Bagpipe Embellishments inserting the wrong note

• Apr 21, 2024 - 17:49

Hello! I'm rather new to Musescore, but am transcribing in some bagpipe tunes, and have quickly run into an issue. I assume the problem is mine, but would love your advice.

When I add in bagpipe embellishments, many of the notes hit the paper wrong. For a simple example, I put click a note, and select a "Single Gracenote High G", but what is added to the screen is an F sharp.

I've added an image below. Any help?

SOLUTION: https://musescore.org/en/node/363142#comment-1239652

Attachment Size
Untitled.png 36.47 KB

Comments

• Apr 22, 2024 - 18:14

Why are you doing this to me? You have to have seen my response saying (with photo proof) that the settings you told me to set were already set. I did what you told me but that clearly isn't it. Unless I misunderstood and did something wrong, in which case it would be super cool if you told me what I did wrong.

Please?

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• Apr 22, 2024 - 19:39

See why I'm asking why you're doing this to me? Now you're just talking circles around me... maybe for fun? I'm clearly new to this software, and cannot figure out why the sharp symbols keep showing up. Maybe it's supposed to be sharp, but bagpipe scores do not(in my experience) show gracenotes as sharp. Is there a way to make it stop doing that?

Because again, like I said, if I start a brand new score, and add in a g gracenote on any given note (i've tried them all, see attached screenshot), it looks just like you'd expect. Now maybe these notes are actually secretly sharp notes (as you pointed out, good on you for being technically correct) because the bagpipe is tuned to Bb for a reason only history knows. But the score shouldn't show them as sharp.

There is clearly just some setting I've messed up because I'm a beginner with a complicated piece of software.

Attachment Size
look no sharp symbols.png 59.18 KB

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• May 1, 2024 - 10:51

For others who might have this problem, here was the SOLUTION: The score was in the wrong key signature (the little #'s near the clef), and I was too noob to understand it.

Alrighty, so one short music theory lesson later, and I understand my problem. Jojo, while I'm sure was well intentioned, never used basic enough language for me as a complete beginner, so I never really understood what he was saying. You see, as bagpipers, we get woefully little in the way of actual music theory lessons. My issues boiled down to a few misunderstandings. So for any bagpiper looking to learn from my mistakes, here they are somewhat simplified:

The bagpipes are tuned ridiculously (because of tradition) to Bb (B-flat) mixolydian (a Greek word meaning that it's scale is all mixed when compared to other scale modes, if you're just a piper you don't really need to know more than that), but the notes are written in A mixolydian.

This means the notes you're actually playing are different than the ones written. Thus the instrument is called "transpositional" because you're not actually playing a Low A, but actually a Bb, then a C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab, and finally another Sometimes you'll notice the bagpipe scores are written in something else, like A or D major (again you can tell from the #'s written next to the clef at the beginning of the score), but none of this actually matters because you play the bagpipes. If you're writing bagpipe music, just cut the key signature off, because it doesn't matter.

Now despite piping for years, I'm still a beginner to music theory, so if any of this is wrong, I'd love to be corrected.

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