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Topic: Zappa Transcriptions (Read 7913 times) previous topic - next topic

Zappa Transcriptions

Has anyong ever posted any Zappa, or even attempted to transcribe any of his works?

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #1 –
More likely than not, music by Zappa would be under copyright, and might not be eligible for posting. That is generally true of anything within recent times.

If all you want is the lyrics, you might be able to find them by search engine. You might also be able to find someone's own concept of what Zappa sounds like. But if you want the actual music, you might have to buy it from its publisher. That's not necessarily expensive.

Whether or not you get the real (or imitation) music, you would not have the right to perform it.

Judging from the kinds of files discussed on this forum, most users do classical, piano, sacred choral, folk, or games. Rock and Roll (if you put Zappa in that category) might best be located by search engine.

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #2 –
I found a site (way back in August 2001 - don't remember what it was...) that had a few of his tunes sequenced.  I always figured I'd go back to pick them up, but "the best laid plans" and all that...
If you do a search, you might find that same site.

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #3 –
If you want a clue as to what chords to play (assuming you know the lyrics and general way the music goes), then what you want is "tabs". There are amateurs who post tabs (their own) from listening to the recording and intelligently guessing at what they hear. That's not in the domain of sheet music or MIDI, so it's outside the scope of NWC1.75.

Once upon a time, a search for "Zappa tabs" would find sites that had them. Unfortunately, many commercial sites now use a form of active file server programming, which creates a custom page that has the title of what you want. So you might get several web pages titled "Zappa tabs," all of which claim to have them based on the brief description in the search engine results. But that was written just for you to see. When you go to the page, what you find is that they are trying to sell you CDs, or souvenirs, or something else... They might not even have anything by Zappa. But "Zappa" and "tabs" (or maybe just "tabs") is on their keyword list.

You may have seen something similar in the ads for Amazon.com. Maybe you are searching for "parakeet seed." You will see an ad inviting you to look for books on the subject of "parakeet seed."

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #5 –
If you get there real quick  - alt.binaries.sounds.midi has just been flooded with Zappa MIDI files.

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #6 –
Hey, Barry (oh, kindred brother)!
I can't get there (alt.binaries.sounds.midi) from here!
What's missing from the address?

Re: Zappa Transcriptions

Reply #7 –
You need a News reader.
In Outlook Exp - it's under Tools>Mail and News.
And then your server may need to carry the newsgroup.
(A lot of servers don't carry binary groups though).