changing instruments

Why is it that when I click on the sound horn to change the instrument of a staff, most of the time, when I click on a different instrument, it does not change the title of the old instrument to the new one? It actually DOES change the instrument, but 9 times out of 10 if I have a 'grand piano" playing and click on "church organ", I have to go to the title box and type in "church organ" in order to make the sheet music read correctly. Every once in a while when I click on an instrument, the title box automatically changes, but most of the time, it doesn't. Can this be corrected?
thanks in advance,
hb

Howdy HB,

I'm not sure if the following is the problem that you've come across, so please let me know if it is or isn't.

In checking out Instrument Sound Changes, I did the following:

1. Opened a .mid file.
2. Clicked on the "Sound changes" tab.
3. Clicked on the left hand piano staff of the score.
4. Selected a different instrument (reed organ), and entered the optional text "reed organ" to have shown in the score.
5. Clicked "Ok."
6. The sound change horn icon showed up in the score, but no text did.
7. With the sound change horn still selected (it was blue), I then clicked the large "A" icon (for increasing the font size) until the text showed up.

It appears that the current default text size for sound changes is set at 1, and therefore doesn't show up unless you purposely enlarge it. I will report this problem to Mark Walsen, our chief developer, for fixing in the next maintenance release, due out shortly.

ttfn,
Sherry

Not quite, Sherry. I will try again.
In a piece of music, I click on the sound horn to change the instrument of that staff. The box opens up to give me a choice of instruments. Let's say it's default sound is flute and I want to change it to "grand piano". I click on "grand piano". There is a box in the upper left hand corner for the name of the new instrument to appear. Almost all of the time, this new instrument does not appear in that box. I have to highlight the old instrument name, (flute), and type in the instrument that I have selected, (grand piano). It's important to tell you that just because the new name did not appear in the box, it did, however actually change instruments. I am asking this because, every once in a while when I click on an instrument, it will automatically put the name of the new instrument in the box on it's own, but not very often. It's no huge deal, I was curious as to why sometimes it changes names on it's own, and sometimes, (or most of the time ), it doesn't. If I don't take the time to physically type the name of the new instrument in the box, it will show the old instrument on the staff.
Hope this is clearer. Thanks for your help. Sorry I was so late in replying.
hb

Thanks for the answer. At least I know now that it's not a program problem. I still don't know why, every once in a while when I click on an instrument, it automatically changes the name by itself in the box. No big deal though. I am really having a lot of fun with the program. I will probably have some suggestions in the future after really digging into it. The only thing I can think of right now is that sometimes when I tell it to put in the chord names, it kinda goes overboard and puts a lot of chords in there that probably shouldn't be. That probably could be fixed if I didn't include all the staffs in chord transcription. Don't know for sure. I have thought of one other thing though and this probably has to do with the music in the midi itself and this happened to me today. I wanted to transcribe out of a difficult key into the key of G and when it did, it did have the sharp on the F, but the actual music was in the key of D. I have ran across this several times. I have transcribed into G and gotten music in C, but it still has the sharp on the F in the staff. Thanks again.
hb

Howdy HB,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

The only thing I can think of right now is that sometimes when I tell it to put in the chord names, it kinda goes overboard and puts a lot of chords in there that probably shouldn't be. That probably could be fixed if I didn't include all the staffs in chord transcription.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

You're probably right on target. Often times in "found" .mid files, there may be some "decorative" instrumentation that actually is more confusing to chord analysis than helpful. As you work with more files, you'll develop the knack (and ear) for discerning which instruments should be included in chord analysis, as well as which shouldn't, in a given song file.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

I wanted to transcribe out of a difficult key into the key of G and when it did, it did have the sharp on the F, but the actual music was in the key of D. I have ran across this several times. I have transcribed into G and gotten music in C, but it still has the sharp on the F in the staff.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

I think you're using the "Staff/Transpose actual pitches" here, correct? If so, then you may be finding music that is "modal", which sometimes can look like it's in a different key.

If the transposition is causing you concern, please feel free to post one of the .mid files here that you're working with, describe what you're trying to do, and we'll have a look at it.

ttfn,
Sherry

P.S. What is "modal" ? Sorry so stupid!
hb

I kinda understand what you're saying.
I can't remember where or how many times I transposed this song, so I can't answer your question. But let me give you a scenario of how some of this comes about. I look for an easier key, then down two half-steps, no..no good.........now up 5 half-steps.....oh that's good but way to high, so........let's drop in down a whole octave..down 12 steps........there, I have it........but it's got this funky look to it kinda like the music I posted here. Is this maybe why I getting music in a particular key but the music really isn't in that key? Also, are you saying that the music I posted could, in fact, be called a song in G and also a song in D ?
thanks again,
hb

Howdy HB,

The transposition steps wouldn't make any difference to how the key is understood. Composer is just trying to give you the "cleanest" key, given the actual notes in the song. In this case, because the song switches around the C/C#, it can be notated as either D or G, but given that the first melody note as well as the bass notes are both D, it's a pretty strong indicator that the song is actually in the key of D.

There are songs that switch between modes sometimes to give a different feeling to the different parts of a song. I just did "We Three Kings" this past week at church, and it's an excellent example of a song that is in minor mode for the verse (Em in my case), giving a bit of a dark somber feeling to the verse, and then switches to major mode (G major) for the chorus, to give a more upbeat feel to go along with the lyrics of the chorus.

ttfn,
Sherry

Yes, I understand now. Thanks. While I've got your attention, I would like to ask you as to when one wants to insert the chord names on the music, is there particular staffs that you look for to eliminate, so that the chords that really shouldn't be don't show up? And visa-versa, staffs that you really rely on to build the correct chords? Right now, in my limited knowledge with it, I kinda rely on the right and left hand of the piano if it seems to be doing most of the work. Any thoughts?
thanks,
hb

Wow!, no, I didn't know that. I'll check it out now.
thanks,
hb