Thread: Natural keys

Alot of people do not know that there's actually a natural key for non-transposing instrument as well, ie: the flute's natural key is D major.
Just like the harp is C flat major and so on.
What other natural keys do u know? I remember that there's quite a few...but must go and dig up my notes. :P

If only we had more woodwind players with us..I'm always curious to know more about this family of instruments. Enlighten us Baroque Flute!

I do not know what the natural keys of most of the instruments are, but I can add just one--I think the bassoon's natural key is F even though it plays in C. The piccolo plays in C, but an octave higher that it is scored. The Clarinet can play in B-flat or A, but usually B-flat Clarinets are used. For a B-flat Clarinet, you write the music a whole step above how you want it to be played. For instance if you are scoring an orchestral piece in D, you write the clarinet part in the key of E, and if you want the clarinet to play an F#, you write G#! The Oboe plays in C, but the English Horn plays in F. So you write the English horn part in A for a piece in D, and one fifth higher than you want it to actually be played. Anyway, I've never played these instruments, but I took a course from the library on orchestration, because my compositions are for orchestra.

For a B-flat Clarinet, you write the music a whole step above how you want it to be played. For instance if you are scoring an orchestral piece in D, you write the clarinet part in the key of E, and if you want the clarinet to play an F#, you write G#!

Concert Pitch, Written pitch and transposing instruments.... LOL... I know alot of people hate this topic in theory lessons. :P

I find it strangely interesting h34r:

Yeh, the first scale I learnt on my Bassoon was F major but i still don't understand all this natural keys for concert pitch instruments. what is the theory behind it? Please enlighten me