So, I've been playing the Saxophone again recently since I'm bored out of my tits. But all the sheet music I have is either A) too simple classical music, B) avant garde modern compositions (re: nonsense), C) Boring as sin. I've also been on a Beatles kick for the last few months so I pick up a set of sheet music.
Problem? Somehow, in transposing the melody to Saxophone, they managed to transpose it to some weird key that is NOT AT ALL what the song itself is in. All the intervals are correct, but the key is off.
This is extremely infuriating, not because I have to transpose the music (which in itself has been OK practice), but because each song is somehow in a different (but still incorrect) key. So I spent ~30 minutes transposing While My Guitar Gently Weeps the same way I transposed A Day in the Life (A=C, so three keys up and then an octave down I believe?) only to find out that what I had been working on is still in an entirely wrong key.
Sigh. Lesson learned, I guess (play while I transpose), but it really makes me wonder who the fuck did the transposition for this book and what sort of mental or aural disorder they have. Or if I myself am just missing something because my music theory knowledge sucks. Either way, INTERNET WHINING.
EDIT: I am retarded and transposed in the wrong direction. Also figured out the problem is that they didn't transpose it to an Eb instrument at all so if I just think in the concert key transposing is now very very easy.
EDIT 2: Actually I have no idea what's up. That works with some songs but not with others. I'm assuming that it has something to do with them gimping the key signatures to make it easier for beginning players? Either way, it's a poor way to publish a set of sheet music if you ask me.