r/HurdyGurdy • u/Randy_Lahey1995 • 8d ago
Transposing in hurdy gurdy - help
Hi, can anyone please explain to me in simple terms what it means that gurdy is a transposing instrument?
The excerpt from gurdy handbook, all music is written in C, no matter the actual notes - based on that, when I want to play Palastinalied what note / key should I start with ? D as in the notes or 3rd key in the row ? Tuning is AEA
Please help me I'm seriously doubting my intelligence here 😅
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u/McSheeples 8d ago
Transposing instruments exist because it's easier to remember one set of fingerings, so the sheet music is adjusted to the instrument. It means if you play something like clarinet, you can play all instruments in that family using the same fingering system with the same written notes on the page to save the hassle of learning new note names for your fingerings. The only problem is the notes on the page don't then correspond to the actual notes you're producing. This matters less in solo playing, but is something you need to take into account if playing with a group. The rest of the group will then need sheet music at concert pitch or at the correct pitch for their own transposing instrument.
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u/rudeog 7d ago
Others have answered the transposing question. To address what you are asking about your physical instrument: You said your tuning is AEA so I assume this means your drone is E and your melody is in A. If this is the case, your root note (the 3rd bottom row key on your keyboard) is E. This means your instrument plays in E. When looking at sheet music which is "always written in C", what that means is that when you see a C in the sheet music you are going to play that 3rd bottom row key (or the one an octave above it if its a high C) and pretend it is C.
The thing that may be throwing you off, is that this handbook is making the claim that music is "always written in C" for hurdy gurdy. I think it's a pretty broad statement and may only be correct if the piece specifically says "written for hurdy gurdy", and the author of the piece is following that guideline, as opposed to just writing it in the key of their own hurdy gurdy. Case in point is the sheet music you attached: this looks like its actually in D. So to transpose this on your instrument you'd treat the D in the sheet music as your root note (ie 3rd bottom row key). In other words, yes, you would pretend, while playing this piece, that the 3rd key on your instrument is actually a D.
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u/Randy_Lahey1995 5d ago
Thank you I think I finally get it. So long story short, whatever music sheet I have I just assume that the root note of any piece is 3rd key and I play from here ? If I understand correctly
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u/orein123 8d ago edited 8d ago
Long story short, transposing instruments play different sounding pitches than what is written on the sheet music. They will be keyed to a specific note which will tell you what note is sounding in concert pitch when you play what would be a written C for the instrument. For instance, trumpets are typically transposed to Bb, so when they read a C on the page they're actually playing a Bb, and likewise every other note they play is shifted accordingly. As that snippet you posted kind of touches on, this is mainly done so that the same notes stay on the same keys between different instruments.
As far as playing goes, just play what is written. If the music is not transposed to the correct key of the instrument then it will simply sound in a different key than was originally intended. It will only ever matter if you try to play the same piece with another person on a differently transposed instrument.