Thinking in Concert Pitch
Hey Adrian! I've heard from a few jazz musicians (playing on transposing instruments), that switching to a thinking in concert pitch (instead of Bb), is a great advantage especially when playing with others. I can see why, but I was curious what your thoughts were on this, and if you had any tips to approach this mental "switch". It this like my brain is stuck when I try to think about arpeggios in concert pitch, my fingers automatically go to the transposed arpeggios. Thank you!
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Hi Pierre,
speaking personally, I always think in the key of what instrument I'm playing. (in other words, if a song is in concert Bb, I'm thinking in our clarinet key of C).
Sometimes you might have to transpose from a lead sheet (etc) into your own key- because sometimes a band you're playing with might only have a concert pitch lead sheet. But even in this case, if I'm improvising off a concert lead sheet, I'm 'transposing in my head' the chords into clarinet pitch. Or, if it's a very complicated set of chords, I'll jot them down in clarinet key to make life easier.
I'm not sure of your playing experience, but I would say unless you're often put in the situation where you will need to 'sight transpose', keep learning and thinking in our clarinet key. Music is complicated enough already!!☺️