Using the TRANSPOSE

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Using the TRANSPOSE

Postby Hugh-AR » 18 Sep 2020 20:15

Using the TRANSPOSE

Pressing the + will put the whole keyboard UP one semitone; the - will go DOWN one semitone.

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Beware! Just tap it the once. If you hold your finger down it will shoot up the semitones in no time!

Note: You do not have to tap the button at the instant you want to change key. If that's on the first beat of the bar then your left hand will be playing a new chord; and your right hand will be playing the melody .. and you don't have a third hand to operate the TRANSPOSE! Also, you can't operate the TRANSPOSE with a Footswitch. So you can press the TRANSPOSE before the end of the bar. Experiment a bit to see when is the best time to do it. But once you have pressed that button, be aware of the following:

1. The Rhythm and STYLE will continue until the end of the bar. It is waiting for you to form a New Chord and play it on the first beat of the next bar, at which point the key change will take place. Or it can be the same chord, but you have to play it again.
2. Because the fingers of your right hand are playing the melody, those notes will change key as soon as you press the TRANSPOSE button. Read below to see what happened when I tried to do a key change.

I was playing a piece in C, and when I got to the part where the change of key was to take place I had wanted to play a C melody note in the old key, and then the same note again moving up into the new key, so it sort of emphasised the key change. But when I tried to do that, because I pressed the TRANSPOSE button before the end of the bar, I found that when playing melody notes the keyboard had already changed key on the right of the split, whereas the chords to the left of the split were waiting for me to play a new chord on the first beat of the bar before changing key. And two sounds a semitone apart sounded terrible! So I didn't see how I was going to play the melody as I wanted to hear it.

Then thinking about it during the night It occurred to me that if the right hand had changed key and the left hand hadn't, I needed to play the melody note a semitone lower ie. play a B .. which would then sound as a C as the chords and STYLE hadn't changed key yet. Then with the whole keyboard going up a semitone on the first beat of the bar I play a C for the first melody note of the bar. And that worked ie. my recording has come out as hearing a C followed by a C#. I think this is called 'thinking outside the box' (!) and I shall remember that when I get the keyboard to move up a key again, melody notes I play after I have pressed the TRANSPOSE button but before I get to the end of the bar .. I must play that note/those notes a semitone lower.

Click the below to listen to how it turned out.
Then click the back-button after to get back to this page.
DEMO of playing a couple of notes where the key change is taking place
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
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Re: Using the TRANSPOSE

Postby Rev Tony Newnham » 19 Sep 2020 09:30

Hi

Transpose buttons are a problem for some of us who have perfect pitch. Things can fall apart because the notes you hear aren't the notes you're playing. I still have nightmares about a big carol service where I used the transpose button - Hark the Herald sounded more like a modernist composer with instruments playing in 2 different keys!

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Re: Using the TRANSPOSE

Postby Hugh-AR » 19 Sep 2020 13:13

Tony,

I do understand that! Perfect pitch is not just about whether something is 'in tune' or not (I would know that!) but if it's being played in the key it should be played in. Now when I play something, as I 'play by ear' and don't have the music, I would play it in a key that is convenient for me to play in. Like C, F or G. Wouldn't have a clue what key the original song had been played in.

We once had a pianist from an orchestra staying with us in our Hotel, and he sat on the sofa in the Lounge and asked me to play something. Well, I wasn't very happy for a professional pianist to hear how I played something .. but he had asked, so I did. I played him a Glenn Miller number. When I was about half way through, he asked me what key I was playing it in. So I told him .. G.

"No you're not," he said. I looked at my hands, and I was definitely playing it in G. G, D7 etc. So I said, "Yes, I am."

"No you're not," he said again. You're playing it in A .. and you should be playing it in Bb. And from where he was sitting he couldn't even see my hands!

And then I realised that although I was playing it in G, I had the Transpose button up two notches, so it was effectively 'sounding' in A. So I put the organ up another semitone and played it again. He seemed happy then. Although goodness knows what he thought of my playing!

Hugh
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
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