The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Voice
Range (Concert Pitch)
Write It …
Soprano
Concert pitch
Alto
Concert pitch

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Chapter 18:
Composing and Arranging for Voices and Instruments
227
Voice
Range (Concert Pitch)
Write It…
Tenor 
One octave above concert pitch
(unless sharing a staff with the
basses)
Baritone
Concert pitch
Bass
Concert pitch
Instrumental Arranging
When you move on to instrumental arranging, you have a lot of different
instruments at your disposal. You need to know a little bit about how each
instrument works; in particular the range of the instrument and whether it
sounds in concert pitch or is somehow transposed.
Instrument Characteristics
Instruments are typically organized into several major groups. For our purposes,
we’ll look at strings (both bowed and plucked), brass, woodwinds, keyboards,
and percussion.
Strings
When you think of stringed instruments, you typically think of the violin and its
close cousins: the viola, cello, and double bass (sometimes called the string bass
or upright bass). Each of these instruments works on the same principle, with
four strings stretched over a hollow body. Music is made when a bow is pushed
and pulled over the strings, or when the strings are plucked.
The highest string voice is the violin, followed (in descending order) by the
viola, cello, and double bass. The violin is written with the treble clef, cello and
double bass use the bass clef, and the viola—the oddball of the group—uses the
alto clef, as shown in the following figure. (Remember: The pointy part of the
alto clef points at C.)
On a symphonic
score (discussed in
Chapter 19), the
instruments are dis-
played in the following
top-to-bottom order: wood-
winds, brass, percussion,
special instruments (like
piano or harp), and,
finally, strings.
Tip
The alto clef; used primarily by the viola.

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