Written Pitch vs Concert Pitch

By jeffspmusic · Published October 20, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026

If you play clarinet, trumpet, horn or any saxophone, the note on your part is not the note the room hears. That gap is the difference between written pitch and concert pitch, and once you understand why it exists it stops being a nuisance and starts being a skill: hearing one thing while reading another. Here is what a transposing instrument is, how far each one transposes, and how to train your ear so the two never fight.

Opens note recognition on Bb clarinet, Easy. The app plays the sounding pitch and you place the written note on the treble staff. Free, no account.

Two names for one sound

Concert pitch is the sound itself: the note a piano, a tuner or a flute would call it. Written pitch is what is printed on your part. For a piano, violin, flute, oboe, cello or trombone the two are the same thing, so players of those instruments rarely think about it. For a transposing instrument they differ by a fixed interval. Play a written C on a Bb clarinet and the sound that comes out is concert Bb, a major 2nd lower. Play a written C on an Eb alto sax and the room hears concert Eb, a major 6th lower. The instrument's name tells you the concert note its written C produces.

Nothing is out of tune and nobody is wrong. The clarinetist and the pianist are reading different letters and producing the same frequency. The convention only becomes a problem when the two systems meet, which is exactly where ear training lives: a pianist sounds a note, a recording plays a line, a bandleader calls a key, and you have to connect what you hear to what you finger.

Why instruments transpose at all

The short answer is fingerings. All four saxophones share one fingering system: a written C is the same fingers on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone, even though the sound that comes out spans more than two octaves across the family. Clarinets in Bb, A and Eb work the same way, and so do trumpets in Bb, C and D. If every part were written at concert pitch, a player switching horns would have to relearn every note on the page. Writing each instrument's part in its own key keeps the fingerings constant and moves the arithmetic onto the composer and the copyist.

The octave transposers have a different excuse: readability. A guitar part written where it sounds would live mostly below the treble staff, and a double bass part would sit on a stack of ledger lines under the bass clef. Writing them an octave above the sound keeps the notes on the staff. Piccolo goes the other way, written an octave below the sound to spare the player a part floating above the top line.

How far each instrument transposes

These are the transpositions the trainer applies, taken straight from its instrument table, so the sound you hear in the app and the note you answer with match your real part. "Sounds" means what the room hears when you play the written note.

Piano, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, trombone and tuba are concert pitch instruments: written and sounding are the same note. Every one of them, and every row in the table, has its own ear training guide.

When a pianist gives you a note

The practical question is always the same: someone sounds a concert note, and you need to know what to finger. Go the opposite way from the table. Your instrument sounds lower than written, so you read higher than the concert note by the same interval. On a Bb instrument, concert C is written D, one whole step up. On an Eb alto, concert C is written A, a major 6th up. On horn in F, concert C is written G, a perfect 5th up. Tenor players add an octave to the Bb step, baritone players add one to the Eb step, and the octave transposers just pick the comfortable octave.

Reading a concert lead sheet is the same trick applied to every chord symbol: a Bb horn reads each one a whole step up, an Eb horn a major 6th up (or, the same thing, a minor 3rd down). Most players stop doing the arithmetic within a year and simply hear a concert F as "my G". That is the goal of the training below, not a shortcut around it.

Training the ear to hold both at once

Most ear training apps play a piano and ask for a piano note, which teaches a clarinetist to label concert sounds with concert names and then leaves them to transpose on the gig. The trainer here does what your part does. Pick your instrument and it plays the concert pitch you would hear from the bell, in that instrument's own sampled sound, then asks you to place the note in written pitch on your own clef. The transposition is applied once, inside the app, at the moment the note sounds; everything you see and answer is written pitch. There is nothing to convert, and the label your ear attaches to each sound is the one your fingers already know.

Start with single notes on your instrument (the links in the table above pick the sound for you), then intervals, which transpose cleanly because a major 3rd is a major 3rd in any key. Chord tones in Arpeggios mode come next for wind players, and chords for anyone who also plays piano or guitar. If you play in a concert pitch section and a transposing one, train on both sounds; the point is that each instrument's written name lands on the right concert sound. For the overall path from nothing to playing by ear, read how to train your ear, and for the distances themselves, what is an interval.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between written pitch and concert pitch?

Concert pitch is the sound that actually comes out, the note a piano or a tuner would name. Written pitch is the note printed on your part. For a piano, flute or violin they are the same. For a transposing instrument they differ by a fixed interval: a Bb clarinet's written C sounds as concert Bb, a major 2nd lower.

Why are some instruments transposing instruments?

So that one set of fingerings reads the same across a family. All four saxophones finger a written C the same way, even though the sound differs by an octave or more. Clarinets and trumpets come in several sizes for the same reason. Writing each part in its own key lets a player switch instruments without relearning the page.

If a pianist plays a concert C, what do I play on a Bb instrument?

A written D. A Bb instrument sounds a major 2nd lower than written, so you read one whole step higher than the concert note. On an Eb alto sax you read a major 6th higher, so concert C is written A. On horn in F you read a perfect 5th higher, so concert C is written G.

Should I do ear training in written pitch or concert pitch?

Both at once, which is what reading a part already asks of you. The trainer plays the concert pitch you would hear from your instrument and asks for the written note on your own clef. The app applies the transposition, so the sound in your ear and the note on the page stay linked the way they are on a gig.

Hear concert, answer written

Note recognition on Eb alto sax, Easy; press PLAY and the sounding note plays while you answer in written pitch. Free, no account.