Transposition question for Patsy Clines “Crazy”

[Michael]

😎 Hey Johnny,
I started working on the song “Crazy” from Patsy Cline for Tenor and the backing track is in Bb Major, which means for Tenor it needs to be played in the Key of C. The Piano sheet music I was given is in Eb Major for this song. What do I need to do to transpose it from the key of Eb major that the sheet music it is now to C Major? The difference between Eb and C is 3 semi tones. We wouldn’t just look at the individual notes on the sheet music in this key and go up 2 semi-tones like we typically would for Tenor, would we?

[Michael]

I found what I needed to do–in looking at the sheet music there will be some accidentals when it’s transposed to play it in the Key of C and now it’s sounding much better. I could tell right away there were a few sour notes but hadn’t taken into account some of these accidentals and presto, much better now 🙂

[john]

Yes, The piano chart needs to be transposed to C. You don’t have to worry about accidentals if you know what to put as a key signature and all the notes are transposed with the right intervals. Look at the piano music in Eb, it should have 3 flats in the key signature… so in C you wouldn’t put any flats or sharps because there are none in the key of C.

[Tim56]

Hey guys: I have Crazy in the key of F. If you would like, I can scan it and send it to Johnny. Let me know. Tim

[Michael]

I would be interested in checking that out Tim. On the sheet music for Eb Major that I have, there are a few of accidentals–some places where they show an E Natural instead of a Eb, there’s 2 A naturals instead of Ab and 1 B Natural instead of Bb–and I thought this would create accidentals when transposed to C Major, when looking at these naturals on the Piano. But it doesn’t, and that’s evident when playing the transposed notes to C Major on the Saxophone. These naturals kind of threw me off a little, so I’m glad Johnny clarified this for me before learning it and uploading to the blog.
I’m getting some new Tenor Reeds next week and then I’ll upload “Fly Me to the Moon.” Even though I don’t have a Guardala MP like he/other Tenor Saxophone players have, this song and Mack the Knife that I’m almost done with still sound great on the Hard Rubber MP that I have; that’s the great thing about these songs Johnny makes available.

[Author]

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