Friday 11 April 2014

Can You Transpose? :-)

Here is "The Doxology." Learn it :-)

When you can play it without the music, read the section on Transposing below, and after studying it, try transposing this tune :-)

Can You Transpose?
CAN you transpose music? A boy I knew who could play the piano pretty well was suddenly asked to play a hymn at a service, as the regular player had failed. When he got there he found the hymns chosen were far too high for the old people, and evidently the singers felt it a great strain to struggle up to the top notes. He wished he could put the notes down lower, but he couldn't transpose.

He determined to learn. When he got home he went to the hymn-book and opened it at one of the hymns he had to play. It was the well-known "Rock of Ages." His piano master had given him hints in transposing, but he had never practised, because he had had no use for it till now. Still, he knew how to begin. "The tune's in E," he said. "Very well. I'll put it down a tone and play it in D." He played over the bass part only, in the original key and afterwards in the key of D. Then he put the bass and treble together without much trouble. So far, so good. But when he tried to add the inner parts and read the four lines in a different key he came to grief.

Then a bright idea struck him. The chords were all simple ones - common chords, inversions or dominant seventh. He had been taught to play these chords in any key. Why not apply his knowledge and read from chords and not from four parts? So he started.

Now I'm going to tell you how he worked out that tune using 'The Doxology' (printed above).
He tried to put it a semitone higher. "Chord of G becomes chord of A flat," he began. "Key note in bass and treble. Next chord same. Next, dominant chord of Key G, the third at the top becomes dominant of A flat - E flat, with G at top. Chord of E minor becomes F minor. Chord of B minor, third at top, becomes C minor, E flat at top," and so he went on till he had transposed the whole tune - slowly, but correctly. He didn't always get the inner parts quite as they were printed, but he always played the right chord.

(The Useful Corner - Music and Youth, 1925)

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