Transcribing for guitar

[b1j]

Not sure if this belongs in PLAY and Write, but here goes.

Last night I finished the initial tracking of a piano sonata that I transcribed for four acoustic guitars and one bass guitar. I thought I'd share how I transcribed it.

I pulled down a pdf of the treble/bass piano score from the first promising search hit I found online. It was accurate and complete.

Next, I uploaded the pdf into MuseScore 4, the free open-source notation app. Then I copied the treble clef into two new staves and deleted the notes of one voice or the other to create two distinct parts, each with its own stave. I did the same thing with the bass clef. It's a pretty dense piece, so in the end I had five separate parts for my Gurian, HD-28, J-45, and D-18, plus bass. One big moment was when I held my breath and deleted the original piano parts! Just the five staves remain.

The guitars are now all tracked except I'll need a little punch-in for minor glitches. I'll use the printed score to circle the spots that need touch-up and run through it like a punch list. I have yet to decide which bass to use.

I read music like a two-year-old reads Dr. Seuss: slowly and painstakingly, very gradually arriving at the point of it all. But with separate staves for each part, I've been able to play and listen to six or eight bars of one part at a time to help me rehearse before tracking. Good thing I have a good ear: it's in A flat!

This method allowed me to play the notes as (largely) separate melodies: a few passages have two or three notes at once on a single guitar. I don't pretend this is either efficient or fast, but for me it was the only feasible way to record every note of the piece on my guitars, and it brought out the polyphonic melodies in the piece.

It's been a labor of love. and I've been at it for weeks. This week I finally had three free days to set up the recording space and do the tracking. Once I track the punch-ins and bass, I'm excited to get to the mixing.

Oops, maybe this belongs in the Record forum, but I thought I'd wait to unspool the story there until it's mastered.

What a fun hobby!

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by b1j

Not sure if this belongs in PLAY and Write, but here goes.

Last night I finished the initial tracking of a piano sonata that I transcribed for four acoustic guitars and one bass guitar. I thought I'd share how I transcribed it.

I pulled down a pdf of the treble/bass piano score from the first promising search hit I found online. It was accurate and complete.

Next, I uploaded the pdf into MuseScore 4, the free open-source notation app. Then I copied the treble clef into two new staves and deleted the notes of one voice or the other to create two distinct parts, each with its own stave. I did the same thing with the bass clef. It's a pretty dense piece, so in the end I had five separate parts for my Gurian, HD-28, J-45, and D-18, plus bass. One big moment was when I held my breath and deleted the original piano parts! Just the five staves remain.

The guitars are now all tracked except I'll need a little punch-in for minor glitches. I'll use the printed score to circle the spots that need touch-up and run through it like a punch list. I have yet to decide which bass to use.

I read music like a two-year-old reads Dr. Seuss: slowly and painstakingly, very gradually arriving at the point of it all. But with separate staves for each part, I've been able to play and listen to six or eight bars of one part at a time to help me rehearse before tracking. Good thing I have a good ear: it's in A flat!

This method allowed me to play the notes as (largely) separate melodies: a few passages have two or three notes at once on a single guitar. I don't pretend this is either efficient or fast, but for me it was the only feasible way to record every note of the piece on my guitars, and it brought out the polyphonic melodies in the piece.

It's been a labor of love. and I've been at it for weeks. This week I finally had three free days to set up the recording space and do the tracking. Once I track the punch-ins and bass, I'm excited to get to the mixing.

Oops, maybe this belongs in the Record forum, but I thought I'd wait to unspool the story there until it's mastered.

What a fun hobby!

How was the PDF transfer into musescore4? Did the resulting midi notation need much editing or correction?

[b1j]

Originally Posted by JonPR

How was the PDF transfer into musescore4? Did the resulting midi notation need much editing or correction?

It was pretty seamless. I forgot to mention that, it turns out, there was one error in the pdf: someone had entered all the little grace notes in a trill, and had entered an extra 64th note or something in one of the measures. I kept getting a notice that the file was "corrupted." I turned to the MuseScore chat community and got an almost immediate reply with a suggestion that solved the problem.

MuseScore doesn't give MIDI notation, just standard music notation, and very beautifully laid out too. I printed a pdf of the edited score. The app reproduces crescendos and fermatas when you play back. I don't know about retardando, but that wasn't an issue.

[Chipotle]

I had no idea that MuseScore could import PDFs and turn them into notation! I could have used that recently. However, I do know (and recently used) the MuseScore feature that takes notation and outputs MIDI. Just go to File > Export, and under Format choose MIDI file.

[rick-slo]

Just a question about Muse Score 4 which advertises itself as free to download load. I read online that it does not end up being free.
For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Musescore/c...tion%20payment.

Any issues like this?

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by b1j

It was pretty seamless. I forgot to mention that, it turns out, there was one error in the pdf: someone had entered all the little grace notes in a trill, and had entered an extra 64th note or something in one of the measures. I kept getting a notice that the file was "corrupted." I turned to the MuseScore chat community and got an almost immediate reply with a suggestion that solved the problem.

MuseScore doesn't give MIDI notation, just standard music notation, and very beautifully laid out too. I printed a pdf of the edited score. The app reproduces crescendos and fermatas when you play back. I don't know about retardando, but that wasn't an issue.

Thanks! (I meant staff notation, btw, thinking of as a representation of the midi data for playing back, and not just a visual image.)

I have musescore4 but I haven't fully got into it yet. I normally use Sibelius and I'm used to that, but musescore4 seems to have one or two capabilities that Sibelius lacks. (Last time I tried importing a PDF into Sibelius it wasn't too successful but that was a long time ago...)

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Just a question about Muse Score 4 which advertises itself as free to download load. I read online that it does not end up being free.
For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Musescore/c...tion%20payment.

Any issues like this?

Apparently the confusion is between musescore.org - the software which is genuinely free - and musescore.com, which is a score-sharing site and requires subscription - and seems to be very sneaky about getting it.

I'm still a little confused myself, tbh. I have uploaded a few scores to the site - some while back - so I have some kind of "account" there (an id and a password). I guess I may have signed up for a subscription, but when I log on now, I see offers to "upgrade to Pro" and "Start a free trial", and can find no record of any subscription payment. It was a few years ago, and (if I did pay) I may well have regarded the annual fee as reasonable enough - but I don't remember what it was, and have noticed no mysterious withdrawals from my bank account. Hmm... I suppose I need to check! (I've a feeling you don't pay if you only upload scores. It's downloads you have to pay for, which I'm not currently interested in.)

Meanwhile, the copy of musescore4 I have is clearly labelled ".org". I didn't pay for that!

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Apparently the confusion is between musescore.org - the software which is genuinely free - and musescore.com, which is a score-sharing site and requires subscription - and seems to be very sneaky about getting it.

I have used MuseScore for years, downloaded from MuseScore.org, and never once has it asked for money, or even to create an account. The download of the software itself (and the accompanying MuseHub app, if you want it, which lets you manage your updates and also download a few extras like additional playback sounds) is completely free and always has been, no strings attached.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Just a question about Muse Score 4 which advertises itself as free to download load. I read online that it does not end up being free.
For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Musescore/c...tion%20payment.

Any issues like this?

I didn’t read the Reddit post, but I did get cornered into some ancillary screen that started talking about how to save money with some features. I’m not about to pay for a “completely free” app. I completely ignored it and closed the app. I reopened it, and the money pitch didn’t come back. It’s still not back after opening the app maybe thirty times since then.

Note: I only use the software to correctly represent the work of some other anonymous arranger that is already in pdf form: usually classical music in the public domain. Also, to render the notes with sound. There was an acoustic guitar voice setting. I used that and it was beyond good enough.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

I have used MuseScore for years, downloaded from MuseScore.org, and never once has it asked for money, or even to create an account. The download of the software itself (and the accompanying MuseHub app, if you want it, which lets you manage your updates and also download a few extras like additional playback sounds) is completely free and always has been, no strings attached.

That's what I thought. Maybe the guy on the other forum got drawn into the pro version...

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by JonPR

That's what I thought. Maybe the guy on the other forum got drawn into the pro version...

That Reddit post doesn't even mention the MuseScore app, just whines about the trial to the paid Pro musescore.com score-sharing service. So apples and oranges.

I even went looking in MuseScore4 to find where it might charge you... there are only a couple places where it even mentions signing in to an account. On the Home page, there are sign-ins for musescore.com and audio.com, and then under the File menu there is Save to cloud, Publish to musescore.com and (more relevant to this thread) Import PDF, all of which take you to musescore.com and want you to sign in. There's no ask for money at all until after you end up at musescore.com (which loads in your web browser, and not in the MuseScore program itself).

On top of that, MuseScore is open source. So reports that the MuseScore app itself requires a subscription are user misunderstanding. It is absolutely amazing software for free.

[b1j]

I’ve had MuseScore since at least v.2., and used it infrequently. It was mildly clunky but serviceable then. I grabbed v.4 for this project. Now it’s filled with features (I don’t know how to use) and well behaved in the hands of a musical lightweight.