Whoops!  Sorry, Ingmar Krause!  Didn't mean to sound too stuffy, but
I appreciated the humour and the put-down.  Perhaps I could amplify the
point I made when I said "You don't necessarily need to be a musician
but you do need a basic understanding of the structure of music scales
and how they transpose up and down by semitones to form the various key
signatures".

Over the years I have been selling my MIDster Punch system for
a home-built MIDI roll punching machine (for more info and pictures
see http://members.aol.com/midpunch).

The main query raised by punch builders is their confusion over music
scales.  In my booklet I suggest that the music, and the setup file for
the punch, are all arranged in the key of C Major.  Many people are
confused as to how their organ will then play the rolls, since its
pipes play in another key.

My explanation of transposition is by suggesting a strip of paper laid
along a piano keyboard with the notes of their organ drawn on it in
large dots.  By sliding this paper along the keyboard they will see,
better than any verbal explanation, how the different key signatures
are formed whilst always maintaining the same note intervals as they
have in their organ.  In fact, when their rolls are punched their organ
plays them -- and there are a few punch builders who still remain
mystified!

I studied piano in my youth and struggled, but it was some time later
that a guy in a keyboard shop mentioned that every scale, whatever its
key signature, comprised intervals of "tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-
tone-semitone".

Suddenly it all made sense!  Different keys were no longer a mystery!
They all have the same structure!  I have come a long way since then,
but I have never forgotten that simple revelation.  For those wishing
to learn to adapt music to a particular organ scale it is a key piece
of knowledge (no pun intended!).  I hope this posting goes some way to
helping those who struggle to understand transposition.

Best wishes from Warwickshire at the Heart of England

Bob Essex