Software that transposes music?

Question

I would love to be able to learn the flute by playing more popular music. However, all the free sheet music that I can find for a flute in the key of C is lame stuff like "Jingle Bells."

In my search for songs that I would like to play on the flute, I find music for clarinets, saxophones, etc... all written in different keys. Is there some sort of software I can run sheet music through that would transpose it into another key (preferably the key of C, high enough for the flute?)

Furthermore, I understand that transpose means to move the notes according to the pitch. What is called to move it up or down according to the octave?

The flute is a really high instrument and, in learning, it's frustrating when I find sheet music written in the key of C, but too low for the flute. I feel that a more experienced player could just read the note and play it by transposing it in their head, but I'm brand new to reading music so it would make playing and learning significantly easier if I could have sheet music written specifically for the octave and key my flute is in.

Is there software that can both transpose it and/or move it up an octave or two?

Answer 1

It depends on the source of the music, but I can think of two ways to do this. If I remember correctly, they can both be accomplished with Finale and Sibelius.

If the source is Sheet Music:

• You are going to need to scan the music and use OCR software meant for music. Sibelius has a program called Photoscore that will do this.

If the music is available as Midi file:

• Music notations can generally import the music and then you can use a transpose function.

With either of these, there will probably be some mistakes and cleaning up that needs to be done (Manually adjusting sections if they are out of the range of your instrument, incorrect notes, etc). But once you get into a program like Finale or Sibelius there are Transpose functions in the menu.

Answer 2

You should definitely check out the open source notation software http://musescore.org/. It has many features related to transposing.

Answer 3

There's lots of composition software that you can use to grab groups of notes and transpose them all up. (Finale comes to mind). However, you do this within a specific file format. "Sheet music" doesn't have a specific file format. It's often PDF, but PDF is designed for graphical layout and not for being read by music software. So you can't do this in general with any sheet music. You could manually copy it into Finale or other software and edit it there, though.

Transposing up an octave is still just transposing.

Answer 4

Any of the music notation programs will let you enter the music and transpose it to any key. In your case, no need to look beyond the free program MuseScore.

But you may be asking the wrong question. Are you getting confused by the fact that the clarinet is "in Bb", the alto sax "in Eb"? You can still play music intended for those instruments on flute. It will come out at a different pitch than intended. So what?

And why must all the music you play be in the key of C? Flute can play sharps and flats. They're just notes, with a particular fingering, like any other. Nothing to be frightened of. And you need them, because much music ISN'T in the key of C, and even if it is anything but a very simple tune will still use some flat and sharp notes!

Answer 5

Melanie -- many people have given you answers to the first part of your question (I might also add Wikifonia.org which lets you move the music up a bit and will let you download the music in a form you can load into free Finale Notepad to transpose) but I didn't see an answer to the second part:

Transposing can refer to either changing the key of the piece, moving it within an octave, or shifting the octave of a piece, or both.

Answer 6

If you learn all the scales ,you can easily transpose a music sheet without any software which is written in one scale to any other scale.

Manual Method using blank sheet music :

For example if you want t to transpose a melody music sheet written in "C Major scale to E major scale”.

1. The 1st note of C Major scale is C and 2nd is D, 3rd is E, 4th is F, 5th is G, 6th is A, 7th is B and the 8th note is C.

2. The 1st note of E major scale is E and 2nd is F#, 3rd is G#, 4th is A, 5th is B, 6th is C#, 7th is D# and the 8th note is E.

3. So you can replace the notes in the music sheet with 1 note of C major (C note) with 1st note of E major (E note) and 2nd note of C major(D note) with 2nd note of E major (F# note) respectively for all the notes in the music piece.

4. Once you replace all the notes in this method - the melody is now transposed from one scale to another scale - C major to E major.

Using Muse score free notation software :

1. For example consider you have music sheet which is written in “D Major and you want to transpose to F Major scale”.

2. Open the muse score software and open a blank notation sheet.

3. Update the key signature of F (i.e one # )major key in the music sheet.

4. Write the notes as per the music sheet available with you which is in “D major scale”.

5. Select all notes simultaneously in each bar & phrase.

6. Press the up arrow key in the computer keyboard one time – now the notes will move one level up in the staff and form a D# scale.

7. Press the up arrow one more level (2nd time) in the staff will form E Major.

8. Press up arrow one more level (3rd time) will form a F major key.

In the same way you can transpose the music from one lower octave to higher octave. You can use the up arrow key to move the notes up and down as per your choice.

Answer 7

TuxGuitar (Free) probably has that feature.
Guitar Pro ($60 / 60€) surely has it.

With both you'll have to manually enter the music in the software. But if the music is a well-known song, you may find already existing tabs in the Guitar Pro format (that TuxGuitar can read), like on Ultimate-Guitar.com

Answer 8

I suggest doing it by means of Finale and Sibelius. Also Musescore is useful, but... If You're not acquainted with the programs, You may and will have troubles with any of them.

This is why, You shouldn't do it by Yourself, just order scores and get it back in PDF, print them and play flute or else. I suggest this service. My friends suggested me and now I save my time.

Answer 9

I would dare to say that every serious notation software is capable of transposing a score to a different key or a different octave. The problem would be rather how to get a PDF-file into that software.

Here is a very basic example using LilyPond for transposing a simple scale to different keys:

\version "2.18.2"

\paper {
  ragged-last = ##f
}

music = \relative c' {
  \key c \major
  c d e f g a b c
}

% C major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "C major" }}
  \transpose c c {
    \music
  }
}

% G major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "G major" }}
  \transpose c g {
    \music
  }
}

% D major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "D major" }}
  \transpose c d {
    \music
  }
}

% A major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "A major" }}
  \transpose c a {
    \music
  }
}


% E major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "E major" }}
  \transpose c e {
    \music
  }
}

% B major =========================================
\score {
  \new Staff \with {
    instrumentName = \markup { \bold "B major" }}
  \transpose c b {
    \music
  }
}

a short description of how to convert MIDI to LilyPond input-files can be found here.

Answer 10

If your music is available in PDF or you have access to a scanner, https://musescore.com/import (Free account required) allows you to upload the file and it will convert it to a MCSZ file that can be edited and transposed in https://musescore.org. It is powered by Audiveris, an open-source Optical Music Recognition program.

Transposing music in https://musescore.org is easy, simply load the file, select all of the notes, and then Menu > Notes > Transpose.

Answer 11

Scanning sheet music, transposing, reprinting. Look at "Music Publisher"

http://www.lauriso.com

There are two versions, the scanning version and the standard version. In the second you have to enter the software first by pressing names of notes (eg A C E etc). In the second you scan-in from sheet music or direct from PDF files.

Bernard Hill