Re: Transpose for pattern sheets

[Tim McNamara]

On Oct 21, 2009, at 4:13 AM, Peter Berlau wrote:

> I have done writing done some patterns of my favorite sax players and
> like to transpose this patterns to any key.
>
> I found a solution but I am not sure if this is a elegant method, also
> maybe it is more useful to make use of the enharmonics to make the
> sheet more readable. Is there any (much) better soulution?

Looks like good code to me, the end result seems fine, but it also  
looks like several of the transpositions result in notes out of the  
range the saxophones.

Reading through it might be easier if you backcycle by fourths  
instead of ascending chromatically (e.g., from the keys of C to F to  
Bb to Eb, etc.) since this only changes one flat per key.  It is  
traditional to practice this way; however, if you want to be playing  
Coltrane stuff, he often didn't move through the keys that way.   
There's little point in making things too easy when trying to master  
Coltrane's music.

I've always felt sorry for his accompanying musicians- Trane worked  
on those tunes at home for months- such as "Giant Steps"- and then  
sprung them on his colleagues in the studio, giving them only a short  
time to prepare before recording.