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Topic: transposing music to tabs |
Richard Tasso
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 6 Oct 2007 6:55 am |
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Is a program available to transpose music to tabs in different keys, say music written in C can it be tabbed lets say in G,etc
thanks |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 6 Oct 2007 9:06 am
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The Sibelius notation program will do that. It is expensive and complicated. With the time you spend learning the software and then tweaking the tab to fit the new key you might be better off learning the parts the old way with plain old practice.
_________________
Bob |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 6 Oct 2007 9:33 am
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I submit the idea that you might also be better off learning how to play the song from the written music.
I don't say look at the sheet music and instantly play it the way classical players do, but learn what the notes are on the page, and figure out how best to play them on the steel.
I know it's not simple or easy, but this reliance on tab and refusal on the part of so many players to learn standard notation is one of the things holding our instrument back.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 6 Oct 2007 12:59 pm
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| Quote: |
| better off learning how to play the song from the written music |
I agree. Some music software (including TablEdit) will write tablature as the notes are entered, but the program does not know Which of the several locations on your PSG fretboard to place the tab. Which string? open or barred? with a pedal or without the pedal? with a lever or without the lever?
I'd say just learn to read notes, and learn the notes on your instrument. Eventually you will be able to play directly from sheet music. Then you can work out the smoothest way the play a piece on your PSG, and write your own tab.
_________________
My Site / My YouTube Channel
25 Songs C6 Lap Steel / 25 MORE Songs C6 Lap Steel / 16 Songs, C6, A6, B11 / 60 Popular Melodies E9 Pedal Steel |
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Wally Davis
From:
Belleville, Illinois, USA
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Posted 7 Oct 2007 5:56 am
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Here's a book that is for sale in the Forum catalog.
Item #I-HJ01 Dr. Hugh Jeffreys:
"Sight Reading For Steel Guitarists"
A new and intuitive approach to reading music and to reading faster based on eye movement training. Book + 2 CDs. Written for the C6th pedal steel tuning. Book + 2 CDs
$50
We pay the postage in the USA!
International orders please add $5.00.
This book has had my curiosity since it has came out and would sure beat "grinding" it out off of the sheet music. In fact, I'm just going to order it and see what it's about. |
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C. Christofferson
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Posted 7 Oct 2007 9:57 am
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| It has always amazed me how excellent keyboard players can, knowing a song in one key, then play it in a different key, seeing that the physical shapes are so different. Playing on a fretted instrument i guess we have it easier, that the physical relationships stay the same when transposing keys. Still, after having begun to learn something in a certain key, then transposing it up to something as simple as one fret up can still find you (me) mis-hitting alot of stuff until the relationships are learned over and above the mechanical reproduction in the original key. But there are such great differences between talented players. Some people can play their instrument incredibly well, but only when they are reading from the written music, others play great without knowing how to read. So keep digging in and enjoy the process of discovering what works for you. |
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Bo Legg
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Posted 10 Oct 2007 8:52 am
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I think Doug Beaumier hit on the solution.
| Quote: |
| learn the notes on your instrument. |
No matter how well you know Notation or tab it is only as good as your ability to apply it.
Get some organized system that works for you. When I look at the neck I see numbers. When I play by notation I see waves and I play the peaks and valleys and anticipate the in-betweens. A long 16th note run is going to be hard to sight read. I play the first note and follow the wave and play the last note. |
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Robert Leaman
From:
Murphy, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 10 Oct 2007 4:56 pm Keyboards
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| A good keyboard permits the player to play in only one key, probably the key C. A preset will transpose that to any other key signature automatically. The keyboard player has no need to learn to transpose. |
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C. Christofferson
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Posted 10 Oct 2007 9:14 pm
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Yep, you got that right !  |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 10 Oct 2007 9:15 pm
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| Quote: |
| It has always amazed me how excellent keyboard players can, knowing a song in one key, then play it in a different key, seeing that the physical shapes are so different. Playing on a fretted instrument i guess we have it easier, |
I see it exactly the opposite - keyboard players have it MUCH easier. The physical shapes are exactly the same - 4 notes apart is 4 notes apart everywhere on the keyboard, and you don't have multiple locations to try to figure out. There's *one* middle C. I never learned to read on keys but used ot be fairly good at jamming around by ear simply because the instrument is completely linear. On my steel, the way the changes are set up I can play the same note at 4 different fret locations - no pedals, down 1 with pedal 2, up one with pedal 6, or down 3 with RKR.
When reading music, how in the world anyone could figure out which "note" is the RIGHT one on the fly is completely beyond me.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Ron Page
From:
Penn Yan, NY USA
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Posted 11 Oct 2007 7:51 am
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Real transposition--not the pushbutton kind-- takes some skill, even on a keyboard. Some keys will be easier than others just because of where the flats/sharps fall on the keyboard.
The advantage a piano player has is each note on his music translates to one physical note on his instrument.
With our steels you'll often run into the keyhead if you think you can just slide left a few frets.
Scotty and others have produced nice tab with music notation in line with it.
_________________
HagFan
Emmons Lashley LeGrande II |
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Michael Douchette
From:
Gallatin, TN (deceased)
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 11 Oct 2007 10:49 am
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[quote="Jim Sliff"]
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When reading music, how in the world anyone could figure out which "note" is the RIGHT one on the fly is completely beyond me. |
I can't do it on the fly, but my approach is to find the chord outlined or implied in the notes, and find the most convenient position to play both the chordal and non chordal notes.
Take the tune "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The notes in the key of C are:
E D C D E E E
D D D
E G G
E D C D E E E E / D D E D / C
3 of the 4 notes in the first phrase are in the C chord, so I make that chord. The one note that is not part of the chord is D. I know that if I make the chord on the 3rd fret with the pedals down, I not only have all the chord notes. but if I lift up the A pedal I have the D note.
The next phrase is the note D repeated 3 times. The implied chord is a G, and the D note is part of that chord, so I release the pedals to make a G chord.
The next phrase, E G G. Both notes in the C chord, so I depress the pedals again.
Finally the last phrase, which is actually a repeat of the first phrase, going right into another. Again, the notes of the first part of the phrase can be played by playing the C chord and lifting up the A pedal to hit the D note, and the second half of the phrase is a G chord with the A pedal depressed to hit the E note. When it's time to hit that final note C, I press down the pedals again to get the C chord formation.
I wrote about this in a short appendix to the steel guitar supplement to my music theory book. I'll be happy to send the file of that section to anybody who requests it.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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