Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Changing key in the middle. (Read 4031 times) previous topic - next topic

Changing key in the middle.

Greetings O helpful Noters! (is that a good word!?)

My problem is thus: I am in the midst of transcribing a Christmas carol out of this book I got today. In the middle of it, okay, not quite the middle :) it wants me to go from D major to Eflat major. The book shows a double line followed by the new key. When I try this I get both keys! Argh! Help me please? I tried editing it, I tried deleting the two sharp signs and it don't work. Any suggestions would be greatfully appreciated.

BTW, Noteworthy is a great program.

Sincerely,
Michael King

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #1 –
It would appear that the writer of the above msg. is a bit of a twit, who can't tell a sharp sign from a natural one!
Having witten the aforementiond message I can get away with saying nasty things like that! <Big grin> I went back to NoteWorthy and tried it again. There it was two sharp thingies and three flat thingies. For some reason I hit the home button and looked at two sharp thingies. (I'm hung up on 'thingies' today) Then I hit end and looked at two natural and three flat symbols. Well, duh! It appears that NoteWorthy is smarter than me! How embarrassing! Can't tell a natural from a sharp. Oh well, back to transcribing.

Abashedly yours;
Michael

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #2 –
I've noticed that, on key changes, for some reason NW will change the old sharps/flats to naturals and then add the sharps/flats for the new sig. Looks kind of cluttered, but it works.
I've transcribed songs with 3/4 key changes...I love what that can do to a song.
Regards,
Gordon

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #3 –
This has traditionally been the correct way to indicate key changes; the first key is "undone" by the naturals, and the new key sig accidentals added. Look at any classical score, this is the way it's done. That being said, modern typesetters often ignore this.

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #4 –
Gordon, Thanks.

Fred, I did not know that! Lazy typesetters!

Thank to you all.

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #5 –
Along similar lines, has anyone else experienced the problem of key changes not being very obvious when they happen to coincide with a new line of the score? As far as I understand it, the convention in music publishing in this case is to 'warn' of the forthcoming keychange at the end of the previous line. Noteworthy does not do this automatically, and doing it manually means inserting the keychange in the 'wrong' place (so that if the page format was changed so that this would no longer be the point of line break it would look very strange). Anyone else relate to this; is it worth adding to the wish list?

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #6 –
Joy, I have seen this in some of the music I transcribe, but since I never print the music I transcribe, it's no problem for me.
I just transcribe music then play it back for my own pleasure. This gives me a change to hear once again the folk and gospel songs of my youth. Very enjoyable!
Gordon

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #7 –
Same goes for clef changes (quite common in classical scores). I've worked around this by saving the "courtesy clefs" at the end of a line for last, with the idea being that once everything is done it's unlikely that I'd want to change the page layout. There _have_ been exceptions, though... with funny-looking results.
 

Re: Changing key in the middle.

Reply #8 –
I've noticed the key change at end of line bug as well.

Clef changes aren't as big a problem, since I adopt the convention of putting the changed clef as the last thing in
the prior measure, rather than starting the measure off with the new clef.

- seb