# Advice on improvisation midi to notation transcription



## Ivan M. (Feb 5, 2022)

Hey,

I’m trying to convert/transcribe some of my improvisations to notation. I do have midi, but it’s completely loose. I’ve tempo mapped and exported quantized midi to notation software. But this is taking too much time. 

Would transcribing it directly into empty notation sheet note by note be more efficient? What’s the fastest way of doing this in your opinion? 

Thanks!


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## JEPA (Feb 5, 2022)

Hello Ivan,
what I have done for my improvisations:
1. Put/Import your MIDI file in your DAW project (it doesn't matter if you import the original BPM or not)
2. I work with Logic and Reaper, and the two have the function/ability to set a tempo-map over your MIDI clip, so what you have to do is take all the first pulses of your first measures and mark them as first pulse in the bar - tempo map. Basically what you are doing is a "MIDI stretch". Bare in mind that if you have a fixed tempo (e.g. 120 bpm) your MIDI improvisation is going to sound "quantized".
3. To avoid the quantization you could for example base your tempo map with bpm variations d'accord with your human time. Almost all DAWs could recognize it, but you have to set your first pulse in your bar (see 1. above).
4. I recommend do it step by step, doesn't matter if it sounds quantized, because all you want is to write the notes on a sheet of paper for reading it by another musicians, for example. Then the right way is to quantize (or set a fixed tempo) for your improvisation to translate it into the DAW.

I don't have time to post an example right now, but I hope I could help you and set you into the right path to it. Wish you succes with your endeavour!
Best,
Jorge


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## JEPA (Feb 5, 2022)

JEPA said:


> Hello Ivan,
> what I have done for my improvisations:
> 1. Put/Import your MIDI file in your DAW project (it doesn't matter if you import the original BPM or not)
> 2. I work with Logic and Reaper, and the two have the function/ability to set a tempo-map over your MIDI clip, so what you have to do is take all the first pulses of your first measures and mark them as first pulse in the bar - tempo map. Basically what you are doing is a "MIDI stretch". Bare in mind that if you have a fixed tempo (e.g. 120 bpm) your MIDI improvisation is going to sound "quantized".
> ...


obviously your improvisation is not quantized, with the last explanation I wanted to say that if you set a fixed tempo and re-map your MIDI file, it is going to sound quantized, but it doesn't matter, because that is exactly what you want, to export this MIDI file to a Notation program, and be read correctly by it!


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## Ivan M. (Feb 5, 2022)

JEPA said:


> Hello Ivan,
> what I have done for my improvisations:
> 1. Put/Import your MIDI file in your DAW project (it doesn't matter if you import the original BPM or not)
> 2. I work with Logic and Reaper, and the two have the function/ability to set a tempo-map over your MIDI clip, so what you have to do is take all the first pulses of your first measures and mark them as first pulse in the bar - tempo map. Basically what you are doing is a "MIDI stretch". Bare in mind that if you have a fixed tempo (e.g. 120 bpm) your MIDI improvisation is going to sound "quantized".
> ...


Thanks, Jorge. I'm doing exactly that, in reaper, get a nice tempo map, so even the quantized midi sounds good. But I'm only quantizing it so I can import into notation, so my only concern is to get it to notation as fast as possible. This tempo mapping->quantizing->export to notation->cleanup notes is taking too much time. I guess there's no easy way.


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## JEPA (Feb 5, 2022)

Ivan M. said:


> I guess there's no easy way.


the only easiest way "would be" to create an A.I. algorithm that learns and interprets human music on its own.... . Maybe soon...


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## benwiggy (Feb 6, 2022)

Importing quantised MIDI into a notation app should give you a reasonable starting point. There will inevitably be lot of tidying up to do -- e.g. which staff notes use for a piano; is it a G# or an Ab; trills, grace notes; adding slurs, articulations, etc, etc.

But yes, playing with rubato and other changes of tempo is something that needs to be "mapped out" first.


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## dtoub (Feb 6, 2022)

I've struggled with this for years because my main way of composing is via improvisation. Using the Transcription Tool that used to exist in Finale didn't help much, and exporting from a sequencer leaves way too much for me to clean up. So what I've done for years now is laborious, but it works and enables me to capture aspects of the improvisation that I really want to preserve, like some complex tuplets as well as the occasional "wrong" note. 

Namely, I have Reason (substitute the sequencer/DAW of choice) on one screen with Finale (substitute your notation program of choice here) on the other and I carefully transcribe from the piano roll in Reason to the notation in Finale. It's slow, to be sure, and I wish I had a better way. But this has been how I've done it for well over a decade and the end result has been worth it. I rarely use canonical methods/serial techniques and want to preserve the freedom of an improvised sketch, so this has been useful. Of course, when I'm just writing a stream of 16th notes, as I often do, I could transcribe it more easily, but I've found that depending on how the quantization settings are, it doesn't always get notated properly, so I still fall back on direct notation from the sequencer.


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## Vik (Feb 6, 2022)

Ivan M. said:


> Would transcribing it directly into empty notation sheet note by note be more efficient? What’s the fastest way of doing this in your opinion?


That would, I guess, depend on how complex the music was. In Logic, 5 minutes of editing is usually enough for a piece that's 5 minutes long to get things right (using Beat Mapping and/or Smart Tempo.) Is that fast enough? 

The various score editors also have varioes degrees of being able MIDI into notation which makes sense, so how long the whole process takes is of course also dependent of which score editor you use.


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## Rob (Feb 6, 2022)

still I would first write it on paper, maybe using transcribe! or something as an aid and then put it into the notation program... the rhythm, meter, notes etc would need no further adjustment. That is the fastest for me. If you're good at writing music that is.


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## cmillar (Feb 6, 2022)

Rob said:


> still I would first write it on paper, maybe using transcribe! or something as an aid and then put it into the notation program... the rhythm, meter, notes etc would need no further adjustment. That is the fastest for me. If you're good at writing music that is.


Agree...if you're musically literate and can trascribe and notate music properly, that would be the fastest method.

Unless you're as brilliant as Chopin or Liszt, who basically wrote whole pieces that could be considered transcribed improvisations. Makes you respect them even more!


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## The Retroblueman (Apr 11, 2022)

I've moved away from notation software these days, but I always found the quickest way to transcribe in Sibelius was to first take some time to analyse the rhythms of your music and look for common figures. I would then load TWO instances of Sibelius. One is the instance you are going to write your part into and the other is a "toolkit". In the toolkit file have ten (or so) bars per hand containing your most common rhythmic figures (on a single note or on chords but the note/chord should be roughly in the middle of the range of your music). (e.g.) if your left hand plays quarter notes in octaves a lot, then one of your bars would be four beats of octaves.

Then, as you write out your part, paste in the rhythmic figures from the toolkit as they appear and get _just_ the rhythm sorted for about 8 bars. Then move the notes to where they should be (then at the end do a pass for sharps and flats and phrasing) - much quicker than drawing every note in from scratch (and you can reuse and add to your "toolkit" file next time you want to transcribe something). 

Also, a good general philosophy for notation software is that it is much quicker to delete than it is to draw - e.g.

- if your left hand plays a lot of four note clusters, but the odd three note one, have four note clusters only in your toolkit and delete the extra notes after pasting into your main part.

- if you have a lot of (say) 16th note syncopation in 4/4, it is much quicker to start with a bar of sixteen 16th notes and delete the unused ones to get your rhythm than it is to draw in rests as you go.


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## youngpokie (Apr 12, 2022)

Ivan M. said:


> Would transcribing it directly into empty notation sheet note by note be more efficient? What’s the fastest way of doing this in your opinion?


If you are able to replay your improvisation, it means you're retaining the rhythm and pitch of each note, meaning you're familiar enough with the material now without getting distracted with recreating it.

Then fastest way then to transcribe it in Dorico, for example, is to use note input from the MIDI keyboard. One hand is on the PC numerical keyboard - setting the note duration, while the other hand (or both) is on the MIDI keyboard setting the pitch. It's a two-step process: duration first, then the pitch (or, if you prefer, the other way around: pitch before duration, set in preferences).

This may come across as slightly clumsy and mechanical but this way you can transcribe your music in a single pass and save a ton of time. You can then have another pass fixing any accidentals as you want them, or adding slurs if you don't like to add them during note input.


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