The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

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The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

Postby dentyr » 26 May 2021 01:37

The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

Have fun. It is my example of the stupidity of translating notes to letters.
Each member of the group gets their script. As the curtain goes up a breeze blows the music sheets across the stage. Now everyone has to find THEIR own piece to be able to play!!!! The universal script overcomes that.


ကို C ကို C, G, G တစ် ဦး က, G F ကိုအီးအီး: D: D ကို C She is Burmese Plays FLUTE Tuned in C

সি সি জি জি এ এ জি এফ এফ এফ ডি ই ডি ডি সি She is Bengali Plays Cello

В В Г Г А А Ж Ж Е Е Д Д К He is Russian Plays Violin Tuned in A

Ц Ц Г Г А А Г Ф Ф Е Е Д Д Ц. This chap is Serbian. Plays Clarinet. Tuned in Bb

C C G G A A G F F E E D D C She is Filipino. Plays viola. Possibly tuned to A



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ALL these notes have the same sound no matter which instrument plays them.

Universal Script for all to read.

Kind Regards, Dennis.
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Re: The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

Postby PeterA » 27 May 2021 11:44

It is interesting that you mention that playing the notes written on the stave, all the instruments would sound the same.

I think what you mean is that all the instruments would sound the same pitch. They would not sound the same, because even with our limited hearing capabilities, most of us can distinguish between a piano, a flute or a violin, playing the same note.

May I add a little more about transposing instruments, which adds further to this subject relating to sound and pitch, please?

On the Yamaha AR-Group, when dealing with playing instruments on your keyboard authentically, I posted the following, which I think is appropriate to this post from Den.

So, why are there so many different clarinets?

The reason could well take up a whole topic of its own, but you need to understand that the clarinet is one of many musical instruments which are called Transposing Instruments.

That means they read an individual note, finger that particular note, but the sound that comes out is not that note, because it is another note entirely.

In other words they are not notated at their true pitch, but mechanically and without any extra effort on behalf of the player produce the different pitch.

For instance, let us take the Bb Clarinet. For the player with this instrument, Bb is the ‘natural key’. This is somewhat like keyboard players enjoying playing in the key of C.

But the Bb Clarinet player, will read a Bb note on the score, finger a Bb note on their clarinet, but the sound produced will actually be an Ab. i.e. one tone lower.

If they read a C note and finger that C note, then the sound emanating is actually a Bb note.

Why is this?

The answer is to make the playing of the instrument a little easier, because it reduces the number of sharps and flats that the Clarinetist has to deal with.

e.g. If the music score is written in Eb, which has 3 flats, the clarinetist will actually be playing in the key of F, which only has one flat.

But obviously, I hear you say, they can still come across a ‘horrible’ key, so what happens then. The answer is to simply swop instruments. They may pick up a Clarinet in A. However, when they do so, the music score has to be transposed for them to read it more easily.

The A Clarinet sounds 3 semi-tones lower than it reads. Therefore, when it reads the note C it actually sounds the note A.

Thus if the sound needed to be in the key of B, which has five sharps, the clarinetist would play with the A Clarinet, in the key of D, which only has 2 sharps.

In practice, nowadays clarinetists are so accomplished that they play in every key, including those horrible ones, with no trouble at all. This means that the original reason for transposing has virtually been eliminated, but now you know why they were designed that way, and why the tradition continues.

The important reason to know all this, is that if you are accompanying a Clarinet with your keyboard, you will not be able to play from the same piece of music, unless you adjust your keyboard to sound the same note as they are playing!

With a Bb Clarinet, we now know that your keyboard will sound one tone higher than the clarinet.

Imagine a couple of youngsters playing a duet, with one on the clarinet and the other on the flute, and both reading from the same sheet of music. The discordant noise, because they are playing one tone apart, would be horrendous and you could guarantee that each of them would blame the other, for playing the wrong notes! Reminds me of Eric Morecambe, on the piano, and with Andrew Previn conducting the orchestra. In actual fact our two youngsters would both be playing exactly the right notes! even though it sounds awful.

With a piano or organ you would have to have suitably transposed music. This explains why you can buy music books written for instruments in Bb. It does not mean that all the scores are written in Bb. It means that all the music is written twice, once for the instrumentalist and also for the accompaniment, but one tone lower.

With most modern keyboards, we can get round this problem and simply set out Transpose button to -2, and away we go.

Peter
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Re: The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 May 2021 10:12

From a Google Search:

Does everyone have to play in the same key or is the key accustomed to the instrument?
Yes, and no! Everyone sounds like they're playing in the same key, yes, but looking at the actual music in front of the players, no.

There are lots of transposing instruments about, which don't, for many reasons see the music in the same key as non-transposing instruments. An example would be the Bb clarinet, which actually plays a tone LOWER than the written music. So, music for that clarinet needs to be written in a key a tone HIGHER, to compensate.

Horns, likewise, play notes which they may call certain letters, but the sound produced is actually different letters (note names). So, their music needs to be written in keys which transpose what they read into what's actually needed to be in tune with everyone else.

If you look at the score - the music the conductor references - you'll see that even for a passage where everyone is playing in unison, each instrument will have the music written out in the key which makes it sound unison.
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Re: The Easiest way to Sight read MUSIC?????

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 May 2021 13:12

My friend has a Bb saxophone. This is called a 'transposed instrument'.
On my keyboard, I move my Transpose down two semitones. I now have a 'transposed' keyboard.
My friend and I can now play together from the same sheet music, written in C.
I play a C chord of GCE. My keyboard tells me in the display that I am playing a C chord.
That is correct. I am playing the notes of C, E and G which are written on the sheet music in C.
But my chord is not sounding a C chord. Because I am playing a transposed keyboard the sound I am making is a Bb chord.

My friend and I decide to join an orchestra.
They are all playing music from sheet music written in C,
We have the sheet music written in C, but we can't use it as if we play from our music we will be sounding in Bb.
So my friend and I are given sheet music written in the key of D.
Now when we play notes from it we are 'in tune' with the rest of the orchestra as our notes are now 'sounding' in C.

Everyone in an orchestra that has a 'transposed' instrument has to be given music written in the correct key for them so the sound they make is the same as the rest of the orchestra.

Hugh
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