[Harp-L] RE: Transposing music

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Tom  Halchak" <thalchak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> inquired about transposing music;
John Walden suggested Sibelius.

Sibelius is a very powerful professional tool and as such costs big bucks.

If I understand Tom's needs, they are much like my own. I just wanted to be
able to suss out some harp lines from existing tunes. As an alternative to
Sibelius, I chose a nifty little program called, "Melody Assistant."

http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/melody.htm

It can be used indefinetly as a trial version or for full functionality,
such as printing sheet music, you need to register the product for a
whopping $25. I have had good success using it to create standard notation
and harp tab from midi files. You can use it to write music as well, much
like a cheap Sibelius. It supports a number of styles of harp tabs, with
chromatic or diatonic tabulations.

It's easy to find many versions of midi files for a given tune on the web.
Melody Assistant reads midi files and translates the various instrumental
parts included in a particular midi file into standard notation. You can
then select which style and type of harp you want to display tabs above or
below the standard notation. You can isolate the different musical parts for
the different instruments in the file, say for example, just the melody and
then print out the standard notation/tabs for that part.

It helped me to learn more about sight reading and revealed harp tabulature
for musical lines I couldn't understand just by listening. In the end, I
learned to play by ear and npo longer need a tool like Melody Assistant or
Sibelius. Of course, that gave me an easy way out for avoiding learning how
to sight read standard notation, but I then again, don't get many calls for
recording sessions... 8^)

It won't cost anything to give MA a try, Tom. You might find that it fits
your needs and if so, you may save several hundred dollars (over Sibelius).
Buy some more harps instead!

Good Luck,

Michelle