I bought the piano sheet music for Simple Plan - Untitled. The key signature only has 1 # and it is F# but at the bottom of the page it says *Recorded in F# major. I don’t know about scales and modes or anything like that, but i do know that when i tried to play along with the song in the cd player, it sounded terrible. Is there any kind of way to match up modes with the paper to the actual music?
Study music theory. Seriously. With knowledge of scales, keys, chords, progressions, and inversions, you’ll be able to transpose any song into any key–in your head, on the fly.
You’re playing in G major. That key signature with the one sharp? G is one half-step higher than F#. You were playing the song with the record with every note a half-step apart. That has got to be the most dissonant clash of tones possible. (If anyone likes this effect, Béla Bartók wrote some pieces like that.)
To transpose the song into F# major, simply play each note one key to the left. Instead of G, play F#
Instead of A, play G#
Instead of B, play A#
Instead of C, play B
Instead of D, play C#
Instead of E, play D#
Instead of F#, play E# (which is the same key as F natural)
Notice that now your key signature has six sharps instead of one.
I noticed, and now the song looks uninviting to me! November Rain was that way actually, except the music said “tuned 1/2 step down” so i ended up doing the same thing and it took me 6 months to memorize it that way since i am terrible at sight reading music.
Why couldn’t they have just printed it the way it was recorded in the first place?
Why not just write the music in F# major to begin with?
Because F# major looks so uninviting, and G major is easy-- only one sharp. I doubt that there is more to it than that.
Why not record it in G? Because it fit someone’s range better, sounded better, suited the composer, arranger, director, etc. better.
This is when you need a “magic transposing piano.” Then you can play in G, and it will sound like F#.
The one my choir director has is a Clavinova–and it isn’t cheap, and she uses it for more things than just moving songs down a half step, but it is one way of accomplishing your goal.
I just thought of an easier idea.
G-flat is the same key on the piano as F#. You already have it arranged for the key of G. Simply play it as is, only flatten each note. Instead of each black key, play the white key to its immediate left. Instead of each white key, play the key to the immediate left, which will be black except where there are two white keys together without a black one in between. In that case, drop to the next white key to the left.
Instead of G, play G-flat
Instead of A, play A-flat
Instead of B, play B-flat
Instead of C, play C-flat (which is the same white key as B natural)
Instead of D, play D-flat
Instead of E, play E-flat
Instead of F#, play F natural
See how simple? If there are accidentals, just play the first note to the left, whatever it is.
The “easiest” way to do this is pretend the key signature is G-flat major (which is enharmonic to F-sharp major) and not G major.
Pencil in this signature or imagine it instead of the one-sharped key you have now.
Of course, now if you see accidentals in the music, you’ll have to treat them a little differently. A flat becomes a double flat, a natural becomes a flat, and a sharp becomes a natural. If you can read the music in 6 flats (which really isn’t as difficult as it seems, but it is daunting for a beginner), you should be able to handle the accidentals.
And I see that Johanna has basically just beaten me to my response.
This reminded me of something my piano teacher bragged about when I was 11. Her daughter played the piano for a chorus, but in rehearsals the chorus could never sing on key. So my teacher’s daughter simply transposed it down a half step. I think she played it in D-flat instead of D. She would have used the simple method pulykamell and I described. You can even sight-read this way. So the chorus director was ecstatic and praised my teacher’s daughter to the skies, “Oh Ginny, your daughter singlehandedly saved our concert!”
In this example, and in this case only, you can exploit the enharmonic property of notes that share the same key. Enharmonic notes in music notation are like homonyms in written language: they’re written differently, but sound the same. F# and G-flat occupy the same key on the piano, because as a keyboard instrument it uses equal temperament. But on a violin, or sung, F# and G-flat are very close but not exactly the same pitch, they’re a few cents (hundredths of a half-step) apart, I think.
any particular reason not to play it in G?
Apparently, for Slick, part of the fun of playing piano is also playing along with the professional recording (which is recorded in a different key).
You can buy and print sheet music from www.SheetMusicDirect.com. Before printing, you can have the site play the first page of the tune in any key you want, find the key that matches your recording, and then have it print the music in that key.
You could also, of course, stick the audio in a decent sound editor and drop the pitch a half-step while retaining the current tempo.
I play Debussy’s “Romance” in D major because I can’t stand D flat, and when I was learning it it was easy to just pretend the key sig called for D major (nothing else changes except some accidentals where an extra flat would become a natural or a natural a sharp).
Or, if the recording is CD, rather than a tape or mp3 or something, you can get a karaoke machine, and transpose the recording UP a half-step. In fact, there are probably software programs that do this.
Heh, I’m the exact opposite. I always love playing in D flat. On the sharps side anything past A major I can’t stand, so I would normally transpose those. Or as you say, just pretend it was A flat or what have you.
I think you meant F instead of F#, didn’t you?
Obviously, depending on the instrument, transposing down a half-step can be easy, difficult, or, in some instances, perhaps impossible. I know a number of rock guitarists–I think Stevie Ray Vaughn was one–routinely tune their guitars down to D# to give the strings more bendability. On guitar then, that’s one way to transpose a half-step down, and perhaps the only completely satisfactory way to do it. Without detuning the strings, you could substitute all the correct chords and notes, but keys in guitar music have their own characteristics because of how the open notes are used, and this has a major impact on the final sound.
Another problem you sometimes run into when playing to records is that all the songs on the same CD may not agree in tuning. When I was learning to play I used to play along with the Doors’ first album. And when I would get to “Light My Fire”, I would have to retune, because by some quirk of the production process, the song, which is normally performed in A-minor, ended up being about a quarter-tone flat on the record–in other words, between the notes of the instrument.
Notice that now your key signature has six sharps instead of one.
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Isn’t transposing on piano fairly difficult, though? At least, for most amateurs?
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I’m not Johanna, but I assume he meant F# since F# is the seventh note in the G-major scale.
And, yes, transposing on piano is difficult. I’m not very good at it with notated music, but I’m fine off chord sheets. This particular instance, though, is fairly easy as it only requires pretending the key signature were different (and accounting for the accidentals).
Sorry, I don’t understand the question. The OP asked for F#, so I told him what notes the scale of F# major was made of. It uses 6 sharps in the key signature. F natural is a whole step down from G, or two half-steps.
And yeah, D-flat was always my favorite major key. But I liked sharp keys too - D, A, and E - I always liked on the piano, not just because they’re the easiest for guitar. I never liked G major much for some reason. I played a lot of Rachmaninoff, who wrote 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys, like Bach. Apart from the preludes, Rachmaninoff loved to pile on the sharps and flats in the key signatures. I can’t think of anyone else who wrote much in E-flat minor (6 flats).
I’ve heard C major called “the people’s key” by folk musicians.
Well, I think it’s the key most harmonicas are in. Makes sense.
Ah, that explains it, thanks.
I heard that Irving Berlin never learned to read music… and he learned to play piano in only one key. Guess which one that was… yep, F#. The one everyone else is scared of is the only one IB used. He had a special transposing piano custom-built for him to be able to play other keys.
For some reason sharps don’t bother me — F# major, B major, even C# major. But if it’s flats, I’ll do D minor, F major, B flat major, …will sometimes wrestle with A flat major / F minor but that’s the limit on flats!
I think the C major = “people’s key” is from the fact that the piano itself is in the key of C (major; it could also be said to be in the key of A minor which might make more sense, A=home and all that, but people do also tend to think of major keys as more “normal” somehow); you play all the ordinary notes of the scale using only the white keys, and if you name the keys that you are playing none of them are called such-and-such SHARP or such-and-such FLAT, just C D E F G A B C.