Transposing: changing key

This entry provides instructions for transposing the key of a piece (or part of a piece). If you want to transpose a passage without changing the key signature itself, see Transposing: by interval. If you want to find out about transposing instruments, see Transposing instruments.

To transpose a piece (Key Signature tool)

To transpose an entire piece or a region, see Key signatures.

To enter pre-transposed music onto a transposing staff (step time)

You might wonder how PrintMusic handles notes you input on a transposing staff—does it consider the notes you’re entering to be the concert pitches or the written ones? When you’re using the step-time music entry tools (the Simple Entry and Speedy Entry tools), it’s up to you.

The following instructions show you how to specify that the notes you’re entering have already been transposed—for example, if you’re copying an existing score.

• Choose Display in Concert Pitch from the Document menu if there is a checkmark next to it. You’ll see by the key signatures that PrintMusic is displaying the transposing staves in their transposed form. In this mode, any new notes you enter with either step-time input tool are considered already transposed. In other words, if you play a C on the MIDI keyboard, it appears as a C on the transposed staff, even though it will play back as some other note, because you’ve just entered a written C.

If you want to enter the concert pitches, choose Display score in Concert Pitchagain from the Document menu (so that the checkmark appears next to the menu item). PrintMusic displays the contents of transposing staves at concert pitches. Any music you enter with either step-time input tool is now considered at concert pitch; when you turn Display in Concert Pitch off, it will be appropriately transposed.

To enter pre-transposed music onto a transposing staff (real time)

Once you’ve created a transposing staff, PrintMusic assumes that any notes you enter with the HyperScribe tool are untransposed (that is, they’re concert pitches).

You may occasionally want PrintMusic to assume that the notes you’re entering have already been transposed—for example, if you’re entering an existing score into PrintMusic. There’s no specific way to let PrintMusic know that your real-time music input has already been transposed; the solution, then, is to go ahead and enter them, letting PrintMusic transpose them again, so that the temporary result is that all the notes are too high (or too low), then manually transpose the incorrectly transposed notes back to their correct written pitches.

• Enter the part in its already transposed form. PrintMusic transposes the pitches again, resulting in a double transposition.
• Click the Selection tool  ; then click to the left of the staff you need to correct. The entire staff is highlighted.
• Choose Transpose from the Utilities menu. The Transposition dialog box appears.
• Choose the interval needed to transpose the notes to their correct “written” pitches. If you’re working on a trumpet part, for example, you’d specify Down, and Major Second as the transposition interval.
• Click OK (or press return). PrintMusic transposes all notes on the staff back to their correct written pitches.

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