transposing - closest

• Oct 29, 2019 - 20:18

what does "closest" mean when i go to Tools>transpose chromatically>by key> closest? does the program automatically adjust to whatever key the score is in so that closest would be the nearest key to that key?


Comments

Closest is an option besides up or down. If you transpose from A to B, the closest is up, which is what it will do if you choose up or closest. You can tell it to transpose down so it will transpose down a 7th rather than up a second. This might be useful if the instrument is at one extreme (the top in this example) of it's range so you don't have to go back and adjust octaves to put the notes back into playable range.

In reply to by Philip Ellis Foster

If you say you want to transpose something from C to E, then MuseScore has a choice to make - do you mean you want everything transpose up (a third) so the notes end up higher, or down (a sixth) so the notes end up lower. So, you can either tell MuseScore you definitely want to move the notes up, or you definitely want to move them down, or you just want the notes moved whichever direction is closer. From C up to the E above is a third, but from C down to the E below is a sixth, so if you ask it to pick "closest", it will pick up in this case, because a third is a closer than a sixth.

May e what you're missing is that you still need to pick the key - MuseScore won't pick a key for you. It only makes sense to ask which direction is closest once you pick the key.

In reply to by Philip Ellis Foster

Well, in order to transpose a piece by key, MuseScore needs to know what key to transpose to. It defaults to the current key indeed, so by default neither up nor down nor losest will do anything - no transposition will happen, because you're transposing to the same key. Only if you actually chose a new key is the there anything to transpose. and hence only then will the question of up / down / closest be relevant.

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