Transposition is the process of changing the pitch of the music notes (up or down) by a constant interval without modifying the melodic intervals.
For example, if you have the melody of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) by Mozart beginning with a G and you want to play it beginning with a C, so you must transpose the melody.
How to transpose a melody?
You had to learn this before:
- Whole steps and half steps 
- Key signature
- Intervals
- Key Signature Identification
Imagine you have this melody (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) by Mozart):
But you want (or you need) to play this melody lower and beginning with a C: You just have to transpose the melody a perfect fifth lower.
Below is the method to transpose:
- From where to where?: In this example we want to move from G to C (lower).
- What interval?: Here it is a descending perfect fifth.
- Initial key?: Here the key is G Major
- New key?: Adding a descending perfect fifth to G Major produce C Major
- Key Signature Identification?: The new key signature for C Major is neutral (no accidentals)
And here is the result:
Sight-reading & transposition
Transposing at sight is transposing a music score without rewriting it, only just at sight.
How to Transpose Music at Sight?
The method is the same:
Imagine you have this melody (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) by Mozart):
But you want (or you need) to play this melody lower and beginning with a C: You just have to transpose the melody a perfect fifth lower.
Below is the method to transpose:
- From where to where?: In this example we want to move from G to C (lower).
- What interval?: Here it is a descending perfect fifth.
- Initial key?: Here the key is G Major
- New key?: Adding a descending perfect fifth to G Major produce C Major
- Key Signature Identification?: The new key signature for C Major is neutral (no accidentals)
- Which clef to use?: Here you must read the music score with a mezzo-soprano clef
And here is the result:
Others articles from this category:
Transposing instruments
A transposing instrument is an instrument for which the written notes sound differently from the notes heard. List of most common transposing instruments.
Transpose C to Bb
Transposition: Transpose C to B♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from C to B flat. Useful for clarinet, saxophone or trumpet.
Transpose C to Eb
Transposition: Transpose C to E♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from C to E flat. Useful for saxophones, clarinets, saxhorn.
Transpose C to F
Transposition: Transpose C to F, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from C to F. Useful for horn, basset horn or english horn.
Transpose Bb to C
Transposition: Transpose B♭ to C, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from B flat to C. Useful for clarinet, trumpet, Saxophones.
Transpose Bb to Eb
Transposition: Transpose B♭ to E♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody from B flat to E flat. Useful for alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone.
Transpose Bb to F
Transposition: Transpose B♭ to F, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from B flat to F. Useful for horn in F or english horn in F.
Transpose Eb to C
Transposition: Transpose E♭ to C, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody from E flat to C. Useful for B♭ clarinet, B♭ trumpet, B♭ Saxophones.
Transpose Eb to Bb
Transposition: Transpose E♭ to B♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody from E flat to B flat. Useful for clarinet, trumpet, saxophone.
Transpose Eb to F
Transposition: Transpose E♭ to F, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from E flat to F. Useful for horn in F or english horn in F.
Transpose F to C
Transposition: Transpose F to C, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from F to C. Useful for horn and english horn.
Transpose F to Eb
Transposition: Transpose F to E♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from F to E flat. Useful for saxophones, clarinets, saxhorn.
Transpose F to Bb
Transposition: Transpose F to B♭, learn how to transpose by hand or at sight a melody or a score from F to B flat. Useful for B♭ clarinet or B♭ trumpet.