how to transpose from one key to another quickly?

[dora96]

Hi all,

Does anyone know to transpose from one key to another quickly without rewriting the whole sheet music ? At the moment, I accompany someone with singing or playing other instrument like the clarinet. I need to transpose key signature that they are comfortable to sing. However, I can't read the sheet music from it. I need to rewrite the new key.

How to learn to play in different keys quickly. What is the best method to start with to get familiar with changing key. Thanks

 

[timothy42b]

dora,

You are asking more than one question, and they have opposite answers.

Can you learn to transpose at sight?  Of course. 

Can you learn it quickly?  Of course not.

Can you rewrite the music in any key you want?

Of course.

Can you do this without writing it out the first time? 

Of course not. 

(I think maybe you and I have had this conversation before.  Certainly we have had similar ones.) 

In my church, we have a couple of fill-in pianists who play okay but are intimidated by keys with large numbers of sharps.  (or maybe it's flats, I forget).  Or they've learned a piece years ago in one key and just don't want to re-learn it in a new one. 

In these cases I type the hymn into Noteworthy Composer, which is a free download notation program that everybody should have.   It's not as good as Sibelius or Finale, but it's easier to use and good enough for most of what I do.

Then I click transpose, and the entire piece magically appears with a new key signature and all the notes moved.  I've never had an error doing this.  It takes me about ten minutes to do a standard hymn this way.  When I started it took me a half hour.  You cannot learn to transpose at sight in an hour, unless you're way smarter than me.  So this is what I recommend.

If the piece is simple, maybe you can just play it.  Clarinet is in Bb treble, so you put everything down a whole step.  But I don't think you will feel as secure as if you have the real music.   

An option of course is to use a digital piano, play the original music, and use the transpose button on the piano.  We did a lot of this in my old church, because we had someone who played well but didn't read music, and to match the singers I just moved the piano pitch on the Clavinova the right amount. 

[quantum]

Vocal pieces are often published in various keys.  Search around you may find something in the key you need.  You might need to try different editions and publishers.

One trick I use when doing sight transposition is to read as if in another clef.  Eg: Music is in Bb and you want it in C.  Read Treble clef as Alto clef. 

[keyofc]

Dora,
Sometimes I just write down I IV, etc depending on the chords in the piece
when I play at places that constantly keep changing the key.
thats helps me transpose pretty fast.

[dora96]

Sure ! There are number ways to transpose music through different technology. By electronically transpose or computerized, manually  transpose. What I am interested in how sight reading transpose notation into the different keys.

Quantum your method seems interesting read out the alto clef. Could you elaborate this method more? I very rarely deal with alto clef at all. I don't know even know how to read the alto clef for my ignorance of this area.

For simple songs, as long as I practice well, I  can  play the transpose, but with both hands together, it can be very challenged. Specially you don't want to make  mistakes when someone try to sing while you are accompanying. For the full confidence, how to practice. I once see someone using transpose wheel.

It is hard for piano, because there is sharps and flats in different major or minor. For guitar if you know one scale, the position or fingering  of the another  scales will be the same. As matter as moving up or down the fretboard. I just wonder would this method  apply to piano playing.    

[Bob]

I remember something about four different ways to transpose.  I'm blanking on them all now though.

One way -- Read the music in a different clef.  Or pretend your reading a different part of the clef -- ex. Something like pretending there's another line at the bottom or mentally taking out a line on the bottom.

2 -- Mentally shift the notes up/down from where they're written.

3 -- Read in solfege and with chord numbers and shift that way.

[timothy42b]

.

One trick I use when doing sight transposition is to read as if in another clef.  Eg: Music is in Bb and you want it in C.  Read Treble clef as Alto clef. 

I think maybe you mean tenor clef.  That's how I read Bb treble, as tenor with two more flats.

If I have to cover Horn in F, I read it as mezzo-soprano clef. 

My mother had all seven clefs down.  She could read at sight any monophonic instrument, from any other instrument.  (She mainly played French horn, but could play duets with any of us kids from our parts, regardless of what pitch instrument she was playing.)  I never asked her how she learned it.  Presumably as a student with a good work ethic she just learned all her scales in all the clefs.  But maybe it just came easily to her.  I don't struggle with clefs as a trombone player.  I figure out what line middle C is on, find the two triads I need, and start playing.  Within a couple of minutes I'm not transposing, it starts to look right.  The D line actually looks like a C to me in tenor clef.  One thing about this kind of learning, it is enormously faster in real time, playing with somebody else and making "forced choices." 

I'm sure she did something similar on piano but the subject never came up. 

[quantum]

I think maybe you mean tenor clef.  That's how I read Bb treble, as tenor with two more flats.

I do mean alto clef.  I play Bb Clarinet and frequently need to read off a C score and play with a C instrument.  Bb Clarinet is 1 tone lower, which means I need music 1 tone higher from concert pitch.

Eg: Piece is in Concert Bb maj.  Bb Clarinet plays in C.  3rd line Treble clef is Bb, 3rd line Alto clef is a C.  


Dora, an Alto clef is a C clef.  It curls around the line to define it as middle C.  Alto clef places middle C on the 3rd line.  There is a C clef for every line in the staff.  Most common today are Alto and Tenor.  Here they are in order top to bottom:

Baritone Clef
Tenor Clef
Alto Clef
Mezzo-Soprano Clef
Soprano Clef


I remember an exercise we did in uni.  Transpose a simple piece into as many keys as possible.  Something with straightforward fingering works best, as consistent fingering is the key to doing this exercise.  This despite the fact you may be using thumbs on black keys and doing some unusual finger crossings.  I remember doing this exercise with the Minuet in G.


Another method, as Bob mentions, is to mentally shift notes up and down.  My accompanying teacher taught me this technique.  It can also borrow concepts from the clef change technique.  You redefine the staff so that what is written becomes the new key.  Eg: Written in F maj, but you treat that first space F as G to get it into G maj.  The difficulty in this technique comes with accidentals.  Continuing with our F to G major example: B natural = C sharp.  

[timothy42b]

I do mean alto clef.  I play Bb Clarinet and frequently need to read off a C score and play with a C instrument.

Ah, gotcha.  Right, alto clef to go from C to Bb, tenor clef to go from Bb to C.