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5.4.4 Transposing Instruments: Types of Wind Instruments That Require Transposition
If you happen to read music notation, the idea of a “transposing instrument” will make more sense than if you don’t happen to read music notation.
Most musicians don’t read music notation, which is why this book has no music notation. Still, even if you don’t read music, you might find a brief description of the meaning of “transposing instrument” mildly entertaining. George Martin, the classically-trained producer of The Beatles, once tried to explain the workings of transposing instruments to John Lennon, who did not read a note of music. Lennon thought it was all pretty daft.
A true transposing instrument (as opposed to an octave transposing instrument—more on the distinction in a minute) is a wind instrument (aerophone) that requires transposition in music notation, meaning that the musical notes on the page differ from the notes sounded by the insrument. You see a note on the page, you finger the instrument to play that note, and a different note comes out of your instrument.
Transposing instruments include brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, and woodwinds such as clarinets and saxophones.
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