I don’t quite get it from reading it on wikipedia. You make one note mean another note? Why?
I just got a lute and downloaded some tuners, and some ask for instrument transposition and I don’t know what I should put.
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In music, all instruments are made differently. Physics means that the construction, length of tubing, tension of strings etc means that many instruments pitch differently. “Concert Pitch” is the standard that instruments generally tune to and is measured in Hertz and the note of A is usually the tuning note measured as 440 Hz. The key of the instrument is measured by the lowest note the instrument can play, called the fundamental. So a flute will have a fundamental of C and C is generally concert pitch. As such, when a flute plays concert A, the pitch will be 440 Hz. A Trumpet, however, has a fundamental of Bb which puts it in a key of Bb. So, an A played on a Trumpet will sound different to an A played on the flute because the fundamentals are a different (one tone). This is where transpositions come in so the instruments can play together at the same pitch. For a Trumpet to play 440 Hz, it needs to play the note B, a whole tone higher than the A on the flute which gives it 440 Hz. Instruments with different fundamentals (French Horn – F, Alto Saxophone – Eb etc) will have different transpositions to get to 440 Hz.
I am not a string player, but my understanding is you would tune each string to the named note (eg G is tuned on a tuner to G). This allows you to play open at concert pitch. If you use a Capo, you will change the pitch by a semitone for each fret.
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