butxifxnot

lay (ran out of room ) multipule instruments, especially, respond)

I've mentioned I'm helping at a Jr.High camp, and I noticed the one Fr. Horn player was having a bit of trouble. I had pretty much finished my work with the trumpets throughout the week and they are doing fine, but the poor horn player was a little lost. So, I looked at the music, helped with rythms, and, once figuring out the key difference (F to Bb is - 1b and down three notes), with the notes (the first time I had transposed from F to Bb).

My questions (for those who play multiple instruments):

1 What is your frame of mind when you transpose from one key to another while playing trumpet? Esp weird keys like F to Bb, or bass cleff C to Bb treble (up an octave).

2 What is it when you play on a different instrument? Are you, in your mind, transposing from, say, BC baritone to trumpet when playing baritone, or adopting a completely new mindset? If so, what?

I sing and play piano, but that isn't exactly the same thing. You can trick your mind into hearing higher and just focusing on your 'new' do and go from there. I would love to hear your different thoughts. I just like hearing how different people feel and seeing the highs and lows of each.

BigBadWolf

The method that works best for me is putting everything in clefs and adding the accidentals. If the part is in F (and I am in C), I put it in mezzo-soprano clef and add 1 flat.

butxifxnot

I do the same when I'm on the trumpet, but it gets kind of hard when you have to continually transpose and then come accross accidentals on top of that...I'm sure it gets easier. I can read C fairly proficiently on trumpet, so...
How about when on other instruments?

trumpet blower88

Crap... I just typed out a nice long post about what I think of when I'm playing differant instruments. But then as I when to post it I accedantly hit the back button on my mouse and it erased it... so I'll just write out a short summary of what I said befor.

Basicaly, when I'm playing a differant instrument, I don't think at all about the trumpet. I only focus on what is written on the music for that instrument, and the sound that is comming out of the bell (or off the strings) of what ever instrument I'm playing.

If I tried to transpose to Bb while playing the French Horn and then play like how I would play a trumpet. I would be incredibly confused and probably start playing in a compleatly differant key.

If I were to think of treble cleff while playing trombone or baritone, I would get confused and start useing fingerings for the upper octive while I'm buzzing the partials of the lower octive.

If I were to think of trebble clef while playing my viola... well... all hell would break loose and the conductor of my orchrestra would die...

So basicaly, I only think about the instrument I'm playing at that particular time, and I'm only focusing on the sound comming out of the bell on that particular instrument.

Hope this helps!
- David -