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Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:53 pm
by Gps
Thank you, learning something new again.

It's funny what you mention, about being out of scale, and to trust my ears.
I had already noticed, my ears don't protest to certain out of scale notes, but others make me twitch. :)

It seems though I can trust my ears, which I could not yet, about a year ago.
I found proof of this a few times already. The most remarkable one to me, happened when working on a waltz by Straus.
There were some double notes, and I had put those in from the sheet music. When I listened to it, I twitched at one part, it sounded awful.
I then by ear corrected one of the double notes, to a point were it sounded right.
I then checked my notes to the sheet music, and found my ears were right, I had made a mistake when I clicked in the notes into lmms.
Part of me is still in shock over this. from tone deaf to when I started, to now even being able to hear, if multiple notes together, are right.

Last night, I did make a piece just to see, about note lengths.
I also used the quantization option, and at first got confused. I ended up with no spaces, between the notes.
I had done this before, but this time I understood what was happening. :)
If I play full notes, it's totally logical there are no spaces in lmms,
Because at the start of Biscaya, there is is a part were only full notes are used, I also had a nice example of how that looks on sheet music, and why they use arcs for that piece. The note is held longer then one bar. (4 beats)

If you leave the arcs away it will not sound that much different, and depending on the synth you use, you might not even hear it at all.
Because of this simple exercise, a lot of pieces fell into place.

For those wondering, the sound is called seashore, which starts from silence, and pans from left to right.
That why the James Last orchestra uses a keyboard (synthesizer) too. :)
I had already gotten this part into lmms, but now for the first time, I am really starting to see the relation between sheet music and LMMS.

And about my technical mind, and how this part is interfering.
There are pieces were the sheet music tells me, four 1/4 notes tied to four 1/16 notes in 4 beats.
How the hell can 8 of those, fit into 4 counts ? (technician in me is protesting loudly)
The answer is simple, mathematical it can't, but it's how sheet music works. A huge step forward for me.

And to end with more fun. I had already started on the persuaders theme, but again I was struggling. Wtf was going on? It sounds so easy, why do I get into so much trouble in lmms ?
dang dang dang da dang, how hard can that be ? LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t99QQIXez4M

Last nite I downloaded a piece of sheet music, and instantly saw the problem. It's not 4/4 LOL its 3/4.
Bleep you John Barry. :P
And why do I seem to pick, over and over again, songs that are not easy to cover for me.
So bleep me too. I know the answer though, I pick songs I like, and that gets me into trouble every time.

John Barry who most probably don't know, but you will know his music, from the James Bond movies.

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:43 pm
by slipstick
Sounds like you're getting on well. I think you've just learned another thing. Interesting sounding music is often quite complex. Unfortunately that's what keeps it interesting ;).

Steve

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:10 pm
by Gps
Indeed, before I started making music, there were just songs I liked and songs I did not like.

Now I am starting to see, there is a reason why I like certain songs.

Last nite, made some progress with the persuaders. Set lmms to 3/4 and I had instantly far less problems, to get mine to sound like the real one.

Also made some progress on Biscaya.
I was totally confused. Either I still could not read sheet music at all, or there was another problem.
What was wrong ? I had picked a bassline from a midi file ( I have three) which sounded the best to me.
Were I messed up though, that midi file is not the same as the sheet music, I have printed. LOL
Solved now, found the right piece of sheet music to use.

And if you guys wonder why I got so confused, both bass tracks start the same, but from 1 minute 10 seconds and on, they are quite different.
That's why I at first thought I had the right piece of sheet music.

How I am progressing. I have the midi track imported in the piano roll.
Then from the sheet music, I put in the notes, and check to the midi track if I am doing it right.

I don't mind a little cheating ( by looking at a midi file), but I still refuse to use the notes from the midi file.
First of all, I want this to be my cover, and secondly, I won't learn anything if I just copy paste the midi file.

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:39 pm
by Gps
Question time.

This piece: http://musicnoteslib.com/tabs/James__Hi ... 27938.html

The bassline, which starts at page two.

The notes are below, the fife lines. On some of the pages one of them is thicker. Can I just ignore this and keep counting?

So first line below = C, Second = A, Third = F, Fourth = D, Fifth = B and so on?
And why don't they just use a bass clef. :o

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:42 pm
by slipstick
Why it's written like that in treble clef is anyone's guess...I've never seen anything quite so stupid. The only thing I can think of is perhaps it has been generated from a MIDI file by a not too clever program. The thick lines are just a blurry print and you don't need to worry about them.

But it does get really confusing when some of the bass notes are so far down that they end up being printed on the top line of next stave down, the "Bandneon" (which should be presumably "Bandoneon") stave". I can't believe any human being has ever proof-read that. Good luck working out what's going on there.

Steve

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:38 pm
by Gps
Thank you, happy to hear its not just me, .looking at it, and thinking wtf.

I had already noticed, that other part (bandneon) you mentioned too. Its why I at first, went for a different piece of sheet music.

If I cant figure it out, I can always use the midi file, and write down the notes from there.

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:31 pm
by Gps
I finally progressed two bars with LMMS, biscaya cover.

I did at least for the start of the first bar, not follow the sheet music nor the midi file exactly.
I just changed it to something that sounded right. I suspect that, the guy who played this, made a little mistake.

The more I study this part, the more I get the feeling the sheet music is not very accurate.
Multiple notes which are all the same according to the sheet music, are definitely not the same length in the midi file.
I would not have a problem with that, if they were at least about the same size.

Progress is painstakingly slowly, for this part, but I do learn a lot from it.
I am gonna try this midi (again) in musescore, and see what that program comes up with.

Edit:
I just had a look with musescore. I think that if I want to stay sane, I might be better off with not using this midi file, nor the sheet music from it.
In music score the same problem occurs, notes from two different instruments, written at the same spot.

So lets have a look, at the two other pieces of sheet music and midi files I have.
I will prob use the printed version I have.

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:37 pm
by Gps
I just realized that winners never quit. :P

So no switching to other pieces of sheet music.

Winners might cheat a little though. ;)
Because this bassline is quite soft in the original, I can't use my ears to really figure out what is happening.
( not in the part I am currently working on, the start of the song is less of a problem, but I already have that part.)

So I will put in the notes. the best I can from the sheet music, then listen to it, correct it, and then compare it to the midi.

Although I am not 100% happy about this solution, I just realized I have two options, give up or cheat a little.
And this way I will at least learn something from it.

After looking at the sheet music again, I have to admit, its not as bad as I suggested yesterday.

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:54 pm
by Eino
Gps wrote:I just realized that winners never quit. :P
After looking at the sheet music again, I have to admit, its not as bad as I suggested yesterday.
It's never as bad as it looks at times, seems the the mind deceives us in to thinking it's worst than it looks. lol

Re: The struggle of Gps learning music and sheetmusic

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:20 pm
by Gps
LOL :)

Right now I am quite happy I did not quit.
First, I moved all the notes I have already put, in and the ones of the midi file, in a way, its far more easy to see, were 1,2,3,4 should be.

This means I am totally out of sync with the mp3, but makes putting in new notes a hell of a lot easier, when paying attention to were 1,2,3,4 is on the sheet music.

I am slowly starting to understand how it works. I also found a note which is according to the sheet music 1/2 note, but in the midi its about he same size as a 1/4 note. (with a dot behind it......)

Another big step forward.