Transposing

• Nov 29, 2008 - 16:25

I'm new to MuseScore and I wanted to know if you can transpose a piece of music. I used to have Finale 2005 and you could input music then change the whole key and it would transpose it for you. I can't seem to find this feature, you can add a new key signature but it just adds accidentals and leaves it all in the same place.


Comments

In reply to by kh123

I am trying to transpose some piano music. I go to Notes and choose the transpose option....then choose the key change option, but then, when I change the key signature, it doesn't change the key; it adds accidentals to the piece. How do you get it to actually transpose the music to the new key?

In reply to by David Bolton

Thank you.
Actually I finally discovered that when the window appears asking how many semi-tones up or down, you must fill that in AS WELL AS checking the key change option. Then it miraculously changes the key signature and all the notes to the appropriate key. yay!

I'm new to Musescore and use the programme to transpose the melody line
of hymns for my Bb clarinet. I did this successfully last week, but now cannot
find the transpose by semitones, just by key or interval. I'm following Notes-Transpose
but whatever I did successfully before has gone!
I am new to this and painfully slow so would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks.

In reply to by stephg46

If you are just trying to transpose music for clarinet, you don't need the transpose command. Just click the Concert Pitch button at top left to toggle between concert (sounding) pitch and transposed (written) pitch automatically. You only need to use the transpose command if you wish to actually change the key of the piece. If you do wish to do so, then indeed, you use intervals or key, not number of semitones. Although you can select a ramge and then just hit up or down arrow as many tiems as you want. But again, this is *not* how you do the ordinary write-everything-a-whole-step-up thing for clarinet. All you do is pressing the Concert Key button.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thank you Marc for your reply - I would be so grateful if you could tell me exactly the steps I need to take.
I have a melody line I wish to write-everything-a whole-step-up-thing (love that expression).
I input the melody to musescore and toggled the concert pitch button - and the melody went down one tone!
Do I need to have the concert pitch button selected before I input the original key? and then toggle?
Thanks in advance from a 50 year old clarinettist who used to transpose by hand (but that took ages too!)

In reply to by stephg46

Yes, have concert pitched turned on when you enter the notes, if you wish to enter them at concert pitch. Then, all you do is turn it off and everything is automatically transposed correctly. That's all there to it - no detailed step by instructions necessary. A single press of the Concert Pitch button does everything you need.

So, if sounds like you already entered your notes at concert pitch, but did so with concert pitch turned off. In that case, you need to correct this error. But that's easy enough. Just select all, note->transpose, and choose "up major second", and now it will be as it should have been in the first place.

In reply to by stephg46

If you are starting from fresh, create the blank score with the correct key for concert pitch and Bb clarinet as the instrument. If you want the clarinet's written music key to be in D then select C as the key when setting up the new score. If you want the clarinet's written key to be F then select Eb as the concert key, etc. This is for a Bb clarinet.

If you want to enter the notes in concert pitch, say you were copying a C flute part to make it a Bb clarinet part, then you would enter the notes with Concert Pitch turned on and enter the note pitches as shown on the flute score. Turning off the Concert Pitch key will then display the clarinet's notes and key up one tone. It knows to do this because you selected Bb clarinet as the instrument when you setup the score.

If you like to enter the notes already transposed up 1 tone for the clarinet then you can enter them with Concert Pitch turned off. When you turn on Concert Pitch it then will display them dropped down 1 tone as it should.

In reply to by Zoots

Dear Zoots - thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to reply.

I usually transpose from a piano melody line, so will use your method in
the 2nd paragraph.

Thanks again for such a clear explanation.

Kindest Regards, Steph

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