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Topic: Tenor to bass clef (Read 4231 times) previous topic - next topic

Tenor to bass clef

I know that there's been a lot of replies to this one before, but none of them seems clear enough for me:

The exact step by step recipy to change a A-flat major Trombone staff written in tenor clef to similar sounding bass clef

Changing clefs are easy, moving up and down the same, but what the heck with the key???

The best (in my opinion) would be a table telling:

Step one: Copy the entire staff (incl. clef sign) to a new staff (added with ctrl-a)

Step two: Change clef by selecting and ctrl-e to change

Step three: Transpose staff according to before mentioned table, up or down n semitones. Key should now be changed automatically

Re: Tenor to bass clef

Reply #1 –
To change clef:

Start by forcing accidentals across the whole stave
Next delete the old clef and key and insert the new one (and key).
Now select the entire stave and shift it up or down to the correct location for the new stave using CTRL/UP or DOWN
Finally audit accidentals to remove redundancies.

(note that you may end up with the wrong enharmonic
spellings for some notes - this is one thing I don't like
in NWC - for example, in D minor, all the C#'s may end up
being written as Db Yuk! Maybe one day NWC will fix this
- hint hint).

Re: Tenor to bass clef

Reply #2 –
Why bother with accidentals ? When you change clef and don't change key signature, the accidentals don't change.

(optional) step one: copy the entire staff

step two: change clef by selecting and ctrl-e

step three: select the entire staff and shift up or down to the correct location, using ctrl-up or ctrl-down

Re: Tenor to bass clef

Reply #3 –
Thanks to you both, so far so good. But how about the before mentioned table? How many steps up/down between the different clefs?

Re: Tenor to bass clef

Reply #4 –
Look at the first note of the line, and the last sharp or flat of the key signature on the clef. The relationship should be the same on the new clef.

Say you're converting a song in D (2 sharps) from one _very wierd_ clef to another. The second sharp is on a "C" line or space -- say the third space from the bottom of the original staff. Say the first note is on the second line from the bottom (three steps down).

So: put the key signature into your new even wierder staff, and see where the second sharp appears (say, top line). Paste your notes in, and simply shift them up or down until the first note is three steps down from the sharp (in this case, the third space from the bottom.) You might have to shift a whole octave (7 steps) up or down also, to get the notes back near the center of the staff....

Re: Tenor to bass clef

Reply #5 –
Sure hope this works...

-----------------------------------------------------------------
| FROM: TO:> | TREBLE | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| \/ | - - - - - - - | - - - - -- - | - - - - - - | - - - - --|
| TREBLE ---> | --- | up 6 | up 8 | up 12 |
| ALTO ---> | down 6 | --- | up 2 | up 6 |
| TENOR ---> | down 8 | down 2 | --- | up 4 |
| BASS ---> | down 12 | down 6 | down 4 | --- |
-----------------------------------------------------------------