trasposition on sheet music

[hanx]

I've been told that for easy reading the music for a bass is often transposed up one octave so that it fits on the stave for the bass clef better? So that the open A string (A1 - 55 Hz) is written in the place the note A2 (110 Hz) would normally be written, am i making sense? Is there some way to tell whether music is written this "transposed" way or the standard way?

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by hanx

I've been told that for easy reading the music for a bass is often transposed up one octave so that it fits on the stave for the bass clef better? So that the open A string (A1 - 55 Hz) is written in the place the note A2 (110 Hz) would normally be written, am i making sense? Is there some way to tell whether music is written this "transposed" way or the standard way?

If written "correctly" (or, if you prefer, according to standard accepted practice), bass parts are ALWAYS, not sometimes or often, written this way. When you see a note on the bottom space of the stave, for example, the A that you are expected to produce as a bass player sounds one octave lower than the A that a pianist is expected to produce when he/she sees the same written note.

This IS the standard way for bass parts. For guitar parts, too.

[EADG mx]

^ Yes, always assume the bass is transposed this way. There's really no need not to, in most cases.


Here's a list of instruments and their transpositions, all in the name of reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposing_instrument

[JTE]

I once did a reading gig where the bass book also had (apparently) some tuba charts. The leader called a sub, and when I pulled up the chart, it had ledger lines BELOW the bass clef. It was a two-beat thing and fortunately it also had chord names listed...

jte