Instruments which use the tenor clef

Tenor clef — fourth line from bottom is middle C. As you can see, the alto and tenor clefs are the same shape. The pointed central part of the C clef tells you where middle C lies. If you look carefully, you'll see that the tenor clef sits a little higher up than the alto clef.

The bassoon, cello and trombone all use the tenor clef. In Grade 5 Theory, you need to be able to transpose music between anyof the clefs. Normall you have to keep the pitch exactly the same but read the question carefully! Click here if you'd like to print some manuscript paper. In this piece, which is for flute top stave and piano lower two staves , your task is to transpose the left hand piano part in bars 3 and 4 into the tenor clef, without changing the pitch.

The bars you need to transpose are marked with a bracket. A guitar TAB sign on the staff: Many times guitar TAB is notated alongside the treble clef, and so altogether, guitar TAB sheet music looks like the following: We hope you now have a better understanding of musical clefs and how to use them! Tags guide guides help how-to lesson music music guide music lessons music terms music theory music tips musician sheet music. You might also like. Editor Picks. Destination: Music! Log In Sign In.

Forgot password? Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password. Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired. Log in Privacy Policy Accept. Add to Collection Add new or search Public collection title. Private collection title. Clarinet : treble clef. Clarinet Bb sounds a major 2nd lower than written, clarinet in A sounds a minor 3rd lower and clarinet in Eb sounds a minor 3rd higher.

Bass clarinet in Bb sounds a compound major 2nd lower than written. Bassoon : bass, tenor and treble clef, not transposing. Contrabassoon sounds an octave lower than written. Trumpet : treble clef. For example, have a look at this extract from a Lullaby for Bassoon by Brahms : You can see how the music for the bassoon has been written using Bass Clef, but changes to the Tenor Clef when the pitch of the melody rises up to the higher range of the instrument.

If a Tenor Clef was not used for the last section of the melody the melody would start to use a lot of ledger lines:. He is a music teacher, examiner, composer and pianist with over twenty years experience in music education.