Transposition of music.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I only thought of this topic because it sounds a bit daunting a subject; but it need not be at all.

Another reason to put the topic out is because I had to do a lot of this when I got my first concertina, transposing music to fit into suitable key range. And now, more recently, I acquired a wooden Chalumeau ( early form of clarnet) with a simple chromatic octave, and so again my transposing skills are required again.

I do not see it as a burden having to do this, indeed it is a good skill to have, all you have to do is keep your eye on taking the tune up, or perhaps, down the number of steps in interval to fit. For example, you have tune in G major, needs to be used as F major.. just count down the one place ( in this example) and ensure you have made all the notes to follow suit. (And add the appropriate key signature).

Using what I call transpositional instruments, that require a lot of adjustments, may be seen as making more work than needed. But I think that you often gradually build up a unique set of tunes unique to the need, as required, and often pieces that may not be used normally, or even overlooked in their home key.

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by SIMON GABRIELOW
Spell error on silly mobile phone display

[xgx]

Alternatives:

Write up your tune using Musescore (the free version)

https://musescore.com/

and transpose up/down  by Key or Octave.  You can also add chord symbols, lyrics, guitar chord diagrams...

It lets you produce a PDF of your tune ,,, and listen to it using piano or other instrument ...I like the accordion sound...closest to a Melodeon 😊

 

If you have the ABC use something like Anahata'a free ABC music viewer ... doesn't transpose but it's a handy tool nonetheless

https://maryanahata.co.uk/abcviewer.php

[Michael Eskin]

For ABCs, my ABC tools easily transpose to any key:
 

Find the tool here:
 

http://michaeleskin.com/abc

 

 

 

 

[Takayuki YAGI]

29 minutes ago, xgx said:

If you have the ABC use something like Anahata'a free ABC music viewer ... doesn't transpose but it's a handy tool nonetheless

https://maryanahata.co.uk/abcviewer.php

If you are familiar with abc notation, Michael Eskin's abctools has transpose feature.

http://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html

[xgx]

Yes, Michael must have updated it since we last spoke.

 

My other 'go to' tool for transposing ABC is  Jens Wollschläger's

http://www.franziskaludwig.de/abctransposer/index.php

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Some very interesting ideas here in response to my topic; but I like to do the transposing thing myself, manually, and by eye and hand, but I can certainly see that other methods have their place also.🌝

[DaveRo]

I often transpose a tune to fit within the compass of my 42-button Peacock duet. These are usually 2-part tunes. Sometimes I have to choose between the accompaniment going off the bottom or the melody going off the top. If I can find the music in ABC it's easy, as several people have said. I change the bass clef to treble-8 at the same time.

 

If I only have staff notation I use an Android app - Music Scanner by David Zemsky - to convert it to MusicXML, which Easy ABC can import, and then transpose it. The app will work from a pdf, a screenshot from a website, or by photographing sheet music. And it will play it - which is a feature I often come back to when trying to learn it!

[Roger Hare]

44 minutes ago, DaveRo said:

I often transpose a tune to fit within the compass of my 42-button Peacock duet. These are usually 2-part tunes. Sometimes I have to choose between the accompaniment going off the bottom or the melody going off the top. If I can find the music in ABC it's easy, as several people have said. I change the bass clef to treble-8 at the same time.

 

If I only have staff notation I use an Android app - Music Scanner by David Zemsky - to convert it to MusicXML, which Easy ABC can import, and then transpose it. The app will work from a pdf, a screenshot from a website, or by photographing sheet music. And it will play it - which is a feature I often come back to when trying to learn it!

Putting on my pedant's hat I have to ask: do you mean 2-part or 2-voice tunes? I ask because the strategy you outline is exactly what I do with 2-voice tunes, even to the point of converting the bass clef, so I am wondering...

 

As you imply, it's very easy to transpose in EasyABC (and ABCExplorer and ABCMus if I remember correctly).

[DaveRo]

I mean 2-voice - in ABC terminology. Whether it's 2-part sounds like a musical question, so I'll evade it.

 

Here's one of my sources:

http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/RM_arrangements/01tunelib_RMarr.php

I'm been learning A-Bruxa. There's an Am and a Bm version there, but I found that Dm fits the Peacock best: the accompaniment is not off the bottom, but ISTR I had to alter the melody a bit at the top which spoils it slightly.

[wunks]

Sometimes transposing to a more playable key is not helpful.  If you're playing an established repertoire such as contra dance music, the other musicians ( fiddlers especially ) will not likely be amused or accommodating.  Such is the case with the Jeffries duet C core.  The friendliest major keys are C,F,Bb and G.  Having learned all my contra tunes in these keys I had my 50 button old pitch box bumped up to D core for D,G,C and A, transposing the instrument.  Perhaps not doable for other systems but I would guess a C/G Anglo could be converted.

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

8 hours ago, DaveRo said:

I often transpose a tune to fit within the compass of my 42-button Peacock duet. These are usually 2-part tunes. Sometimes I have to choose between the accompaniment going off the bottom or the melody going off the top. If I can find the music in ABC it's easy, as several people have said. I change the bass clef to treble-8 at the same time.

 

If I only have staff notation I use an Android app - Music Scanner by David Zemsky - to convert it to MusicXML, which Easy ABC can import, and then transpose it. The app will work from a pdf, a screenshot from a website, or by photographing sheet music. And it will play it - which is a feature I often come back to when trying to learn it!

Why exactly you need any written transposition to transpose on a Hayden? Simply „relabel” buttons mentally to „shift” the layout to a desired key and play. Geometry of the music stays the same, unless you’re aiming at a „wrap around” key. This is one of the main features of all isomorphic layouts. 

[Roger Hare]

6 hours ago, DaveRo said:

[1] I mean 2-voice - in ABC terminology. Whether it's 2-part sounds like a musical question, so I'll evade it.

 

[2] Here's one of my sources:

http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/RM_arrangements/01tunelib_RMarr.php

[1] You picked up my point correctly! I wasn't sure if I was being clear...

 

[2] Heh! One of my 'goto' resources - plenty of two-voice (and two-part) tunes there...

[DaveRo]

37 minutes ago, Łukasz Martynowicz said:

Why exactly you need any written transposition to transpose on a Hayden?

 

Having bought a concertina in my 70s, having never played an instrument (apart from a bit of piano before I was 10) I decided that learning a bare minimum of dots, and then playing those dots, was a way forward. So far it works for me - ish. I'm finding that I'm beginning to relate the dots on the staff to the button layout. But if I look at a dot, I don't readily recall the name of the note A,B,C...

 

Perhaps in ten or twenty years I'll be able to do what you describe.

 

By contrast, having 50 years experience of computers, I find transposing ABC or sheet music a doddle. My choice of a Hayden was predictable: I'm an engineer not a musician.

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

1 hour ago, DaveRo said:

 

Having bought a concertina in my 70s, having never played an instrument (apart from a bit of piano before I was 10) I decided that learning a bare minimum of dots, and then playing those dots, was a way forward. So far it works for me - ish. I'm finding that I'm beginning to relate the dots on the staff to the button layout. But if I look at a dot, I don't readily recall the name of the note A,B,C...

 

Perhaps in ten or twenty years I'll be able to do what you describe.

 

By contrast, having 50 years experience of computers, I find transposing ABC or sheet music a doddle. My choice of a Hayden was predictable: I'm an engineer not a musician.

As you probably figured out by now, playing on a Hayden is all about geometry, not note names. So if you decipher the series of finger movements in one key, the same series of finger movements apply in any other key. 
 

If you’re just beginning learning dots you may want to look at a specific alternative notation system, Parncut 6-6 Tetragram. It has a „built in” reference to Hayden rows layout and is way easier to sight read than traditional dots.

[DaveRo]

38 minutes ago, Łukasz Martynowicz said:

If you’re just beginning learning dots you may want to look at a specific alternative notation system...

I did - right at the start! I read your posts and looked at your examples. I was certainly attracted to the concept.

 

But I concluded that I needed to know the old system to find stuff to play. And once I start learning that I might as well live with it.

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

43 minutes ago, DaveRo said:

I did - right at the start! I read your posts and looked at your examples. I was certainly attracted to the concept.

 

But I concluded that I needed to know the old system to find stuff to play. And once I start learning that I might as well live with it.

 

There is always an option to be "bilingual"