Transposition

Transponere, lat. = transpose

With many instruments the transcribed notes don’t match the actual sound.

The tenor sax for example is tuned in Bb and by playing the transcribed note C the note Bb sounds. In the following table are a few instruments with their corresponding tuning listed.

Realbooks and lead sheets are mostly transcribed in C and for instruments that are not tuned to C the scores have to be rewritten. With ScaleTwister this is a cakewalk. Here are some useful examples:

Transposing of a Score in C to Tenor Sax Score (Bb)

Just simply imagine that the color circle displays your tenor sax notes and the background of the ScaleTwister shows the notes of the lead sheet.

Bei einem Tenorsaxophon wird der Ton C als D notiert, also stellst du das D vom Utilities-Rad auf das C vom Hintergrund. Jetzt kannst du alle Noten des Leadsheets in der Saxophon-Notierung ablesen.

Transposing of a Tenor Sax Score (Bb) to a Alt Sax Score (Eb)

Now just imagine that the background of the ScaleTwister are your tenor sax notes and on the wheel are the alto sax notes. Since the note C is noted as D with the tenor sax and A with the alto sax, turn the A of the wheel to the position D of the background and then you can read all the notes.

Transposing of a Score by any Interval Step

In the initial position the pointer of the wheel points to 12 o’clock. It points to the note C on the background. The background of the ScaleTwister corresponds again to the score you would like to transpose. If you want to step up a score by a major third for example, turn the wheel until the desired interval (major 3rd) is on the 12 o’clock position. Now you can read the notes..