Musically Un-inclined

Wahahahaha... realised one great mistake one could make in the world of music..

I wrongly assumed that the alto Sax is in G! They are actually playing only G major in Bb concert.. All these while, i knew that trumpet in Bb played C major in Bb concert. Just that perhaps, i was too preoccupied with my own instrument.. i thought horns in F play F major in Bb concert, so the respective instrument should play their own major scale depending what key the instrument is in right? Wrong! It was already staring at me.. i was a trumpet player in YJ, and for Bb concert, i played C major.. but i really think that much.

The problem (or rather the derivation of an answer) occurs because i needed to transpose the horn in F to read the score written in G. I actually turned to the alto sax for reference.. i was so wrong! They only played G major for concert Bb.. but in actual fact, they are alto sax in Eb.. LOL.. how dumb can i be? I always.. seriously, thought they are in G since my secondary school days.. haha.. coz always heard them going to play G major.. lol.. and given horns in F play F major.. surely G major equals sax in G? LOL.. the answer is NO.

It always stopped there.. and i'm left pondering why am i supposed to transpose up a tone when the reference from the sax translates to a descend of a tone. Well.. i was right in counting at least, just that the instrument chosen is wrong. In actual fact, there are no instrument in G that i can take as reference.. lol..

Actually i solved this during my secondary school days.. but was so long ago, i've really forgotten about why.. till this Mozart piece requires me to transpose again. I couldn't just transpose without knowing the reason why lor.. so i dig and discuss.. but haha.. i discuss with someone who is just as confused as me.. in the end we all got more confused.

And so.. how it works:

Instruments other than those in C are transposing instruments.. for example, trumpet/clarinet in Bb (though there are variants in other keys as well), alto sax in Eb, horn in F and oboe in A. Those in C are concert pitch instrument such as flute, strings, bassoon, trombone and the tuba.

So the implication is that, instruments in C play their written C and sound C. Horns play their written C and sound F while Oboe sound A. So it's only that.. whatever key the instrument is built in, it'll sound that note (in concert pitch) when they play their written C.

LOL...ok.. i'm blogging this because i don't want to forget again.. well, although it's good to let my brains work for a while.. i do hope i can work on something new.

Actually i'm only concerned with the transposition for horn... haha.. here goes.
In F: Written C - Sounding F (concert pitch) --> Play C (perfect fifth on horn in F)
In G: Written C - Sounding G (concert pitch) --> Play D, up 2 semitones
In D: Written C - Sounding D (concert pitch) --> Play A, down 3 semitones

These are the 3 keys i've encountered so far.. lol.. might be more to come.. but at least i've solved it.. lol. In conclusion, the horn in F sound a whole perfect fifth lower than the concert pitch.