Song: The Last Of The Mohicans Theme
Cover: CalikokatPiano
First of all...
I am self learning musical composition / transposition by ear.
The first song I picked to debut our first duet...
I had heard on YouTube...
and there is no written music available for it.
The original composition, and the person performing it...
right on his YouTube page, stated it would be alright if others write out his musical score
(Luke Pickman).
He had performed the song using a Harp and an Alto Flute.
So...
I am transposing it, by ear, for the Piano and the Bass Flute...
so my mother and I may make this our first duet to play.
I had chosen it because the Piano portion has a very easy repeating three partial scale
right hand piano portion...and some simple chords for the left hand.
The flute portion has a very magical melodic score.
It is one of my favorite songs.
I shouldn't have that much trouble transposing the flute portion...
as the Alto Flute is only four notes up from the Bass Flute...
so...I should be able to play it as it sounds
(as his notes don't go above the octave range of the Bass Flute)...
and so...writing out the score for this should be relatively easy by ear
(although, I have only been playing the bass flute for a little over one week :)
I started out today's music practice by printing out some Master Clef sheets
for the piano portion (left hand sheets with the treble and bass clefs).
The right hand sheets are treble clef sheets for the flute music.
I am transposing the Harp music into piano music so my mother
will have more time to practice her portion of the duet.
I have never taken piano before...
so, again, I am learning as I go.
However, the notes are pretty simple.
It is my musical ear I am worried about.
I may hear different notes than what they actually are...
and so, that which I am transposing...
may be off.
I sat at the piano with the iPod as I listened to the song...
and I then wrote the notes I had heard as I attempted to replicate the notes on the piano.
I will first write out all of the right hand notes for the piano so my mother
may learn the right hand portion of the song while I finish transposing the rest
of the song by filling in the piano chords (which I will have to try to discern by ear).
Once this is completed...
I will then work on transposing the music for my bass flute.
In the meantime...
my mother was completing her musical notation practice from her first piano lesson.
Once I complete the transposition of our first duet...
every day, until we are ready to perform the duet...
we will practice for the first hour from our lesson books...
and we will then practice our duet for the remainder of the time
(my mother is taking piano lessons once a week...
and I am teaching myself the bass flute).
This song has a repeating set of partial harp melody scales...
a set of three in total
(I have yet to transpose the chords for the left hand piano portion).
What I had done was to break up teaching my mother the three partial scales...
and noting the scale number on the left margin of the musical stanzas.
I am only halfway through the song for the right hand portion of the piano
(again...I am self taught. My musical ear may be off...and I am teaching myself
how to transpose music...so, my musical notations might also be off).
I have never studied musical theory...
so, while I may be committing some cardinal sin with my transposition...
I can only write what I think I am hearing.
Remember...
I am a guy.
I love to figure things out for myself :)
I also printed out the piano keyboard, and I filled in the keys to hit in an up and down
scale for each partial scale.
I did this so my mother can remember which keys to hit for each partial scale...
so she may teach herself the partial scales while I am gone
(my mother cannot yet read music...
as she just completed her first music lesson a couple of days ago).
As she matches the notes to the musical score I am transposing...
she may also teach herself how to read music.
So long as my mother practices diligently...everyday...
even when I have gone home...
we should make rapid progress on our duet.
I will first have to finish with the complete transposition...
and we will have to, not only know our portions of the music...
we will have to play in time with one another.
But...
this first attempt will prove to be a great learning experience for the both of us.
This is what makes music so exciting...
it is a problem which makes solving it...
pure magic :)
Interesting challenge you're taking on in transposing the music. I don't think I would have the patience, let alone the ear, to do it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI have finished the right hand piano portion. I decided to forego the chords right now, as my mother will just have to concentrate on the right hand, and keeping time. I am almost done with the bass flute score. I will have to transpose much of the music I like since I like to play nonstandard bass flute music. Instead of a traditional supporting role, I like to play the lead melody. So, I will transpose the lead vocal, or another lead instrument, and make it the bass flute score. This means that I will have to change the key, or even bring down the score a whole octave to match the range of the bass flute. I expect with practice, I will get the hang of it. The frustrating part right now is how slowly I must take everything. If I miss the timing of even one sixteenth note, any duet will be thrown off. When an artist has a fast non scale note run, I must listen very carefully for any sharps or flats, or the changing of note patterns. Sometimes the notes are run so fast that it is difficult to account for each one. I will have to keep repeating that portion of music to get all of the notes. More than once on the one I am doing for the flute, I ended up with an extra note in the measure, and so, I have to go back and figure out where the timing of the notes had gone wrong. I’ve had to check from the beginning more than once. As this particular piece is in 2/4 time, I am dealing with many sixteenth and eighth notes. I was halfway through when I found an extra eighth note. It turns out the notes were right, but I had mistakenly put in an eighth rest where the flute player simply had taken a breath. I almost had to start the second page over until I finally caught my mistake. The flute portion is turning out to be more time consuming than I had originally thought it would be.
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