Do you consider this cheating?

[djones]

I must have synths and keyboards for nearly ten years, but just recently I discovered the transpose buttons on my Fatarkeyboard.
With just 1 or two pushes of a button I can play in a completely different key-scale without having to change my keystrokes.
This is really cool as I can now play blues in many different scales, which I couldn't before
And it got me thinking I could even transpose digital sheetmusic up and down in scales, that would make everything soo easy, because I'm really just comfortable playing and reading in 2 or 3 scales, since I haven't developed enough.
I see this as a major cheating scandal, but it also opens up many possibilities of which I otherwise would have been to lazy to ever accomplish.

[rbarata]

I don't think that's cheating, as long as you know and understand exactly what is happening behind that button pushing...but you will take the risk of forgeting all the theory that is the basis of all those electronic processes.

[UncleAge]

It doesn't matter so much really. If it feels good do it. Just keeping making music

Just think of it like a guitarist moving a capo up and down the neck on the guitar (even though technically not the same).

[BERFAB]

Do you consider yourself a musician or a composer?

My belief is that if you are a musician, it is absolutely 'cheating' because you are not playing the instrument. You are approximating it by using technology.

If you did this in a piano concert at Carnegie Hall, I'd want my money back.

As a composition aid or production tool, however, it's invaluable. Go nuts.

Cheers
-B

[VitaminD]

"Cheating" ??

Who are you trying to impress?

From an academic POV that might be a problem... however, unless you are in school and are being graded on your technical form/understanding, what does it really matter? It doesn't.


As UncleAge said.. just keep making music.

[djanthonyw]

I asked my girlfriend and she said no, she doesn't consider that cheating.

[cryophonik]

You disgust me. How can you live with yourself?




Sure it's cheating, but we all cheat every day and if it gets the job done, who cares? I can't play a real saxophone to save my life, but I can cheat and use samples that I play with my keyboard.

[thecontrolcentre]

Cheating? It's more like a guitar player using a capo.

[Meffy]

Irving Berlin owned two transposing pianos, couldn't read or write music notation. If he was cheating, he certainly did well at it. Wrote about 1500 songs, including many of the best-known American songs of the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin

[djones]

Thanks guys, you make me feel so much better about myself.
I guess we all cheat in one way or 'another':-)

[djones]

Irving Berlin owned two transposing pianos, couldn't read or write music notation. If he was cheating, he certainly did well at it. Wrote about 1500 songs, including many of the best-known American songs of the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin

That's interesting!

[KBSoundSmith]

Technically, yes, if you're trying to learn the instrument. However, as long as you continue to try to develop "properly" in addition to using the transpose function, I don't see how it could be a problem.

[wrench45us]

the meachanism for those transposing pianos is fairly amazing. The keyboard shifts against the stable strings.

Some song styles would work pretty well within a single key, but to play certain genre one needs to wander about the keyboard in and out of related keys. That may or may not turn out to be an issue. You may not even recognize that a few bars of 'related' chords is actually shifting keys, but in some ways it's easier to think about as shifting into a related key -- more so on teh melody/lead side than the chord side.
I'd have to look at some Irving Berlin sheet music, but I find it hard to believe he didn't do this in a few of those 1500 songs.

[sjm]

I don't consider the transpose button cheating at all. I can play piano in any key, but if I'm used to playing a song in one key but need to transpose it to another key because of whoever is singing, it really helps to be able to just hit a button and keep playing using the fingering I'm used to. Unlike a guitar, where transposing is just sliding up the neck, you hold your fingers in totally different positions depending on the key when playing a keyboard. If I've played the song for years so that it's second nature in one key, changing it just screws with my brain and takes a bit of getting used to - so why not avoid it?

For example, I've always played radiohead's creep in G. Our singer needs it in C, so I just transpose. It's not like playing in C is difficult on a keyboard!

Also, I find certain keys tend to lend themselves to certain styles, again because of your hand positions, so this may again be a good reason for transposing. It's also much easier to press down say D and E, or C and B with a single finger than it is to do the same with say Bb and C or F and F#

[tapper mike]

As a musician who frequenly modulates between keys during pieces I say you are only cheating yourself. The reason why you can't play things as well in different keys is because you are lazy.

That being said Irving Berlin used a transposing piano back in his days to write all the melodies for his songs. Then he'd beat his transcriber with a stick. The transcriber had the lowly task of writing the chords that went with the melody. Berlin not having a musical education would simply say, No that's wrong try another one and don't get it wrong this time.