All you educated MNetters...............do you compose music using......BASS CLEF....???

[RTKangaMummy]

In DS music lesson today they were composing music

Another boy was put with DS and said that he knew how to compose BUT only using BASS CLEF

DS uses TREBLE CLEF and that was what they were supposed to use and so he explained it to the other boy

ie which notes were on each line and what they were called

If people compose in BASS CLEF which instrument is it for???

Would it not be more usual to learn TREBLE first?

I realise that for some instruments like double bass or maybe tuba they are low

.

I'm prepared to be corrected here but itsn't treble clef used for the melody and bass clef used for the accompanient (sp?)

I played piano at school and the right hand which played the melody was treble clef and the left hand was bass clef.

In saying that though I don't play any other instruments apart from the piano so I don't know about others obviously. And I was seriously bad at composing, hated it in fact.

I've probably been of absolutely no use to you I'm afraid, sorry

It's not a question of right/left hand - it's just how high or low it is. So generally the right hand would use treble clef, as it is higher than the left, but not exclusively.

Cello would use bass clef.

It could be the cello, double bass, bassoon, tuba or trombone - any of the 'bass' instruments. Seems a bit strange to me that if he can read the bass clef he your son's friend doesn't know treble - I thought usually you learnt treble first. But I suppose if you only play a bass instrument, there is no need to learn treble. How old are they?

Ooops, CF said the same thing and explained the bass clef before treble thing too. Sorry, should have read the whole thread first

10/10 CF and mamama! It's all to do with pitch rather than LH/RH or melody/accompaniment.

I'm still shaky on treble clef now, and I have a music degree!!!!! Much prefer Bass clef, and the lesser used tenor clef. I never learnt treble until I had to.

same here jura - switching between bass and treble I don't even have to think. But put something in a tenor clef and I have to stop and get out a pencil

Message withdrawn

Viola players are odd.

I went out with one once. He was quaint.

It's not only viola players use the tenor - bassoonists do too! (although I am very very rusty and would probably have to get out the pencil to translate)

I can cope with treble and bass clefs. But need to think to use tenor or alto (that is actually a lie, haven't had any need to use them since doing Grade 5 Theory in about 1991 or something).

As a non cello playing person, can anyone tell me something about it?

As the cello has a fairly extensive pitch, I presume that music for it wouldn't only be written in the bass clef. Does music tend to be written only in bass and treble clefs, or do alto and tenor clefs get used as well?

And another thought - do tenors and altos ever sing using the tenor or alto clefs?

Better get back to work before I start wondering too much...

Thanks guys for the info that explains it

They are 11 years btw

DS plays Trumpet and keyboards {and is learning cello in school music lessons as a group lesson}

So he knows the treble clef etc very well

I don't think this other boy plays any instruments apart from the group lesson on Mondays

They were able to choose an instrument from a different or new section of orchestra from the one they could already play to learn as a group lesson with peripetetic teachers as part of year 7 music lessons

So as DS plays Trumpet and Keyboards he chose Cello

Or if they didn't already learn an instrument they could choose any one from any section.

My favourite instrument is violin but I also play a bit of viola and piano and was starting to learn the cello before bump number two got in the way.

The only way I could play the viola using the alto clef was by pretending I was playing violin in third position but do it in first position instead... It works out OK most of time and at least gets you started when you're staring at the notes and your mind has gone completely blank! When it moves up into treble cleff though I generally grind to a halt while I try to mentally shift back to the violin but one string along...

As you can imagine, I'm not very good at the viola and probably am quite weird.

I did a diploma exam with the most horrific test in it - you had to sightread a 4 part thing, written in bass clef, tenor clef, alto clef and soprano clef (3 notes down from treble) all at the same time. Sadistic if you ask me.

I'm a cellist so famliar with bass and tenor clefs (and also treble from singing and piano so that is another story).
Tenor is easy if you are a cellist as the notes are 5 notes higher than the same note written in the bass clef and a cello is tuned in 5ths. Therefore if a note is written in the tenor clef you just play it as if it were written in the bass, just up one string....
Clear as mud?!

As far as I know, viola is the only instrument for which all the music is written in the alto clef. Alto and tenor clefs (which is similar but 1 line down) pop up sometimes in parts for cello, bassoon etc that are normally bass clef instruments.

Idris - it's all about reducing numbers of leger lines. So on the cello, once you get above an F or G above middle C, it would get really confusing to keep using bass clef, so you would switch into tenor clef. Similarly a viola might go into treble clef from the alto clef.

In early music (Palestrina/Lassus) they would use the 4 clefs soprano, alto, tenor, bass. (Soprano isn't treble though) But now it is most convenient to use treble, treble, treble down an octave and bass.

oh and to answer the question cello music is only written in bass and tenor - tenor gets you right up the soundboard and onto the bridge of the A string if you use the "---8o" (up an octave) sign

Alto and tenor clefs are C clefs, so they fix a line (the one that passes through the thin part of the clef symbol) to be middle C. I think you have to be reading them all the time to be able to do it without counting lines though!

Thank you string players .

I suppose a bump must rather get in the way of a cello .

PPH, your explanation about tenor clef playing does make sense .

Ooh more answers to my questions. I will read them now.

I wonder whether DS and DD might be string players once day. DS likes the piano at the moment. DD just likes to make noise of any sort.