On Arranging and Punching

Sage was inquiring about how I go about arranging and punching the organ tunes.

Here are a few links back down this blog to various posts.

Which-twenty-six-notes

Arranging-part-1

Arranging-part-2

Using-midi

Hole-punching

Production Halted

Automatic Punching

For years I've been arranging tunes, marking the position of the holes on the back and then punching them out manually. Oh, for an automatic system!

Well, a semi-automatic system actually. You see you still need a human at the front end to do the arranging.

John, a fellow organ builder, who lives just round the corner, has taken this step to automation and built himself a Midi controlled punch.

I arrange the tunes using Cakewalk (Midi software), e-mail them to John and "Bob's your Uncle".

I have just sent him over Mozart's 'A la Turca' and I am waiting to see what the punch thinks of this?

It can't punch 'half holes' so the software seems to round it up to the next whole number. OK for long notes but not so good on short quick runs.....we shall see.

Here's a set of pictures of John's punch....

.

Using MIDI

.

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.

.

.

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'

.

.

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.

.

.

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!

.

.

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.

.

.

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".

.

.

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.

.

D.I.Y. Arranging - Part 2

.

Start by opening out the music and looking at the chorus. This is the part that most people will recognise and therefore will notice if you get it ‘wrong’.

By ’wrong’ I don’t mean mistakes, I mean changes we have deliberately made to the tune to make it fit into our scale. You may get away with a one note changed or omitted, but two or more notes changed will surely be detected.

The first ‘rule’ is always try to get the chorus sounding like it should.

Now with the ‘introduction’ and ‘verse’ it is a different ’kettle of fish’.

Here’s an example….there can hardly be many people in this country who cannot recognise, or even sing “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside”.

So if you change that chorus, everyone will know. But how about the verse?

Well I included the intro and verse on my arrangement…..and do you know, when I play this roll, nobody has any idea of the tune until I get to the chorus.

Firstly then, scan through the chorus looking for the highest note that is played.

This highest note must, nearly always, be included and will of course correspond to one of our highest sounding pipes.

I am therefore ‘planning’ to transpose the music so that the highest note is played on the highest pipe. I say planned because this will not always give a note-to-note match lower down the scale.

On the 26 note organ we only have one note (of the twelve semitones) of the octave missing on the melody pipes. This is B natural.

It is the third note down from the top C# that is missing. (Ignore my MIDI numbers for now).

So when we transpose the music, either up or down, we must make sure that the new key does not require a B natural.

A good choice would be the key of F, which of course uses Bb and is rarely likely to require a B natural. Other options include Eb, Ab, Bb and Db. None of which require B naturals except as accidentals etc.

Now it is much harder with the 20 note scale, as in addition to the B natural you are also missing A natural, F#, and E natural in the melody pipes.

How on earth do they get so many tunes to fit? ….I hear you ask.

Well, years ago, the people who devised these organ scales, knew what they were doing.

I expect they evolved over time to give an optimum balance between - the maximum of providing every pipe and the minimum of a very limited repertoire.

The above photo shows two strips of card. On the lower one is the 20 note scale and on the upper I have marked the 8 notes of the tonic sol-fa.

You will notice in the key of C we cannot sound three of the notes - 'me', 'lah' and 'te'. That is the 'third', 'sixth' and 'seventh'. Now by sliding the card along to the key note of Ab, we get a perfect match.

So if our highest note on the music is a 'doh', then the key of Ab would suit.

I have built myself a more versatile version of this cardboard transposer which I will explain next time. It is however designed for 26 notes.

.

D.I.Y. Arranging - Part 1

Rosie on 'Street Organ' has finished her John Smith 20 note, exhibited it and won "Best in Show".

Congratulations.

Now we come to stage two.

Shall we spend around £50 a roll and buy music for it?... or

Shall we try punching it ourselves?

I had no trouble in deciding what to do as I had an elementary knowledge of music.

Understanding music is definitely helpful, but I would say, not essential, as you can learn a lot of things as you go along.

Once you have decided to have a go, there are two paths that you can take.

One is to arrange straight from the sheet music....this is ok if you play another instrument and already have a collection of music. You will of course need more than a single line as for solo instruments (ie clarinet, trumpet, flute etc.) Piano music is best although I have arranged from guitar music and keyboard music, where the later give the chords for accompaniment.

The second way is, if you do not have access to sheet music, to arrange on the computer using standard software like "Cakewalk" or similar. These programs use MIDI files for the tunes and can be found all over the web. Nearly all are in the public domain and many sites will allow you to download the files provided they are for private use. There are strict rules applied by the music industry once you want to start selling copies. (which I personally don't)

I now arrange using either of the above methods. I started off with the sheet music method but after a time switched to downloading when I did not have the score of the tune I wanted.

A word of warning.....you cannot just pick 'any old' tune you fancy and expect it to fit on a 20 or 26 note scale, we are a bit limited. To get started it is best to practice with a simple, short tune.

Two reasons for this, one, it is more likely to fit into our small scale and you won't have any missing notes to worry about and, two, if it is a short piece, you will not have wasted hours marking it all out, punching it all up and then find out it sounds awful.

So, start small and build from there. I know, I have a large box of early attempts. The 1812 overture was not meant for 20 pipe street-organs!!

Children's music books are a good starting point and also hymn books are a good source.

They have simple tunes usually with three chord accompaniment and more important, you will find that vocal works have a range not un-similar to that of our organs.

If you can 'sing it'.....it has a good chance of being transposed and arranged for our limited scale.

The key of the original score does not matter. We are going to transpose it, up or down anyway to fit the organ......the key of Eb is the only one case where you will get away with 'as written'.

Try to avoid tunes with too many accidentals......you will not be able to play them all and tunes do not sound right if you miss notes out or put in wrong alternatives. Believe me...it's true!

Always try to choose a tune that keeps moving......you know the sort of thing. Jigs, dances and marches. We need people to stop and listen and enjoy. Avoid music with long, sustained notes...we don't want it to sound like the 'drones' on the bagpipes!

Enough for now.....I have a sore forefinger!!

.