vihuela transcription how to

8/12/2019 Vihuela Transcription How To

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Transcribing Lute and Vihuela

Tablature into Finale


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-The vihuela and lute were two of the most

popular instruments of their time.

-The literature for both is vast and diverse.

-Since lutenists and vihuelists are somewhathard to come by nowadays, guitarists represent

some of the only musicians still interested in

playing this music (except, of course, for early

music specialists).

-Unfortunately, this is the notation were dealing with..


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From Dlugoraj Fantasie:


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Pros and Cons of Lute

Tablature PROS:

Simple rules for reading

notation. No need for extensive

knowledge of music.

CONS:

Its really old and

sometimes hard to read. It does no good for people

trained in standard

notation.

You cannot seeharmonies,etc.


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We need some way to put this

music into a more modern

musical notation.


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Finale Can Help!

Finale has the ability

to read, write and play

lute tablaturenotation

Lets explore, shall

we?


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From the startup screen


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Lets transcribe Something!


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The down and dirty of lute

tablature:

1. Each line (or space, depending on

the style) represents one string. The

highest string is oriented to the top

of the staff, the lowest string to thebottom of the staff (except in

Spanish notation where this is

reversed).

2. Each letter represents a specific freton which to place your finger.

3. The various lines and slashes above

the staff indicate which rhythms to

play.


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The letters work like this:

a= open string (without any fingers)

b= first fret

c= second fret (this is written like an r)

d= third fretand so on.


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1. Select the desired rhythm from the rhythm menu. (A single stem

is a half note, a stem with a single tail is a quarter, with two

tails is an eighth.)

2. Click on the desired string on the staff.

3. Type the desired letter


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Now this is all well andgood, but were still using

that outdated notation.

Finale can accommodate us


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Lets add a modern staff to the equation.

From the staff tool:


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The strings on the lute are tuned, from lowest to

highest: G C F A D G

So, the letters can also be written as:

1st String:

a = G

b = G#/Ab

c = A

d = A#/Bb

e = B

f = C

2nd String:

a = D

b = D#/Eb

c = E

d = F

e = F#

f = G

3rd String:

a = A

b = A#/Bb

c = B

d = C

e = C#

f = D

4th String:

a = F

b = F#

c = G

d = G#/Ab

e = A

f = A#/Bb

5th String:

a = C

b = C#/Db

c = D

d = D#/Eb

e = E

f = F

These can be entered into Finale in the normal way


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We arent quite done, though.

-We mentioned that guitarists are the only ones who really

play this music anymore (All early music people in the room

take this time to groan and grumble.)

but all we have done is rewritten the lute music into different

notation.

-Guitarists often need to transpose lute

and vihuela music to make it more user-

friendly. Unfortunately, this cannot

always simply be done with Finales

transpose tool as sometimes individual

notes need to be tweeked. We can add

another staff though!


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Lets add a guitar staff to the equation.

From the staff tool:


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When youre finished, you have a

page with:

1. The original lute tablature, only more clearly written.

2. A modern staff with the sounding pitches.

3. A third staff with a new guitar-friendly part.

Like this..

vihuela transcription how to

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