tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post6486654436797765565..comments2023-05-25T00:42:14.507-07:00Comments on Georgia Stitt Official Blog: The view from behind the pianoGeorgia Stitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171556231850162266noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-422254541284370552007-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:002007-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:00I hate it when people just assume you can transpos...I hate it when people just assume you can transpose at sight! I often find it's a good party trick that I'm re`ally good at and then when I actually have to do it 'under pressure' I go to pot completely, so not very useful really!<BR/><BR/>I've just played Bloody Mary in South Pacific for a charity event called the 24 hour musical where we learn, rehearse and produce a musical in the space of 24 hours. Also ended up rehearsal pianist-ing at about 4.30am having never seen the score before - everyone was so tired by that point they didn't notice the barrage of very wrong notes in 'Younger than Springtime' ("I sing it down a third..." "Not when I'm playing it you don't...")<BR/><BR/>Laura<BR/>xAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-38392074689774144692007-08-09T12:25:00.000-07:002007-08-09T12:25:00.000-07:00Fascinating stuff! I don't know how you pianists d...Fascinating stuff! I don't know how you pianists do it at all - as a violinist I've had a few occasions to sight-read in viola clef (ONE staff at a time, of course, not two), and I've gone into complete mental hyperdrive, calculating intervals with manic speed and trying to stay ahead of the music with my brain by a bar or two, with only limited success. There is a good reason I'm not working as a violist. :)<BR/>My father did a ton of musical theater accompanying, and never cared what key something was written in - he was an unprepared singer's dream! I asked him once how he did it, and he just shrugged and said "I can hear how it's supposed to go, I guess."Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17211526861883800907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-23262463528631687452007-08-07T08:16:00.000-07:002007-08-07T08:16:00.000-07:00A reliable source of irritation and frustration. E...A reliable source of irritation and frustration. Electronic transposition is a strange experience for anyone with anything resembling perfect pitch, so I try to refer to the intervallic relationships. But I'll still struggle unless there are chord symbols available, and those are often unreliable. As confident as I am of my musicality and instincts, sight-transposing a Sondheim piano score will put me in a sweat every time. Your tips re swapping key signatures and adding a line above or below the staff are excellent. In this day and age, the burden should increasingly be on every singer or composer to get their music printed in the appropriate key. Thanks, G.!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-13536843463457361572007-08-06T21:43:00.000-07:002007-08-06T21:43:00.000-07:00I agree, this is a totally interesting post, and I...I agree, this is a totally interesting post, and I thought I'd chime in on it as well. I do a LOT of transposing, in classes, in auditions, in rehearsals, and yes, at times on the fly on stage (we were dealing with all sorts of changing voices in "13"...). <BR/><BR/>I think of it similarly to Emily (above), in so much as when I sight-read, my brain usualy thinks of the music as chords in the first place rather than individual notes. (Probably due to my background as an untrained rock & roller...) Anyway, thinking of the music in chords, when I have to transpose, I always have the transposed tonic in mind simultaneously to the printed tonic -- and I quickly calculate the relationship between the printed chord and the printed tonic -- and my fingers figure out the relationship between the transposed chord and the transposed tonic. (OK this is real music geek territory...)<BR/><BR/>This of course is much easier when the chords are written into the music -- in which case I only keep half an eye on the actual notes, which I use as a kind of a rhythmic reference. It's also easy with straight ahead rock- and jazz- based tunes where it's easy to immediately "see" the chords on the page, but much more difficult with a lot of Sondheim's pieces and other songs which perhaps wander around in terms of key, or have a lot of unusual or hard-to-intuitively-define chords.<BR/><BR/>Most importantly, I guess I pretend that the unavoidable CLUNKS were meant to be there... And I glare back at the unprepared singer (whose music is in the wrong key) when he/she glares at me. For God's sake, singers, at least bribe someone to pencil in the transposed chords into your music, if not actually print it up in the new key...<BR/><BR/>Thanks, Georgia, for bringing this up! Cool to discuss.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-1989654218964372032007-08-06T11:43:00.000-07:002007-08-06T11:43:00.000-07:00I'm probably most likely to try to fool myself wit...I'm probably most likely to try to fool myself with reading tricks when transposing. (I'm better at sight reading than playing by ear.) However, I think my undergrad piano program would have encouraged transposition using roman numeral analysis, the reasoning being that if you can recognize I-IV-V-I, you can transpose it to any key. I'm not sure my brain works fast enough to do all of that on the fly, though.<BR/><BR/>As for being a rehearsal pianist, I enjoy it as long as the actors and creative team are good and the music is interesting. It can be hard to resist feeling like a trained monkey when playing the same vapid dance number for a 4 hour rehearsal. On the up side, even if you are unemployed when the show opens, at least you may actually get to see and enjoy the finished show.emily elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03552073075266786736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-32422649306681376962007-08-06T01:05:00.000-07:002007-08-06T01:05:00.000-07:00I have often heard people say that they read in te...I have often heard people say that they read in terms of intervals so when they are transposing on site they are reading the same intervals and not thinking in terms of notes. I find it very fascinating and agree that when you are dealing with half steps and wholes steps, no problem....make it a a forth away and I better know the tune. While I was in grad school we had a class that dealt with alto, tenor, baritone clef etc. If you know these various clefs well you can imagine the treble clef to be one of these clefs and voilĂ , you have some new transpositions at your disposal.A.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01459125892106095356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-39756075654437346912007-08-05T17:57:00.000-07:002007-08-05T17:57:00.000-07:00This is such an interesting post. Obviously I'm su...This is such an interesting post. Obviously I'm such a different kind of pianist [8 yrs of lessons growing up, play for fun now], but I have always loved transposing. When I played out of the hymnal growing up, I would transpose them for fun. And I never really thought about <I>how</I> my brain was doing that before.<BR/><BR/>I really don't have a very good ear for pitch, so I can't tell you necessarily what note I'm playing. If I've heard the piece, I know if it's right or not. :) And maybe that's why, at one time, I was a really good sight reader.<BR/><BR/>So I think most of the time, when I transpose, I imagine I'm playing in the key that's written in the music. But in my head, I'm reading intervals instead of notes. So that's where I get the right sharps and flats from.... So I'm playing 1/3 down from the top note, or the next note moves up a half step....does that make sense?? I am thinking in math, almost, in the spatial relationships of the notes.<BR/><BR/>That may be weird, I dunno.lcreekmohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09845125105045059805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28823443.post-82007781728969059932007-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:002007-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:00That's why I travel with my Korg Triton...lol... O...That's why I travel with my Korg Triton...lol... One turn of the knob and I'm in any key... I don't know why we aren't taught these practical skills in college, while you're practicing your Beethoven or Prokofiev. Then, boom! You're working...and you need to know how to transpose, sight-read, arrange, become a MD, learn FINALE, LOGIC, etc., etc. I think we need to start our own school.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com