"you mean transposition, not transcription"

Yep, I was tired and in a hurry.... and I'm not as young as i used to be when I was always right ... :-)

"play "MacArthur Road" on the voiceflute (a tenor recorder in D, i.e. a tone higher than the usual ones). It's a reel which lies in an awkward range for any standard size of recorder. So I'm reading off the normal fiddle notation, playing on an instrument where the music comes out in E if I play with fingerings I'd use on a normal tenor recorder for a tune in D. This sort of reading is a trick that doesn't come easily. It would be easier to do it all by ear, but in the long run it'll be handy to be able to sightread like this."

When I learned to play the whistle, I was naughty - I bought all the basic keys I could find easily (didn't have money to buy the 'low set'!) - for instance I would play a tune in D or G on the D whistle, then pick up the C whistle. I always did have difficulty getting my head around 'transposing instruments' - clarinets, etc cause I never had the money to get one to play it - but after a while the whole thing 'clicked' and I can just work out the 'difference' in semitones, then start!

This all fell apart once .... a guy who had learned to play the recorder (C) got given one set in F - and insisted on playing the thing in the same fingerings he had learned - which transposed things - and said that 'it was too hard to play the thing with the correct fingerings', but played with those still playing C instruments. Well, it worked cause what he was playing was just a 'riveted down harmony' at a fixed distance from the tune.... until I came along and was playing the correct notes on the correct instrument at the correct pitch. I just gave up trying to play with them. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. :-) Funnily enough, he (who had no music training or experience before playing the recorder) bumped into me years later and admitted that he was just lazy, ignorant and stupid. :-) But by then I had moved on years before from that group ... all my years of training was resisted (as I was obviously a stupid fool to just be rejected), but they were happier 'mucking about in ignorance' by themselves. So be it - it only distressed me to try tolerating such ignorant nonsense! :-)

Of course, GfS talking about patterns on a guitar is meaningless to a keyboard player - as there are thus 36 scale fingering patterns ... (Major and 2 Minor)... and the fingering patterns on a diatonic wind instrument are a whole new game.... (depending on what crossfingerings you are using, and the fact that some instruments respond better to certain cross fingerings due to their design & construction) :-)

OK - so "as a 'Folkie' are 'better that that', so that 'all you need to practice is just the pieces you want to play'" was a little hard perhaps, but is it really so far from the truth that it is really just a form of overconfident laziness? I did motor sport when younger, and can drive harder and to a greater degree of finesse that I did before I did all that training and practice.... but just watching me you might never know, because what it taught me was how to anticipate much better and forsee situations further in advance - I have no need to 'prove myself' all the time in a dangerous fashion.


"Someone who reads easily and fluently however is able to see ahead as they are reading and they can easily inject all the necessary feeling to bring the story to life. The same goes for music reading. A fluent confident reader can sight read a piece beautifully without rehearsing it."

And someone who says that cannot be true is either ignorant at best or just a fool at worst. Sorry if you don't like me putting it in those harsh words.... but often those who say that sort of thing are just trying to justify their own perceived lack.

Now, I must say that there ARE performers who may lack a little on some of these skills, but still produce beautiful results. So what? Good for them!

But just because in an emergency, an untrained person can land a 747 under guidance from a skilled helper, doesn't mean that he will be encouraged to sit in the pilot's seat again for the return flight .... :-)