Originally Posted By: eddie1261
<...>I learned my sax in concert key. Then someone handed me charts written in Eb and before I did the gig I literally had to write new charts transposed to concert key. I have been playing sax now for over 30 years and still know it in concert key. Why that stinks is that if you hand me a tenor or a soprano I have to think about every note sine it is a Bb instrument, and that same F# on the paper, a concert A on the alto, is now a concert E. Totally messes me up. And if I have to think when I play, I can't play. I am too busy thinking.


This is one of those skills I talked about in my previous post.

I play flute and wind synth in concert key, Bb Tenor&Soprano and Eb Alto&Bari. I can read a concert chart and transpose to play my tenor or soprano just fine. Tenor has been my main sax since I was in Junior High School. I can't do that on Eb Alto or Bari. I suppose if I was predominantly and alto player, I'd learn that skill too.

And I like your distinction between a musician and someone who knows how to play an instrument. IMHO a musician can read music (not necessarily sightread difficult charts but woodshed them), and knows at least basic music theory. There are of course exceptions and people will come up with a half dozen musicians who can't read music and ignore the fact that they are less than a thousandth of a percent of all musicians.

But my opinion and a dollar will buy a cup of coffee (unless you go to Starbucks).

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