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Re:Bass clef versus Treble Clef.

Questions:-
When you listen to a piece of music can you? :-
Deduce what the time signature might be? - "probably"
Identify the instrument/s being played ?     - "probably"
Deduce whether the music being played is written in treble, bass, alto,
tenor, or outer-mongolian clef ? - "certainly not!!!"
Put simply, the clefs used indicate the pitch position in relation to
the great staff and are really more useful to the composer than the
instrumentalist. Notation is the shorthand language between composer and
performer and the the simpler the better. Unlike the spoken word where
libretto in Italian sounds totally different from say German or English,
notation is universal in the western world in that a particular note
written in one clef sounds exactly the same when written in the
appropriate place on another. If in Brass Bands we use the treble clef
as a kind of "Esperanto" to make life easier for players to alternate
more easily between instruments we continue to show a common sense
attitude. If the "purists" want to crack on about correctness, let them,
or better still refer them to Gardner Read's book "Musical Notation"
which should keep them quiet for a year or three.  It's a matter of
horses for courses, if you want to play brass in the orchestral or other
fields of music then learn the clefs as you need to, it's hardly rocket
science after all, if you can play an musical instrument with a degree
of proficiency you are already the envy of most people.
Pheeeeew!
Peter Aunger
Torquay


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