Why is so much sheet music in the wrong key?

Cafe Society
41

I wonder if that’s the same book I have - brown cover with gold printing? Missing most of George Harrison’s songs, but including songs that McCartney wrote for Badfinger?

Yeah, almost every song in that book is in the wrong key. I pretty much learned to play guitar as a teenager by playing along with Beatles records, and I had to go through and write in the correct chords on just about every song.

As for songs affected by tape speeds (or other similar factors), Rush has a couple quirky songs. The first is Xanadu, from the album “A Farewell to Kings”. The entire song is almost a quarter step sharp. This is apparently deliberate; the temple chimes played by Neil Peart at the beginning of the song were apparently a bit sharp, and since the chimes couldn’t be tuned, they either tuned the guitar and bass to the chimes, or else speeded up the tape a bit when it came time to overdub the chimes. So, when playing along with the record, a guitarist or bassist has to retune his instrument for that one song, and then retune again to play the rest of the songs.

The second example is The Camera Eye from “Moving Pictures”. On this song, they seem to have adjusted the tape speed for certain parts of the song, for whatever reason. Perhaps it was decided that slightly speeding up certain sections sounded better. The result is that these sections are ever-so-slightly out of tune with the rest of the song, and a guitarist of bassist just kind of has to grit his teeth and put up with it while playing along because it’s simply not possible to keep retuning while playing.

42

[anecdote]
In college, my choir sang a medley from Les Miserables. We had a very talented student accompianist who embellished the written accompianment so that it sounded more like the orchestra accompianment we all knew and loved.

This was non-obvious to the choir, until the day that the accompianist was playing something very simple and bland. And when questioned, he admitted that he was curious about what the music as written sounded like, and so he was playing only what was written. He agreed to go back to playing his usual accompianment in the future.

43

This reminds me – (off-topic alert!) – of a few years ago when I got World of Warcraft and installed it on my PC. I started it up and went to click on whatever gets you into the game world, but my hand froze about halfway to the mouse. I just sat there for about thirty seconds listening to the theme music with my hand in the air. It was written in 7/4, and I got distracted trying to think of what other 7/4-sig game music I might have heard. (None that I could remember.) It locked down my tiny little brain for a while.

RR

44

Yeah, if you give a commercial chart to an accomplished pop pianist, he will ignore the written P-V part and produce something quite different, using the lead sheet elements (chords, bass line, melody) to improvise on the spot. It’s a world apart from the written arrangement, which often sounds quite sterile compared.

I am not familiar with that particular recording, but the possibility exists that two different takes, from two different studios and/or tape machines, were spliced together. Of course, if a musician were doing the splicing, he could have altered the pitch of one or the other to make them match, but you’d be surprised how many times a non-musician is the one with the razor blade and splicing tape.

I once had to do a takedown of an orchestral film score theme – I forget which one, but it was “Star Wars”-massive, not an improvised jazz piece. While it is not unusual to have seemingly random time sig changes to go along with cartoon action, so that the “hits” end up on specific beats, this one was a straight 4/4, steady-as-she-goes march tempo work. Except for one spot between choruses, where I found myself unable to play along with the transition without being thrown off by about a half-beat. Slowing down the recording and very carefully checking the count showed that there was a 1/8 note duration of sound inbetween two 4/4 bars. I had no doubt, but I had no way of checking the original score.

So I wrote in a 1/8 bar – 4/4, 1/8, 4/4. It only happened once, but in modern classical music, while unusual, isn’t unheard of.

Shortly after delivering the chart, I got a call from the composer/arranger. “What’s this bastard 1/8 bar doing in there? I didn’t write that!”

I played back the tape and asked him to count it. Sure enough, there was that bastard bar in the final release mixdown. He had to admit I heard correctly. Then it dawned on him that the producer, a non-musician, had spliced together parts of two different takes. The producer didn’t cut on the correct beat but one too early or too late. Thank goodness the takes were at the same pitch!

We revised the sheet music (easy to do), but did not alter the recording (hard to do; it was already released). So if you were able to compare them today, the sheet music would be correct yet the recording has an extra 1/8 bar.

45

They “took offense” because it constituted an infringement of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights and an interference with the market to sell copies of lyrics.

Of course it wasn’t good enough. Just saying that something constitutes fair use is never good enough.

Since you’re an actual musician I am surprised that you consider a key transposition to somehow constitute “not the real deal.” Music, either legally or artistically, is not based on the notion “exactly like it sounds on the recording.”

46

I think both.

47

Looking at the liner notes, it appears that the album may have been recorded digitally (Rush were early adopters in this area):

48

I wonder if the “digital mastering” credits refer to the original recording or later editing.

1980 would be pretty darn early for all-digital, multi-track recording in a professional studio other than an experimental session, I think. But I could be wrong. 16-track was all the rage ca. 1972, 24-track shortly after, then larger studios were ganging two 24-trackers for the biggest projects in the late 70’s. My personal in-studio experience ends in the mid 80’s. One of the first home-studio digital units, the Alesis ADAT (8 tracks on SVHS tape), came out ca. 1989.

Still, given the state of recording in 1980 – digital computer or analog tape – I doubt if two takes could be spliced together, edited or manipulated as easily and trouble-free as they can now.

49

The first all-digital record was Ry Cooder’s Bob Till you Drop, from 1979. However, I believe Moving Pictures remaster has a SPARS code of ADD, which means that it was recorded on analog media. It was recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Canada and I don’t think they had digital equipment this early. (I might be wrong about that, though.)

50

Hard to say. I was quoting from the CD liner of a later, remastered version. I think I may have this disc on the original vinyl packed away around here someplace. If I remember, I’ll dig it out and compare the two.

Trivia note about Xanadu, the other song I mentioned: the whole song — all 11 minutes and 7 seconds — as it appears on the record, was recorded “live”, in one take. That is, the basic guitar, bass, and drum tracks were played together by all three band members, as opposed to laying down one instrument at a time to a click or scratch track, straight through from beginning to end. There was, of course, plenty of overdubbing done afterward - vocals, guitar solos, extra guitar layers, and synths. Amazing, considering a) the complexity of the song, and b) the relatively young ages of the band members at the time (24-25 years). This was in late '77 or early '78.

They came back the next year and did the same thing with the 18+ minute Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres, which is even more complex. It wouldn’t surprise me if The Camera Eye was also recorded in a similar manner.

51

See if the code, as Jovan pointed out, says Dxx, not Axx, which would indicate the initial recording was digital.

However, I’m not sure when that code was first used or invented, so it might not be on an early pressing.

Rhythm tracks – guitar, bass, keyboards and basic drums – are usually recorded in one take, together. Unless you have a single artist who wants to play all of those himself. After the rhythm tracks are laid down, which serve as a click track (timekeeper), other voices and instruments are added as needed, sometimes in different studios.

52

I checked with the “experts” (fellow musicians & hardcore Rush fans) on the Rush Tablature Project e-mail list, and one confirmed that the code on the original Moving Pictures CD was “ADD”. He also adds, “but I also remember hearing somewhere that it was the very first album by any band to be mixed to Digital”.

I also learned that the first Rush album recorded digitally (DDD) was 1985’s “Power Windows”.

I’ve asked for further clarification on my earlier claim, since it’s been several years since I read the relevant article. When I read about the “one take” thing, the writer made it out to be something very unusual. It’s possible that by “one take”, he literally meant “one take”, as in they only had to do it once, as opposed to doing several takes and picking the best one. Or maybe that one take included more than just the basic guitar/bass/drums - Geddy Lee plays bass, keyboards, Taurus pedals, and lead vocals almost simultaneously on stage, so maybe he did all of that at the same time in the studio, too. (It’s worth noting that, despite the insane complexity of the music, Rush has always strived to structure it in such a way that what they do in the studio can still be reproduced live by just the three of them - no side musicians. In 1977-78, they didn’t have the advantage of today’s sequencers, so they literally had to be able to do it all themselves.)

53

“I never wanted to be a star…”

54

Datza one. Like the counterpoint?

55

If I hear a song that I like, and the lyrics mean something to me, I can write them down on my own. I can word process them to look nice, maybe get some cardstock, make a print, and hang it on the wall. I don’t need to buy them in the first place. That’s what I don’t get: what sale are they missing out on? On the sites where I saw them, they weren’t being offered for sale of any kind.

I can understand the chords thing better…there are guitarists etc. who can’t figure out the chords and would buy the sheet music. But lyrics?

I play guitar, not piano. Guitar, as I play it at least, is a lot easier for transposing. E.g. at Christmas I was singing songs with some people and “Away in a Manger” was in a terrible key for the vocal ranges. So I took my pencil and two minutes and fixed it by transposing it. I’m just playing chords, so it’s one bit of information, playing E for these two bars instead of A-flat.

OTOH if I were a piano player, I couldn’t do that. The melody line would change, the bass line would change, etc. I’m not saying that really good piano players can’t do that—but probably of a lot of average players can’t.

So if I were a pianist and I heard some song I really liked, and I sang along with it, finding it was a comfortable feel vocally I might buy the sheet music. If I found out that that sheet music were in a different key than the original (and consequently I couldn’t sing with it), I’d be pissed.

56

That’s the moral argument for file-sharing, too. There are elements of truth in the argument, but that doesn’t change the fact that the lyrics remain the intellectual property of the copyright-holder. They are the ones who get to decide what can be done with their property, intellectual or otherwise.

Should a poet have copyright of his/her works? If yes, then the same should surely apply to any songwriter. In fact, it probably would be impossible to differentiate in legal terms between a poet and a lyricist.

Are you talking about actually playing along with the original recording? How many pianists actually do that?

57

Lots of them. Why is that so unusual? That’s how I got my start doing takedowns.

58

I’ve been in stores where they sell posters that feature song lyrics. The author should absolutely be paid for that…no qualms with that. And after reflection, I can see that people posting them can profit in some via advertising revenues.

But as I said, if I want the lyrics I can listen and write them myself. Sometimes I even have the lyrics already because they were provided with the CD. Finding them on line was just a convenience.

As for the piano thing, I would assume most piano players play in the key of the sheet music. I can’t imagine transposing all that…tons of work, I’d think.

Some years ago a friend who played keyboard told me hers had a dial that allowed her to put it in a different key. Thing is, that’s great if you like the key it’s written in for playing the piano part but aren’t comfortable with the vocal range. It doesn’t do you any good if you just don’t like the key it’s in for playing, but you probably could catch that just by looking at it before you buy.

59

It’s not that hard transposing piano music. If it’s complicated music then you are probably a good player to be playing it in the first place and transposing will be within your capabilities, if it is a simple piece then, well, it’s easy to transpose. Also, a lot of pop song type stuff that you might sing along to is basically just chords anyway so no more difficult than transposing guitar songs.

60

The problem is that lyric sites started funding themselves by ad banners. At that point, they are profiting from the writers/publishers work. And at that point, the publishers see their opportunities for profit diminishing.

Happens all the time.

My experience is with modern church worship music. Often music as recorded and then published is in too high a key for the average congregation (and certainly for one led by me). So I do a lot of transposing. Now, I can do this easily on the fly on the guitar (with capo or without), and generally on the piano (using transpose to avoid difficult keys), because I don’t need to read and play the melody - I use my voice/ear for that. But other musicians don’t always have that flexibility. So I score a lot of stuff onto my computer - melody + chords - that I can then transpose into a suitable key. This also gives more capacity to shift songs into common or related keys for easy segues. As long as I only use these transpositions personally or within a small group, I don’t believe that I am doing anything wrong, and I try to register my copies within our copying license. I’m happy to share my printed work with someone who has legally purchased a copy of the original. But I won’t make it available to all and sundry - writers and publishers deserve reward (and these publishers/writers are pretty free with chord charts and lyric sheets anyhow, as long as performance data is recorded). Plus I get a single song plus readable lyrics on an A4 landscape sheet - much better than a book with pages that need turning/flattening/pinning.

But an increasing trend seems to be the use of recorded midi performance data being fed straight into a notation program for publication. Worship material has a pretty short lead time - once some people start hearing a worship song, everybody wants to use it. But melody lines with odd dotted notes all tied together that vary from verse to verse seem to indicate (at least to me) an automated approach to the transcription without serious musical review. However, you also get the other extreme - oversimplified transcriptions that confuse musicians playing the music vs those that have listened to a particular (and sometimes idiosyncratic) recording.

Anyhow - I take my hat off to Musicat and other transcriptionists. You guys sort out the tricky and distinctive bits that make songs - the bits that my sloppy ears and fumbling fingers gloss over, and make them readable and (eventually) playable. And I’ll pay for that.

Si