for the piccolo player, watch the steam start coming out of his or her ears. Db lies very poorly on a C piccolo.

    Edit to add: My info is a bit out of date. Apparently, most piccolo players don't own Db instruments any longer, and none are made today. I guess the Boehm system made things easier. You can still find them for sale, and the one piccolo player I knew well had both. But I'm old.
    Last edited by Garcky; 02-06-2015 at 03:11 PM.
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  8. RE: Transposition: Some much older players may remember this. Way back when, and I have it on good authority, 'serious' flute students at 'serious' conservatories (and probably any other player that expected to work) were expected to master the D flat/C transposition, and both ways. Likewise also the E flat transposition from E flat clarinet music. (Of course horn players learned the E flat/F transposition and euphoniums both BC & TC).)

    As part of one of my musicological adventures, I took to examine the 'encore books' from Sousa's band, as he had left them in 1932. Each book essentially formatted like a scrap book had roughly 100 tunes in it. Mostly marches with 2 on a page. Often times there must not have been sufficient parts for his instrumentation. (no photocopying back then) This resulted in substitute parts inserted into the books. Thus, D flat and C flute/piccolo as well as E flat clarinet were in the flute/piccolo books.

    A similar scenario: A friend's father played clarinet with the Sousa Band for 6 seasons. The son had relayed a little story regarding his father on one of those almost 'endless' tours. His father got to the point where he would take along his A clarinet and, to keep from being bored to mindlessness, would play the A clarinet from the B flat parts. I'm not sure how many of us these days would feel comfortable trying to pull of this stunt under the watchful eyes and ears of one of the greats. But there were skill sets needed back then, which we have basically forgotten as most modern music publication has the necessary parts in the appropriate transpositions. (unless we decide to go rogue and pull out a vintage chart)
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