How to Transcribe for a Saxophone
Learning to transcribe music to play on the saxophone can seem like a difficult task. The saxophone is a woodwind instrument with a variety of buttons that have to be played in combination to produce different notes. Learning to transcribe music from a saxophone to give to another saxophonist or transcribing music written for another instrument requires knowledge of the saxophone and musical theory. After you learn the basics of saxophone transcription, you will be able to transcribe music between another instrument and your saxophone with very little trouble.
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Instructions
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Learn to read musical notation. This is an invaluable skill for all musicians, and saxophonists are no different. Reading music is easier than it may seem, being simply a matter of identifying key positions on the staff and then counting spaces and lines until you find the desired note. At the beginning of each staff is either a treble or bass clef, which indicates what note the bottom line represents. On a treble clef (which looks a little like a cursive "g"), the lowest line represents the E note; on a bass clef (like a backwards "c" with a colon after it), the lowest line represents the G note. Notes can be on the lines or in the spaces between lines. Moving up one spot means you move up one note. See the Resources for more information.
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Familiarize yourself with the positions of the notes on the saxophone. The buttons accessible by your left and right hand are used in combinations to produce different musical notes. For example, press the top two circular buttons near your right hand and the bottom three large notes near your left hand to produce an E note. There is a small key between the second and third large circular left-hand buttons, which is not played when fingering an E. Press the large circular key underneath this small key by itself to play a C note. See the Resources for diagrams of note positions.
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Combine your knowledge to transcribe saxophone music to musical notation. For example, you know how to produce an E note on the saxophone, and you know that an E note is on the bottom line of a treble clef staff. To transcribe an E note, simply draw a note on the musical staff with the bottom line running through the center of it. A standard quarter note is shown by a black, circular note with a stem. Add a tail onto the stem to turn the note into an eighth note, or hollow out the middle of the black spot to turn it into a half note.
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Learn how to identify the notes on other instruments to transcribe music from another instrument to the saxophone. Musical notes are a universal language, so as long as you learn how to locate notes on other instruments, you can transcribe them into standard notation and then play the same tune on the saxophone. For example, on a guitar, the thickest string with nothing fretted is an E note, and with the first fret pressed down it is an F note.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit saxophone image by SADIA from Fotolia.com
