tpter1

I am working on re-learning how to transpose. Normally, when transposing, I try to think the note either below or above by the interval. (Example: if I'm reading something for trumpet in E, but playing on Bb, I am constantly trying to think of a tritone away from the written note). This is cumbersome, awkward, and makes my reading very slow and inaccurate. I was never taught to use clefs; I just had Bordogni thrown at me and it was "sink or swim, kid" basically. So I would just memorize them. But now, if given a Mahler part, I really have to work to read it, until I basically memorize the fingerings. It doesn't seem to me a very efficient way to work.

What methods do you use when you teach it and when you transpose for yourself? I am trying lately to use numbers...but I tried that playing along with my hs flutes during the sight-reading portion of the lesson (I was on a Bb) and it didn't go so well. (We had a few good laughs).

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-Glenn
"Roses have thorns; shining waters mud. Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and the sun; and history reeks of the wrongs we have done. After today, after today, consider me gone."- Sting