<p>I just read an old thread that stated schools don't want you to sing songs that are transposed for you. They want you to sing the songs as written or find another song. My d has been working on two songs with her coach for over a month and they both are being transposed to her key. If all the schools say the music should be in the correct key don't expect the piano player to do it. Why don't they say sing a song that is in your key. I know nothing about music. My d first audition is Sat. A very important one.</p>
<p>When schools state that, "The music should be in the correct key, don't expect the pianist to do it", they are saying that students should not give the pianist the music printed in the original key and then ask him/her to transpose the music at sight to the singer's desired key. Transposing an accompaniment at sight is tricky and many, many accompanists would have great difficulty doing it. One really would not want the accompanist to be struggling with the piano part while auditioning!</p>
<p>I have not seen any direct prohibitions against transposing songs on any school's website. Those schools that mention transposing are simply asking students to have the accompaniment written out in their desired key.</p>
<p>Here is CoachC's spin on transposing:</p>
<p>"It is fine and a common practice to use tranposed music for most professional and collegiate auditions. The exceptions would be:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>tranposing something that is known for specific money notes (difficult-to-sing phrases and notes) in order to avoid those notes</p></li>
<li><p>tranposing a song in a way that changes the original vocal presentation (belt into legit, etc.) - AND there are many exceptions to this, depending on your acting interp, but it can still be risky, especially for an inexperienced auditioner</p></li>
<li><p>tranposing a song when you're auditioning for the show from which you're singing - that one's common sense </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Changing the key slightly can often take the song away from your passagio, or break, just enough to make a significant difference in your overall sound, without compromising anything else about the song - and as a rule, transposing UP is nearly always accepted, because the perception is that the song is being made "harder" to sing."</p>
<p>(Sorry I have still not learned how to do those nifty quote boxes!)</p>
<p>Absolutely right - transpose the song into a key that best highlight's your voice and dramatic interpretation. Just make sure that you give the pianist the music in the transposed key.</p>
<p>We found a good source for transposing music if you have a song that is not on one of the sites where you can just do it online. It is not a cheap process, but is worth it if the song is then in a more comfortable key for an already stressful audition! Of course, follow Coach C's advice, for when and when not to transpose.....</p>
<p>We used Bob's Music Notation Service. His e-mail is <a href="mailto:bob@bobsmusicservice.com">bob@bobsmusicservice.com</a></p>
<p>The cost was 9.00 a page and the turn-around time was fast. We scanned the song, sent it as an attachment and he returned the song as an attached file by the next day. It was a nice, clean copy.</p>
<p>There are other sites that do transposing as well. The cost comes out about the same - some charge more for the first page, then less for subsequent pages, some charge by the hour, etc.</p>