Skirl o the pipes
I'm trying to notate a piece of music for small pipes in A and other instruments. If I describe the lead instrument as 'bagpipes' MuseScore treats it as a transposing instrument though by what logic, I can't figure. I want the bagpipe part to appear on the score and sound literally at the pitch written (D major/A mixolydian). How can I do that?
Comments
I don't really know anything about bagpipers, but a quick Google search shows me that traditional highland bagpipers are *not* generally tuned in concert pitch, and hence transposition might be appropriate, depending on the tuning of the instrument.. I can easily imagine that, as with baritone horn and a couple of other instruments, there might be two schools of thought on how to write for them, with some conventions calling for you to write at pitch, others calling for you to transpose, depending on which convention the person playing the part is more familiar with. And the different sizes transpose differently.
Anyhow, the way MuseScore knows how to do transposition for each instrument by default is based on settings in instruments.xml, as specified in edit->preferences. So if you wish the override the defaults, you can create a customized version of that file. Or, to override the transposition for a specific score, just right click the relevant staff and bring up Staff Properties.
Right click on the bagpipe staff -> Stazff properties -> Transposition -> 0 same for octave if necessary
Highland pipes are usually in B-flat or A, concert pitch. The small bellows blown pipes are made in a variety of keys.
Back to the problem: I have a score for small pipes in A with guitar accompaniment. The bagpipe part will not sound at the pitch written, no matter how I transpose up or down. Transposition in MuseScore doesn't just alter the pitch sounding, it changes the notation to a new key. I want the part to be written in D and to sound in D, but I can't find any way to do this. Is there any way to tell the software to play literally what is written? Transforming to 'perfect unison' doesn't work, before anyone suggests that. It looks as if some deep damage was done by the initial selection of bagpipe as the instrument, because 'change instrument' doesn't help either.
To see the problem, create a score, select bagpipe as the instrument and no flats or sharps as the key signature. The score will appear as 2 sharps and with a downward transposition of a major second so that written D sounds C. Bagpipes in C are extremely rare. Put a D on the score. It will sound as C. Go to staff properties and change the transposition to 'perfect unison'. The 2 sharp key signature will disappear, the notated D will drop to a notated C, but it will sound as E-flat on playback. Change the instrument to 'voice' and you will still get an E-flat for written C.
Assuming that nothing can be done about this, how do I just delete the bagpipe part, and can I subsequently add another part, say for flute?
In reply to Transposition by Dougie
It looks like if you are *not* in concert pitch mode when you change the transposition, indeed, things are messed up as you describe - playback is in the incorrect key (although I was getting an Bb, not an Eb). This only seems to affect pitches already entered; pitches entered after the change are correct. Sounds like a bug, and you should probably submit it to the issue tracker. But FWIW, if you are in concert pitch mode when you change the transposition, it works as expected.
Anyhow, to delete and add staves, you use Create-> Instruments (keyboard shortcut "I"). So if you add a flute staff and then just rename it to bagpipe, it should be OK. Note you could also simply use the bagpipe instrument (not in its current messed up state, of course) and stay in concert pitch mode. But I suspect it will still want to transpose for you if you extract the part.
Yes, it wasn't in concert pitch - selecting bagpipe must unset this. I think I have somewhat disentangled what's happening with the key signature. Music for the highand bagpipe has no key signature (no sharps or flats) but sounds in the key of the instrument, most commonly B-flat. MuseScore seems to be implementing this, but you have to select the key signature of B-flat (2 flats) for the bagpipe part. MuseScore then displays a staff with no sharps or flats, but sounding B-flat. This would be what a highland piper would be accustomed to.
Scores for other types of bagpipe like Northumbrian, Border and Scottish smallpipe (I play the last) usually have a literal (non-transposed) key signature. Both Northumbrian and Border have some chromatic capablity and the smallpipes, though diatonic, have tended to follow their notational practice.