Ah, that makes sense! I’m a violinist mainly, but I do remember learning about clarinets in an orchestrations class a very long time ago… Thanks for solving the mystery!
5 Likes
As a recovering guitar player, I can tell you that a strat sounds significantly bigger tuned to Eb. That’s why Stevie Ray Vaughan did it. It’s also easier for some singers to sing when the band is tuned to Eb, and most horns have an easier time in Eb.
Tune down a half step, and if everyone else is also tuned down, play and read music/tab as written.
5 Likes
That’s different. That’s actually a transposing instrument. All transposing instruments are notated this way.
In this case, it’s just an alternate tuning of somethign that is already transposed an octave. It’s just mis-notated 
1 Like
Not really.
As soon as you tune the bass to something different, you are in effect creating a ‘transposing instrument’ by writing the music the way it is written for it. De-tuning alone doesn’t make it so, but notating it this way along with it in effect does.
A C on a sax is really a D in concert pitch. We notate the key on the sax C and write C on the staff, but the music itself needs a D.
A bass tuned down a half step….
3rd fret on the E string is a G, but now really a Gb in “concert pitch”. We notate the fret a G and write G on the staff, but the music itself needs a Gb.
2 Likes
Hmm. I guess you could consider a bass tuned to an alternate tuning to be transposed to that. I guess I don’t think of alternate tunings that way as I usually use Drop D or BEAD, neither of which you would do this for.
EADG is to BEAD as Alto is to Tenor, BUT……how do you write the music for BEAD?
I would assume the exact way it is to be played, so you are leaning basically a differently keyed instrument, but in Concert pitch, so BEAD would not be transposed.
Hmmm, clear as mud.
A lot of it depends on how you write the music I guess.
BEAD is in concert pitch (transposed up an octave like all guitar scores)
It has to do with making it playable for the average bear… or bassist.
If it is written in the flat key, and you’re supposed to (have to) tune down the instrument to play it, it creates a cognitive dissonance between known patterns / locations on the bass and the written music.
If you’re transcribing music for a 4 string bass that is tuned to Eb, it makes sense to TAB it and notate it as though it were in standard notation. All of the sight reading literacy, thus, translates and someone will be able to play it as written without difficulty.
If a bass is tuned down a half step and then the sight reader / performer has to mentally adjust up one fret for every note that they see, it can be very jarring and difficult to execute.
Now, this only applies to 4 string basses.
If you go to play it on a 5 string bass and don’t retune the bass, it is easier to execute with everything notated the way it sounds - Gbs written as Gbs, for example.
But if you’re playing a re-tuned bass, but playing familiar patterns and playing as though the bass were in standard, it makes sense to notate it as though it were in standard tuning with the tuning/performance note at the beginning.
6 Likes