Writing for a non-concert pitch instrument
Hello! I'm currently taking a piano/vocal arrangement of a song & breaking it apart for piano, vocal, string bass, C flute, & alto flute. My question is regarding the alto flute part entry.
I have all the above staves in my score. The piece is in Gmaj, changing later to Amaj. In entering notes for the alto flute, which is a fourth below a C flute. If I have the "Concert Pitch" button in the upper left depressed, every staff shows a key signature for Gmaj. So, with that "Concert Pitch" selected, can I enter notes for the alto flute as I would want them played in the concert pitch? What happens when I extract the parts...will it automatically transpose the alto down a fourth?
I am by no means a professional musician in any way...very little textbook music theory. Thanks for any help!
Comments
The short answer is, if you do things right, it all works automatically. After entering the pitches at concert pitch, you should turn concert pitch off before generating the parts. This will transpose them in the score, but after generating the parts, you can turn concert pitch back on in the score. In theory, it should work even if you don't turn concert pitch off before generating parts, but the parts will be in concert pitch too until you turn concert pitch off there, and there may be bugs with this too. So it's better to do it as I described.
In reply to The short answer is, if you by Marc Sabatella
Thank you so much Marc Sabatella...that is *exactly* the information I was looking for! Now when I start fresh in the morning, it should go much more quickly!
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply...thanks so much!
Thanks!
I'm a violinist with very little knowledge about transposing - also short on music theory in general. Nevertheless I am trying to arrange some music to include the flutes in our little community orchestra. This discussion is already very helpful. Thank you for that. However, I am currently using MuseScore 2.0. It doesn't have an "alto flute" in the instrument list. Do I need to upgrade, or am I not understanding how the music will automatically transpose.
I would welcome any help.
In reply to I'm a violinist with very by Hilary-NCCO
Of course MuseScore does have an Alto Flute. Just not in the list of common instruments. Just type 'alto' into the search box at the bottom of the add instruments Dialog and you'lll find it.
In reply to Of course MuseScore does have by Jojo-Schmitz
Thank you so very much! The search box somehow escaped my attention. This is such a wonderful program. I am hoping that the other members of our little community orchestra will start using Musescore. It's such a terrific resource, and arrangements for our odd collection of instruments isn't easy to find.
In reply to I'm a violinist with very by Hilary-NCCO
Or make sure you have clicked "All Instruments" in the dropdown at the top of the instruments list...
![AllInstruments.png]( "AllInstruments.png")