Following up on Mac's explanation, consider someone like me who plays a number of different horns. The fingering of the sax family is (almost) the same for each sax, so if I see a note E on the music, I finger it the same way for each sax, whether it is a bari or alto in Eb or a tenor or soprano in Bb. The sound that comes out will be a different pitch, so the person writing the music has to compensate by providing a transposed part. But I don't have to worry about how to finger it.
My trumpets are pitched in Bb (typical trumpet or flugelhorn), C (orchestral uses) and A (piccolo). Again, I don't have to relearn a different fingering system depending on which horn I'm playing (with only a few exceptions for funky notes, such as most trumpets have). I do need to get the music transposed to the correct key (or do the transposition in my head, but that's easier than relearning the fingering I've been using for 50 years).
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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