Hey everyone,

I've played piano for years but have just started getting into arranging sheet music for existing pieces. This is my absolute first shot at putting down anything in sheet music form, so I'm looking for some advice. It's not a super well-known song but maybe someone may recognize it :)

This was created with the aid of some guitar tabs which were just notated with no key accidentals, so that's what I've started with here. Also please note that I haven't added some things like phrasing and pedal use. Here are my two main concerns:

1. General "rules" I'm breaking (i.e. tied notes vs. dotted notes). I know it sounds the same either way but would like to note according to common standards. The outro/solo section especially has a lot of dotted notes that I'm not sure what to do with.
2. I'm not entirely sure what key it's in. I'm guessing D minor for the majority but there are a lot of additional C#s and G#s (or Dbs and Abs if I change accidentals) that make me unsure. It appears the outro is in B minor.

Hopefully the below link works. Take a look, tear it apart! Thanks! :)

Sheet Music: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p5huea0cvn4z37t/Transcribe1.pdf
MIDI File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcplelv64872avg/Transcribe1.mid

1. General "rules" I'm breaking (i.e. tied notes vs. dotted notes). I know it sounds the same either way but would like to note according to common standards. The outro/solo section especially has a lot of dotted notes that I'm not sure what to do with.
You just make it so it's easier to read where the beats are. As long as you create notes on the beat, you're good.
If you have an 8th note then a quarter note tied to an 8th note (in that order), flip the tied 8th note and quarter note around so the preceding 8th note beams up with the succeeding 8th note.

2 dotted quarter notes followed by a quarter note is a common rhythm I've seen. Notice it's kinda hard to tell where the beats are? | Quarter note | tied to 8th note [beam] 8th note | tied to quarter note | quarter note. The "|" means a beat. Now it's easy to read! The exception to this is with the half and whole notes placed on the beat, those you typically don't split and tie.


2. I'm not entirely sure what key it's in. I'm guessing D minor for the majority but there are a lot of additional C#s and G#s (or Dbs and Abs if I change accidentals) that make me unsure. It appears the outro is in B minor.
It's D minor so it's just one flat (Bb). But wait, if it's D minor, what about all those other accidentals other than Bb? If you know your chords and chord progressions, you'll immediately understand why and it'll become clear.

Example: In the third measure it is a Ddim chord: a D minor chord with a lowered 5th (A is lowered to Ab; NOT G#). Another example: C aug is like a C maj chord with a raised 5th (G is raised to G#; NOT Ab). What if the key signature already has all these flats or sharps but it needs to be raised/lowered? That's when you see "double" flats and sharps. Analyze the chords first so you understand what needs to be sharp or flat. See http://www.musictheory.net for some helpful lessons.

When you analyze the chord in the beginning, most of the time that is your key signature. Of course there are other modes besides the major and minor scale, but that's for another time.
Edit: forgot to mention one more thing. When the scale changes, you have a different key sig. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_(music). When the old scale becomes the new scale for instance, this should tell you it's a new key sig. This new key sig can be achieved through modulation or key shift.

Thanks for the input and advice, I really appreciate it. Coincidentally, I recently downloaded an app for my phone that has a lot of lessons from musictheory.net, so I can I see what you mean about the chords. Although it's easy to see when someone else points it out, it's still kind of difficult to just "see" it myself :) I'm sure this will come with time and experience though.

Regarding the chorus, I'm curious about the key changes there. The start of the chorus is A minor I'm guessing, but if that is true then do I show the accidentals as sharps or flats? The key signature is blank so it seems like it could go either way, but if the rest of the song is D minor then everything else is shown as flats so I'm guessing that's the way to go.

This also raises the question: when should I be changing keys versus just modifying the key with accidentals? What would you do in this case for each chorus section? I'm guessing this is just a "do what feels right" sort of thing.

Take a look at the below picture and let me know if I've made the right assumptions here. Thanks again!

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Regarding the chorus, I'm curious about the key changes there. The start of the chorus is A minor I'm guessing, but if that is true then do I show the accidentals as sharps or flats? The key signature is blank so it seems like it could go either way, but if the rest of the song is D minor then everything else is shown as flats so I'm guessing that's the way to go.
Don't forget natural accidentals. I've already mentioned chords. It depends on what chord it is.


This also raises the question: when should I be changing keys versus just modifying the key with accidentals? What would you do in this case for each chorus section? I'm guessing this is just a "do what feels right" sort of thing.
That intuitive "feeling" is what we transcribers do. You play a chord, I can tell if it's major, minor, dim, aug, etc. The same goes for modes and scales. My music professor would play a scale and ask us what scale it was. Not everyone will get it on their first try; that's ok. This is something you'll have to experience and develop over time.

something to look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_%28music%29

But since you have the sheet music in front of you...
The chorus is A minor (roman numeral: i). The A becomes the new tonic. The section ends with A major (this is called a picardy third). You usually would insert a new key (if warranted) after the end of a cadence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_%28music%29) or at the beginning of a phrase/section. Simply put, if you were to end a cadence with one big chord, what chord would it be? Did it sound complete? Did it sound like a conclusion? That chord should tell you what the tonic note of the scale is (assuming it isn't a picardy third). Look at his lessons http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/55
It reverts back to D minor at the bottom of page 2, the 2nd measure from the left (please number your measures on the left-hand side).

Take a look at this great example: http://gamemusicthemes.com/pdf/SNES/The_Legend_of_Zelda_-_A_Link_to_the_Past_-_Overworld_Theme.pdf

Lets start at measure 5. It starts in Bb major so the key is in Bb major. Notice there are a bunch of accidentals after that? You would be tempted to turn the Bb major scale to a Db major scale to "minimize" the most amount of accidentals, but measure 5 would then contain naturals. That is wrong; that is saying the tonic note revolves around Db. If you thought the purpose of a key signature was simply to "minimize" accidentals, that is not how you should be looking at key signatures (wikipedia has this wrong). The purpose of a key signature is to tell you what the tonic note of the scale degree is. Be aware of modal scales; there's none in your arrangement so don't worry about it.

The zelda main theme song concludes to a Bb maj chord.

Thank you so much for all your help on this. Thinking of key signatures in terms of note resolution rather than in terms of minimizing accidentals is a much better way to think about it.

I have some background in guitar where it seems the various modal scales are more readily used, or at least I had never heard of modes until I picked up the guitar. I imagine modal scales are a bit harder to identify when transcribing an existing song, but I'm sure I'll have to deal with it at some point :)

Thanks again!