Transposing By Interval

• May 22, 2018 - 02:12

OK, I've been fiddling with turning "The Ballad Of Serenity" into different tabs (Uke and Guitar) and run into some confusing issues.
I've been transposing up and down by interval searching for a combination of easy-to-play, (and playable by the actual instrument, a uke has a much smaller range than a guitar)
I found the "Transpose by Interval" very confusing, as I did not know what the difference between (for example) a major 2nd and a diminished 3rd (still not completely sure, but I did find this table: http://davidbolton.info/articles/musescore_interval_transposition.html )

Because you can't see key (or time signature changes) in tab notation, I ended up copying the results onto a piano staff to see what was going on.

However, even after turning off the double flat/sharp option and setting the key signature to C, I still get the notation showing an E as an Fb.

How do I force the Fb to show as E? Is there in fact a way to show key in the tab? Is there a way to tell musescore to select the most appropriate key for a piece?

And would it be possible to include some details on what a given internal change is intended to do before one does it? If you are music-theory challenged, it's a bit of a mystery.


Comments

In reply to by Robbie Matthews

That would be because there are flats in the key signature. Since there is an Eb, going up then down gives you an F then Fb while going down then up give you Eb then E(natural). You would see the same thing with sharps and E, E# and F if there were sharps in the key signature.

In reply to by SqueezeBoxer

It's possible of course but unfortunately not very specific. If you say you want two semitones up from E, would you expect F# or Gb? Listing intervals is more precise. But FWIW, if you don't care about the key and just want the music up two semitones, no need for this dialog at all - just select the music and hit the Up arrow twice.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

"if you don't care about the key..."

...is not totally correct. Using the arrows does take the key into account. When you use the up arrow, MuseScore will use the key signature first. If a note is not in the key signature, it will first try to write the note with no accidental, if an accidental is required it will use a double sharp if there are sharps in the key signature, or naturals if there are flats in the key signature. The down arrow swaps all of the sharps and flats.

In reply to by mike320

True. My point is more that this method won't preserve the current intervallic relationships according to a new key. You'll end up with all sharps (or flats when using Down), even if the original contained a mix of flats and sharps. Whereas Notes / Transpose will generally preserve the original relationships, and also give the option of changing the actual key signature in the same operation (rather than require a separate step off adding from the palette as would be the case for Up or Down).

So I guess it's more fair to say, depending on how you want it to work, either approach might be the better choice for the situation.

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