Stews Learning Transcription Thread

[Guest]

1 minute ago, stewblack said:

I saw that but had no idea how I did it nor how to undo it

In musescore check it - is it visible or not? Click on the note head then look in the inspector. It should have a tick box or similar for visible.

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, FDC484950 said:

Nearly - I’d put the sixteenth note rest first and then the eighth note rest, that way you clearly define the middle of the beat and you pair the sixteenth note with the corresponding rest. It still seems very specific but having not listened to the track, you may well be spot on

Yes yes! That's what I've been trying to do in line with earlier suggestions, but missed that bar, thank you!

 

[stewblack]

Just now, stewblack said:

having not listened to the track, you may well be spot on

All I can say is I have paired the audio generated from my score with the original track and it fits seamlessly.

I allowed a small moment of smug when this happened. Then got down to improving the layout!

 

[Guest]

Ok. The notes in bars 9 and 10 (and others) are swung eighths so rather than eighth and two sixteenths on beats 3 and 4 it should be using triplets and the E should be on the down beat of beat 4, not tied over from beat 3. I’ve had a good listen to the track and they’re definitely not sixteenths.

Regarding the bars in question the bass does not hang over the beat. You have bass and horns doubling with an answering baritone sad playing on beat 2. Therefore it should be two regular eighth notes beamed together

Finally, when indicating a staccato note, unless you need to be very specific about the duration notate it as it’s regular length and add a staccato dot above (or below) the note. E.g. bars 52 and 54.

[stewblack]

9 and 10 have given me the biggest headache. This must be my fifth different attempt and certainly the only way I could get it to sound like the song. 

I'm out dog walking now, but I'll have a fiddle when I'm back home. 

 

[itu]

Very good discussion, the community shows its power again.

I do admit that some of my choices were slightly odd. After listening to the song and reviewing the score, there are funnies, yes. Dotted notes were notationally (nearly) correct, but playing would have been, umm, "classical". My bad.

The reason for many rests in the beginning is doublefold: the software plays longer set of rest bars right (and I am only not able to make such a short and tidy notation), although that looks complex without chords etc. When I do a bass score and something is happening without bass, I try to include details (lyrics, chords, melody lines...) to help following the reading.

8 bars here may seem crowded, but as I said earlier, this score is not overly complex. Usually this type of song is learned quickly and then the paper is just an extra support. It is true, that the legibility is another thing. As I use a tablet for my notes nowadays, and not paper anymore, this would drive the notation to three pages. No repeats, no segnos... and a bluetooth page turning device, which is really helpful.

Thanks for your comments!

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

when indicating a staccato note, unless you need to be very specific about the duration notate it as it’s regular length and add a staccato dot above (or below) the note. E.g. bars 52 and 54.

This part I had grasped and had in fact corrected many bars once I grasped the power of the staccato dot. I just missed 52, 54 and a few others. I still appreciate the point being emphasised. Thank you.

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

swung eighths so rather than eighth and two sixteenths on beats 3 and 4 it should be using triplets and the E should be on the down beat of beat 4, not tied over from beat 3

This has beaten me. I understand all the terminology but no amount of trying to stick to what you suggest here has produced anything even close to what's being played. It's completely beaten me I'm afraid so until I grasp whatever it is I'm missing I'll stick with my attempt as it at least sounds correct when played.

[Guest]

Don’t ever be beaten! I probably didn’t explain bars 9-10 very well. The intro is using swung eighths but the verse and chorus have straight eighths. Musescore doesn’t really handle that from a playback perspective. I’ll take a look at the file at the weekend and post my best guess at the part. It is quite lazily played (which suits the track brilliantly) and some of the notes are well behind the beat, so whilst fairly easy to read, it’s quite a challenge to get the feel just right.

[stewblack]

Sorry! I was tired and frustrated with it. But I dug deep and found how to do it. 

The add triplet function on musescore is weird! I used system text to add swing to the intro changing to straight when appropriate. 

Perfect! 

Thank you so much, another mystery solved. 

[Guest]

Yes it isn’t the best bit of Musescore. It’s usually simplest to write swing 8ths as straight 8ths with a direction to play swung (as you said) but Musescore cannot provide this text out of the box without a bit of hacking - same with multi-bar rests. But I can’t complain as it is such a good package that is free! I had Finale PrintMusic about 10 years ago (was about £100 at the time) and Musescore is far better. 
And you’re doing a fantastic job - keep up the good work

Edited April 3, 2020 by FDC484950

[stewblack]

It_Must_Be_Love 2.pdf

[stewblack]

Currently working on Night Boat To Cairo. Everything super straight forward walking bass rhythm - but oh my the key!!

First few bars had a D♭ and a B♭ (or C# A#) The next part introduced an E♭ and an A♭  and now we have a G♭. Unless it's changed key and we have D#, F# and G# which is possible because we start outlining a chord of F where previously we have outlined F minor whenever it has cropped up.

Man this makes my head spin.

 

EDIT: and the tempo changes three times, and now it's started to slow down. So mu Italian is coming along "Ritardando" indeed.

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by stewblack

[Guest]

OK, so I've had a close listen to the track (from the official video on YT, apologies if you're listening to a different version). I've attached MuseScore and PDF versions. Note that the swing indication at the beginning will not play back as swung in MuseScore - if you want to hear it exactly as played you'll need to mess with the playback settings.

There are a few points of note:

• I've added chord symbols as it helps to understand the bass line vs the harmony (more on this later). Chords in brackets are implied but not necessarily played.
• Tempo according to my metronome is around 147bpm but it fluctuates quite a bit (like all music!)
• I've used repeat signs and first and second endings wherever possible as it means less dots to read and makes the chart shorter
• Many of the notes marked as staccato aren't (e.g. the quarter note triplets are lazily played but held for the full duration), whereas there are genuine staccato notes (e.g. bars 40, 42, 52-54 and 79-81)
• The hits section (bars 28-31, 62-65 and 89-92) can in theory be written a number of ways; I would usually go with the vocals and chord changes. In this case, 2 bars of 3/4 and 2 bars of 4/4 count, read and feel the best
• Note the accented notes - there are a number of unison figures played and it lifts the track to give them a bit of emphasis

Now the good bits!

• Bar 17 (and each time this section comes round) has an E7, which contains a G#, but Bedders plays a G. It's theoretically wrong but works, it's bluesy.
• Someone (sounds like either Gtr or Kbd) anticipates the first chord of the chorus on beat 3 of bar 98 - someone is playing G when it should be C. Again it sounds a little odd but just adds to the charm of what is a perfect 3 minute pop song

Hope this helps! And excuse the forensic analysis

 

It_Must_Be_love.pdf It_Must_Be_Love.mscz

Edited April 4, 2020 by FDC484950
Missing repeat on bar 12, swung/straight text for playback added

[stewblack]

1 minute ago, FDC484950 said:

Note that the swing indication at the beginning will not play back as swung in MuseScore

Actually it does! 

Thank you for this I am working on today's transcription right now but when I'm done I'll study what you've sent

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Actually it does! 

Thank you for this I am working on today's transcription right now but when I'm done I'll study what you've sent

I've added the explicit "Swing" from the text pallete as an instruction to the playback.You could have both the swung image and the text (set to not visible) and then lines 1-2 play as swung 8ths. Adding another "Swing" text, changing the name then right-click properties and turning off swing sets it back to straight. The swung indication I've added is an image (it's not available within Musescore directly - it was a hack on one of their pages). I've also noticed ghost "chorus" text appears and disappears on page 2 - clearly there are still bugs (or maybe "features"). I still don't think I've scratched the surface of what it can do.

Edited April 4, 2020 by FDC484950

[stewblack]

I used the 'swing' and then 'straight' commands on mine and it did the job. Very glad to have found out about this as the one I'm transcribing today does not work straight but does swung!

[stewblack]

Mistakes.pdf

[cb1]

As has probably been mentioned before, notes shouldn't cross the centre of the bar (in 4/4). The Crochets that cross the centre need to be split into Quavers and tied - there are exceptions to this, but none that apply here, apart from the semi breves. 

[cb1]

Something like this.

Mistakes sib bass.pdf

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, cb1 said:

As has probably been mentioned before, notes shouldn't cross the centre of the bar (in 4/4). The Crochets that cross the centre need to be split into Quavers and tied - there are exceptions to this, but none that apply here, apart from the semi breves. 

Thank you. It probably has been said but to be honest so much has been said that I struggle to apply all the lessons every time.

For example a lot was being made earlier about making the layout as simple and easy to read as possible. Not arguing with you as I don't know what I'm doing yet, but the version you posted looks way messier to my eyes. It's hard to know which rules arew firm and which are just guidlines.

Either way I'm genuinely grateful for the help.

Edited April 5, 2020 by stewblack

[itu]

I do admit that @cb1 has clearer score. As this song is in 4/4, the beat should not be sacrificed (yes, I remember my dotted eights...), and has to be 4 beats written to each bar. You have to think that the bar has to have as many sets of notes and rests as the time signature tells. One important point is that we do not have to use the shortest element of the bar. Otherwise we might end up in a situation of 1/16 notes and rests filling the score. But it may be a good way to think that way: how to put them together, so that they form beats.

It does not look so good in the first phase, when there are arcs and notes look like the are divided to unnecessary parts. But the more you read and play, you see that beat behind everything.

[stewblack]

Today's attempt. This time I have attempted to add chords

 

Rockin'_In_A_Flat.pdf

[itu]

Do you have an issue with chords, as the header says in A flat and still the first chord is C?

(I will get my coat...)

Looks good. Ritardando is usually written "rit.". There is usually no need to put those tempos everywhere, use "a tempo" for getting back to original speed.

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, itu said:

Do you have an issue with chords, as the header says in A flat and still the first chord is C?

(I will get my coat...)

Looks good. Ritardando is usually written "rit.". There is usually no need to put those tempos everywhere, use "a tempo" for getting back to original speed.

Thank you!