Stephen, I have to admit to some confusion as to what you mean by transcribing audio to notation. Are you talking about line-by-line transcription of parts, or reduction to piano staff, done by listening to a recording? Or are you assisting someone who 'composes' music but doesn't know how to notate? (NB: if this is the case, get them to record it!)
I also had no formal education in piano reduction. I was a guitarist first, though, and I attempt to 'hear' most music I'm notating with my left hand. What this actually means is that I try to feel my hand playing the music. With guitar parts, this is amazingly easy; I've even been able, in a supermarket, to tell a friend that the guitarist in the muzak was capo'd up five, and what chord he was playing. The friend had perfect pitch and verified that I was calling it right. With other instruments and such, it helps to find the key. And like most guitarists who spend a lot of time accompanying other people, I can transpose very easily, so it isn't hard to go that way when I have to notate in a key that is different from 'the original'. Anyway, if I have your meaning right, there is nothing that beats having a strong familiarity with a 'fixed pitch' instrument, be it keyboard or fretted, so that you have a strong mind-hand relationship between notation and physical location on the instrument, and between location/string and pitch sound. And having the source recorded so that you can go back and relisten, too. For celerity, it is very useful to drill. Get scores for symphonies that you have on recordings, and aren't terribly familiar with. (terrible familiarity doesn't hurt, really, but the idea is to take stuff you don't know 'to paper', rather than learn the symphonies). Or, if you know someone who is a very accurate reader, get them a sight-singing book, have them sing each example/exercise, and notate it. Start with them telling you key and signatures, eventually work to where you can identify anything by ear, including original key, and then to where you can notate to any key despite the original key. (No, IMHO and experience, skipping the identify-key step doesn't make the latter step easier!) And finally, for the benefit of improving transposition ability, take up recorder. Start with soprano, then learn alto as a whole, separate instrument. (I. e., don't look at an e, and say, oh, F recorders are a fifth lower, so I'd want a in soprano fingering, to get the e on an alto! That defeats the whole purpose!) Then, get a D voice flute and a G alto (or just force yourself to learn the soprano with d as the putative lowest note, and the alto with g as the lowest note.) You'd be amazed how this will help, far more than the banned Bb and Eb instruments ever do, where all the music is written so that you play whatever you're holding as if C is the fundamental note of its scale! You can do this with violin, really, as well (the transposition drills), but its usually more mechanical, and requires a fret-attitude: transposition by a fourth up requires playing on the violin in fourth position, but pretending you are in first position, sort of thing. Guitarists used to barring will do this naturally. I was saved from it by recorders, shawms, and viols, though, as described above. I gotta go: if I've missed your point, please elaborate! raybro Stephen Allsopp wrote: > > Since I first got lilypond going, I've been learning how to use it by transcribing >audio into .ly files. This takes me back to my early music studies, except that then >I had to do it by hand! > > Those musical studies are a long way behind now, though, and - while I'm pleased to >have the ability to be able to do this at all - I'm conscious of the fact that I'm >probably not doing it in the best/most efficient way: on the other hand, never having >been formally shown how to do this (as a string player, I was spared having to learn >piano staff notation, etc., etc), reducing to piano score, for example, becomes quite >a tricky task. > > Do others on the list do similar stuff, and does anyone have any tips on how to make >the task quicker, easier and/or more accurate? Or pointers to books/web pages on the >subject? > > I'm aware that this isn't _strictly_ a lilypond issue, but this is about as suitable >a forum as I think I'm likely to find... > > -- > Stephen Allsopp [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > End of message reached. For your comfort and convenience, we recommend > that you stop reading now. > > _______________________________________________ > Lilypond-user mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user _______________________________________________ Lilypond-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
