Re: lilypond-user Digest, Vol 220, Issue 40

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Peter,

> How do you manage enharmonics? Is the black key between C and D a C sharp or 
> D flat? Unless the music is completely tonal, I'd have thought you spent more 
> time adjusting the accidentals than simply inputting the music from the 
> computer keyboard. But I may be wrong. Certainly in the song I was 
> transcribing both accidentals are used in profusion.

Most songs I transcribe are heavily tonal, and the accidentals tend to be 
consistent enough that Frescobaldi’s input setting (use the key signature 
whenever possible, favour sharps or favour flats when outside the k.s.) keeps 
outliers in the <5% range (and often literally zero!). Where I do have to 
adjust, I do it in the second/proofreading pass, and that change is very quick 
to implement.

That being said, I’ve also used my workflow on Second Viennese School 
transcriptions, and while obviously slower than tonal music it’s still 
impressively fast to crank out that kind of note-code.

> how does it manage durations?

I just “plunk” each note out one by one, with no particular care about 
durations; in the “second half” of the input process, I pass through and add 
durations. My workflow is more finessed than that — e.g. if I come up to a 
large run of 16th notes, I’ll stop the playing process to add a “16” after the 
first one — but I do find that multi-tasking slows me down, so I tend to just 
play all the notes through in a single pass (using the MIDI keyboard, ignoring 
durations), then add durations (using the computer keyboard/numberpad) as a 
second pass. I can usually “code” the pitch portion of an entire vocal line of 
a standard (~3') musical theatre song in less than 30s; “running string lines” 
can be played at maximum speed (n.b. my undergrad degree was in piano 
performance), so I can get dozens or hundreds of notes from a string part into 
pitch-code form in less than a minute; etc.

There is a “QuickKeys” plug-in somewhere that lets you trigger durations with 
one hand (on the keypad) while playing in the notes using the other hand (on 
the MIDI keyboard)… but my current workflow is so fast that any potential speed 
gain (and it isn’t immediately obvious to me there would be one!) is countered 
by the learning/coordination curve I’d have to climb.

> And can one input a piano piece (as opposed to a single voice)? Two hands, 
> lots of splitting into separate voices.

1. Chords are wicked fast, obviously: just play all the notes (it doesn’t even 
have to be "exactly together"!), and Frescobaldi does the right thing.

2. The way my code is formatted, every voice has its own variable — so I just 
play each voice into the right variable, and combine them later in the score 
block.

Naturally, every tune is different in terms of the challenges to get the 
data-entry done. But now that I’ve found this “MIDI -> pitch code, then add 
durations” workflow, I’m kicking my 12-year-ago-self that it took me so long to 
get on board with Frescobaldi+MIDI.

Hope that helps!
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer (he/him/his)
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: kieren@kierenmacmillan.info