Transposing - Overview
The Transpose tool
is invoked from Tools->Transposition
on the Main menu.
This tool may be used to change
the key or pitch of tunes e.g. it is possible to take simple tunes for
the whistle, or even the fiddle and transpose them for the Highland
Bagpipe - and vice versa. Or to change the tune written for a whistle
in the key of C to the more common key of D.
The
tool may also appear automatically when the instrument used to play a
part is changed, giving the option to change key if required. This
option may be refused by pressing Cancel.
Warning
Please
be aware that even though this is a useful tool, it is no more
than this. If little care or knowledge about the target instrument is
applied, you could produce tunes that are unplayable on the target
instrument! For the
Highland Bagpipe as the target instrument, the best option is to pick a
tune that is already in the key of D Major or B Minor so that
only F and C sharps are used. Any other accidentals appearing in
the final score are an indication that the original key was unsuitable!
Limitations
In
most cases, grace notes and embellishments are simply changed in pitch
and not modified for playability
on the target instrument. It is up to the arranger to edit and replace
these more appropriately by hand.
An exception is
that whistle and flute rolls are expanded to their equivalent in terms of
grace notes.
Notes may be transposed beyond the playable range of an instrument. The only exception in this version is that of the Highland Bagpipe/Chanter which will 'wrap' such notes back into range (because of small, fixed scale).
Slur, triplet and tie symbols may need adjusting after transposing as note stem directions may have 'flipped'.
See: Transposing by semitone and Transposing by key.