Music Notation For Non-Concert-Key; Instruments; Working With Lyrics - CAKEWALK SONAR User Manual

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Music Notation for Non-concert-key

Instruments

For historical reasons, certain musical instruments are traditionally notated in a transposed key rather
than the actual key. For example, a normal (Bb) trumpet part is written in the key one whole step
higher than the actual concert key, and an Eb alto sax part is written a major sixth higher. Musicians
have traditionally learned to read and refer to the notes they play using the proper transposition
interval for their instrument.
SONAR supports these non-concert instrumental keys through use of the Key+ control in the Track
view. Simply enter or record the notes into the instrument's track transposed as the musician would
expect them, and then set the proper transposition interval in the Key+ control to make it play in the
correct key. For example, a Bb trumpet track should have all its notes a whole note higher than concert
pitch, and should have Key+ set to -2 to transpose it two chromatic steps back down. Remember, not all
trumpets are Bb instruments!
To Notate a Bb Trumpet Part
1. Record or enter the notes using the pitches that the musician who will be reading the part needs to
see. For example, if the non-transposing instruments are playing in the key of C, a Bb trumpet
player needs to see the notes a whole step higher—the key of D. The instrument itself sounds a
whole step lower than concert pitch, so when a Bb trumpet plays in the key of D, it sounds in the
key of C.
Now that the pitches appear the way that the trumpet player needs to see them, the problem is
that when you play your project, the MIDI notes in the trumpet track sound a whole step too high.
2. In the Track view, force SONAR to play the trumpet track a whole step lower by entering -2
(negative 2) in the Key+ field and pressing Enter.
Now the trumpet part in the Staff view appears in the key of D—SONAR automatically adds two sharps
to the trumpet track's key signature—but the track sounds in the key of C because you entered -2 in the
Key+ field (you may need to close the Staff view and reopen it to see the new key signature). The Staff
view automatically transposes the key signature for each track according to the track's Key+ value.
Multiple tracks appear and can be printed as an orchestral score, with the proper different key
signatures for each track.
Note that this Key+ information is saved in SONAR .
save a file as a MIDI file, the Key+ transposition will be applied to each note event, so that the file will
sound the same, but the Key+ information will be lost. If you're reading in a MIDI file, you can easily set
up the non-concert instrument tracks and then save the file as a normal project file. First set the Key+
offset to reflect the non-concert instrument's key signature. Then, use Transpose to compensate for the
Key+ offset.

Working with Lyrics

SONAR lets you create, edit, and display lyrics, the words and syllables associated with notes in a
track. Lyrics can be the words to a song, the text of a vocal passage, a narration to be read along with
the music, cues of some type, or text totally unrelated to the music. Each word or syllable in the lyrics
must be associated with a note in a MIDI track. Each MIDI track can have its own lyrics.
Although lyrics can logically be associated with digital audio data, you cannot actually place lyrics in an
audio track. If you want to create lyrics for an audio track, you must create an auxiliary MIDI track to
hold the lyrics.
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files, but not in standard MIDI files. If you
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