Transposing instrument workflow
I am transcribing an orchestral score and can't figure out how to get the correct workflow for transposing instruments.
When I enter notes on my digital piano, those are concert pitches. The piano is not a transposing instrument. And I want MuseScore to then write the correct written note for that sounding pitch. I don't want "Concert Pitch" on, because the score I'm transcribing isn't in concert pitch. I want always to be able to visually compare the two scores, and immediately know if I've made a mistake.
I can see how the "concert pitch" workflow can be very useful -and even that it is designed to make this easier- but what I want is total non-interference from Musescore. Its extra assistance is driving me crazy.
- I read the note in the score correctly. Meaning (as the arranger and not the player) I transpose it in my mind so that the note I read, say, and play is the concert pitch.
- I play that pitch
- Musescore instead writes notes as if I'm blindly copying without understanding what I'm reading.
Please tell me there is a way to do this the right way. Whatever the conventional way is in contemporary software, the default behaviors are not how transcription works. If -as a working musician- I sit down with an orchestral score and play it, I am not playing transcribing instruments "as written" or I lose my job. Likewise if someone plays notes for me on the piano and asks me to write them for -say- alto sax, I transpose the sounding notes -which are playing out loud and therefore concert pitch- to the correct written notes for that instrument, or -again- I lose my job.
I very much want MuseScore to work this way. Have I missed a setting somewhere?
Comments
Un-check Concert Pitch at the bottom right of the screen.
(un)Check concert pitch (at the bottom right of the screen).
Choose a non-transposing instrument. Play in your notes using your digital piano and then select the corresponding transposing instrument, e.g. alto saxophone, trumpet or horn.
Musescore will then convert this into the correct notated representation.
Assuming I have understood you correctly ...
In reply to Choose a non-transposing… by HildeK
AS the OP said, they want the score in non-concert. They do the transposition in their head. I have a lot of respect for that talent. I'm not even sure I can transpose a C instrument to C.
In reply to AS the OP said, they want… by bobjp
It's definitely not a talent. If I can't practice it while I work on the scores, I'm going to have to stop using Musescore for orchestra scores, because this is the practice time that builds and keeps the skill. It's a little like having an app that automatically converts your scores to C major so you never have to play in other keys.
.... so what happens in the real world when I'm not using the app?
In reply to It's definitely not a talent… by rkhirst
From what I understand, you want to enter the notes in concert pitch but finish the work with a transposed score. It would not be feasible to leave the concert pitch on, enter the notes and, finally, turn off the concert pitch?
In reply to Choose a non-transposing… by HildeK
Here is my workflow
![Screen Shot 2025-02-27 at 2.07.34 PM.png]( "Screen Shot 2025-02-27 at 2.07.34 PM.png")
I'm entering notes. The cursor is on 2nd Clarinet in A.
1. The next note is another F#. It is not an A.
2. I want to play F# on my piano and
3. a) musescore writes the correctly transposed note in the score.
I want the two side-by-side. I don't want to use another instrument as a 'scratch pad'. This is a manuscript from a collection riddled with errors. I need to read the music, and play each part as I work to check it. And I need Musescore in Transposing mode: the two scores should look the same except where I have identified errors.
There's a reason for each step. I don't want to PLAY the transposed line. Only a genius can pay and hear three lines in different keys and say, "yup, that voice leading works if they're all played in the same key". The whole point of the device "transposing instrument" is that the written pitches are never -ever- sounded out loud.
I think if we all just slow down a sec and consider what I'm asking, it's exactly what is supposed to happen. If I'm writing for viola, I play the sounding pitch, and Musescore positions the notes on the Alto clef where they belong. If I want the open C string, I don't play a B a seventh higher because "that's the note that it looks like on the staff if you ignore the clef and read it as if it were treble clef". That's crazy. I don't want my audio, my keyboard, or my musical workflow in transpose mode, I want MUSESCORE in transpose mode.
There is also a glitch here. Currently, when I play a note, Musescore plays two pitches. I'm on an instrument in A, so I get little diminished chords everywhere I go.
I've got nothing against shortcuts and simplifications when appropriate, as long as the transparent functionality that is how-it's-done remains available.
In reply to Here is my workflow [inline… by rkhirst
I think MuseScore transposes after the fact not during. I also don't think most people doing transcription, do it your way.