Move all notes 3 half tones down,
I have a piece that is actually in C minor, but there is no key signature in the start of the score. Instead, it is written as if it was C major, with all notes that need to be flat to play correctly, written with accidentals.
I want to "clean it up" by moving all notes down by 3 semitones, so it plays in A minor instead, while cancelling all the flats so they become natural for their scale. And also add in any accidentals for the notes that are now in natural but need to be sharpened/flattened once moved to the correct scale.
If I select everything and simply drag the C down to an A, it doesn't preserve the intervals correclty as it doesn't keep the whole and half steps correctly. If I select any of the transpose options, it instead changes the key signature of the entire score.
Does anyone have any suggestion of what I can do to fix it?
Comments
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/transposition
In reply to See https://musescore.org/en… by Jojo-Schmitz
If it plays correctly, that means all notes are already at the right pitch but with accidentals instead of a key signature. So just add a C minor key signature and the accidentals will probably disappear. If they don't then select all (CTRL+A) and move everything up one semitone with the up arrow key and back down again with the down arrow key. If you really want it in A minor you can do the transposition after adding the correct C minor key signature.
Thanks for your responses, I got it sorted. I selected everything with Ctrl+A, then moved it down 3 chromatic steps with arrow down and it lined up properly for A minor and still played correctly. Then I was able to transpose it into any key signature.
Also, I noticed that some of the notes became for example Ab where G# would have been preferred. Turned out that by moving everything another step down and one step back up, it changed things around to prefer sharps over flats. So now the triads also look correct.
In reply to Thanks for your responses, I… by Freesurfer
Even if the piece is in A minor you should add an A minor key signature.There should be a key signature with no flats or sharps in the key signature pallet. Select the first measure and click on that pallet item to add it to the score. Having the correct key signature there (even though you won't see it if it has no flats or sharps) makes any subsequent transpositions work more smoothly.
In reply to Even if the piece is in A… by SteveBlower
I don't know if the original piece was "defined" as C major/A minor or just "undefined". I see what you mean, that there may be a technical difference in editing software, even though it "looks" the same on the sheet.
The score in question is: https://musescore.com/user/29032833/scores/5308351
But it is all fixed now. :-) Moving it to A minor was more of an intermediate step to correct the flats and sharps to line up with a minor scale, before transposing it to D minor which added in the correct key signature and sounds better.
Thanks again!
In reply to Thanks for your responses, I… by Freesurfer
Indeed, the arrow keys use spelling according to direction of motion - flats for downward motion, sharps for upward. That's because the arrow keys are exactly how one normally enters accidentals to begin with: typing "G Up" enters a G#, whereas "G Down" enters a Gb.
I gather you've sorted this out now - although if you now literally have all accidentals spelled as sharps, chances are at least some of those are wring and should be flats (eg, a Neapolitan chord would be spelled with a Bb). For the record, the quick way to change the spelling of a note after the fact is to press "J'.
But the way to have avoided this to begin with would have been to use Tools / Transpose to transpose everything down by the interval of a minor third, and unchecking the key signature box. Another approach would have been to simply add the C minor key signature to begin with. Even if you've already entered the notes without a key signature, adding the key signature does exactly the right thing here - removes accidentals from notes that no longer need them, adds them to notes that do.