Transposing Music
Transposing is a useful skill for people who play an instrument, especially the piano, organ, or some other type of keyboard. If a player is accompanying a singer and the song is a little too high for the singer's voice, it is very useful if he is able to transpose it down so that the music sounds in a lower key.
A player with perfect pitch can do this with no aids simply by playing in a different key. Modern day electronic instruments, however, are often fitted with a transposer control that changes the pitch of the keys being played.
While this is most useful for players who only play in one key (eg the key of C), it can sometimes confuse a player who has perfect pitch for the simple reason that the keys being played are producing a different pitch. In other words, what you see is NOT what you get.
Concert Pitch and Transposing
The piano is a well-loved music composition tool for a reason. Not only do the piano’s 88 keys contain virtually all the notes you’ll ever need to create a solid foundation for a full orchestral composition, but the entire piano is tuned to concert pitch. Concert pitch simply means that when you hit a C on the piano, you are actually playing a C.
However, if you play a C on a transposing instrument (say an electronic piano), you get another note entirely, and this is where it can get confusing. For example, if you were playing a B-flat clarinet, and the sheet music showed a written C, you would actually be playing a B flat concert pitch. If you were to play a written C on an E-flat alto sax, you would actually be playing an E flat concert pitch.
Selection of videos from Youtube:
