Using MIDI

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A special request today.

Roseanne at Street-Organ,blogspot has asked if it was possible to arrange a tune called Tetris for her 20 note organ. I have to admit that I have not arranged any music for this scale. It is six notes short of my usual 26.

She has found a MIDI file of the tune and I have loaded it on 'Cakewalk'. This is the name of the software program that I use to modify (edit) the MIDI files.

Now I am sorry about the pictures. I used my camera to photograph the screen. I expect there are better ways of screen capture, but I am no expert in this field.

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This first shot is what you get when you load the file. It shows each Track, and the instrument associated with that track. You will see the Tetris theme is played by the Clarinet. This is the important track to look at first. That green 'blob' to the left shows that I have marked it SOLO, so that when it is played that is all you hear.

What I next do ...is to display this track in PIANO ROLL view'

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Now here we see the notes and their durations. If the view is compressed so that the whole tune fits the screen.....you notice that the theme is repeated so we only need to look at one half.

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Now if we condense it down a bit more you will begin to see that there are whole (horizontal) lines where there are NO notes. This is the important key (not musical key) to getting the tune to fit our scale. If we can align these 'gaps' with the notes we cannot play...hey presto...we have it!

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On this next shot below, I have, just for this example, added 'large green bars' against the notes we CANNOT play on the top melody pipes. (I was going to do them red, but couldn't find out how to). There are a few more lower down we can't play but they are in the acc/bass.

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The trick is, to transpose the tune up or down to get our 'gaps' to align with the 'green bars'.

This comes with practice, and I noticed that a move UP of THREE lines would do it.

Three lines here represents three semitones.

How you transpose will depend on your software program.

Below you will see the finished result. The tune is now 3 semitones higher and all the 'gaps' match up with "notes we cant play".

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Had there been any notes, they would not be available and you would have to either, go back a stage and try a different 'shift', or decide whether you could miss the note out or choose an alternative. (Note: there is a low B natural that will have to be changed - that last note midi 59 )

It may seem difficult at first, but after you've done a hundred tunes or so, it becomes easy!

Those green bars I have added are not all the missing notes and are only there for illustration. What some people use is a card mask to hold up to the screen.

If you can get the tune (solo instrument line) to fit I recon you are 90% home and dry.

What I do next, is to add the bass line to this view (also 3 semitones higher) and make sure that those are also OK. There is a high chance that you will not have all bass notes....choose an 'alternative' bass note (from the chord).

Lastly you can 'fill in' between the bass and solo line with the accompaniment, which I think in this case were 'strings'.

Ignore and/or delete all drums, "bells and whistles"

Good Luck.

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