I would like good quality sheet music for the Diagnosis Murder movie
theme, the one with the clarinet prominently playing the melody. E.g.,

  http://www.kfcplainfield.com/sound/diagnosismurder.wav 

I'd like the sheet music to have the name of each chord and the melody
written out.

Hi englishpaulm:

I couldn't find the sheet music readily available online, so I decided
to make one just for you. =) I found a midi file for the theme song to
Diagnosis Murder here:
http://members.ruralfree.net/strawbrn@ruralfree.net/midi/DiagnosisMurder.mid

I then used Notation Software's MidiNotate to take the bassoon and
clarinet tracks, which is the main melody, and convert it to sheet
music.
Their software is available here: http://www.notation.com/

I have uploaded my work to my webserver. Their are two pages, and they
are linked below:
Page 1: http://ieng9.ucsd.edu/~csiqi/diagmurder.gif
Page 2: http://ieng9.ucsd.edu/~csiqi/diagmurder2.gif


Google Search Strategy:

midi notation software
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=midi+notation+software&btnG=Google+Search
"diagnosis murder" midi
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22diagnosis+murder%22+midi&btnG=Google+Search


I hope you find this satisfactory! If you need any changes to these
files, please let me know, and I will see what I can do to help you
further. Thank you!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by englishpaulm-ga on 06 Jan 2003 18:35 PST

Dear blader, you are awesome! Thanks so much for teaching me about the
notation.com software. (If you happen to already know about other
music software which is great, let me know, although please don't
spend any time researching.)

But is there any way to get the chords as well?

Thank you so much!

---

Clarification of Answer by blader-ga on 06 Jan 2003 19:56 PST

Dear englishpaulm:

Thank you for your kind words.

About music notation software: the one I actually used from
notation.com isn't the best one, but the demo was free. I used to use
Cakewalk's Music Creator, which is actually the best music notation
software out there. The 2003 edition costs $49.95, which you can
purchase here:
http://store.yahoo.com/cakewalkdirect2/cakmuscreat22.html

Cakewalk is the premiere music software company. You can find about
their other products here:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/default.asp

In general, most midi sequencers (programs that people use to create
MIDI files) have sheet music functions. You can find a lot more just
by doing a search for "midi sequencers" using Google.
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=midi+sequencers&btnG=Google+Search

About the chords: if you're referring to the background supporting the
melody in the midi, then I would happily provide you with a seperate
file for those tracks as well, the same way I made the melody for you.
Please let me know if this is what you would like.

Thanks!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by englishpaulm-ga on 06 Jan 2003 20:10 PST

Yes, if you could provide a separate part for the background tracks
that support the melody, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks again for your help, this is fantastic!

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Clarification of Answer by blader-ga on 06 Jan 2003 22:12 PST

Hi englishpaulm:

I've uploaded the sheet music to the chords portion of the song here:
http://ieng9.ucsd.edu/~csiqi/diagmurderc.gif

Thank you for your question, and also for the tip!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by englishpaulm-ga on 09 Jan 2003 05:52 PST

Well, I must say that I don't have a lot of sympathy for the poor
recording industry and their lawyers. The only artists that actually
make any money are people like your Britney Spears; the vast majority
of "real artists" don't make a dime from the recording industry and
their lawyers. People have been voting with their mice and keyboards
that music should be free-- downloads of mp3s are up to like, a
zillion a day, or something like that, and record sales are down. Some
people say this will be the end of music. I say no, it might be the
end of your Britney Spears, but do you think quality music was never
produced before the corrupt recording industry was created? Many
people think the only good music was created before, e.g., classical.
The industry lawyers are so busy over their good thing going away that
they won't have time to think about sheet music for a television show
theme song which is not even published officially anywhere. In the
future, artists will get paid for their live performances, just like
in the past. And CDs must become more elaborately packaged (e.g.,
Jobim's http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000046XI/) so
fans will want to own them.

I also laugh at desparate attempts to "secure" music recordings. Even
if the OS becomes hardened, eventually it has to get to my speakers,
where I can insert a very inexpensive analog to digital converter to
pump clean, unencrypted music back into my usb port. Very few people
will need such devices to completely defeat secure music for everyone.

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Request for Answer Clarification by englishpaulm-ga on 09 Jan 2003 05:54 PST

Also, you might notice that I paid $50 (actually $51) for this sheet
music which I bought for a young clarinet student who is a fan of Van
Dyke's show. I'd be happy to send a couple bucks to the lawyers too,
if they only made it possible for me to do that. Send me the info for
where I send the check; I want to make sure some poor lawyer doesn't
miss lunch today.

---

Clarification of Answer by blader-ga on 09 Jan 2003 13:39 PST

Hi englishpaulm:

I'm assuming from the comments below that your clarification request
has been answered already? Let me know if I can help. Thanks!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

Great answer, fast, explained how the answer was found. Thanks!

It should be noted that distribution of sheet music or lyrics without
the authorization of the Harry Fox Agency or the express written
permission of the copyright holder is a violation of U.S. copyright
law.

Thanks for your comment, I have some questions about it:

Would the offense be the person who made the midi, or the person who
converted the midi into sheet music for their own use, or both? Have
you ever heard of anyone actually winning a case in court against
personal use?

What to do in cases where there is no sheet music available to
purchase? In this case if someone makes a midi and then sheet music,
only for personal use, do you really think the law would hold up
against them in court?

Thanks again,
Paul

In answer to your first question, the creator of the MIDI file would
be held liable if he did not have permission to use the work. To make
a MIDI format copy of a work requires a special license similar to a
mechanical (phonorecord) license .

I'm not a copyright attorney, so I cannot comment about issues
concerning personal use. I don't believe anyone will come and break
your door down for transcribing to sheet music the latest Britney
Spears MIDI file for personal use (though some might argue that
someone should). What seems to matter most to rights representatives
is whether permission has been obtained for distribution of the work
in any form no matter whether the distribution occurs actively or
passively (i.e. posting) to one person or an infinite number.

As a fellow musician, I applaud your efforts to find material for your
student. It seems logical that in the information age it would be
easier to locate and distribute any piece of published music
electronically so that the parties involved can transact their
business, but such is not the case. Hopefully, this will change in the
future.

Richard De Benedictis is registered with ASCAP and his publisher's
information reads as:

ADDAX MUSIC COMPANY INC 
    % FAMOUS MUSIC CORPORATION 
    ATTN: IRWIN ROBINSON 
    1633 BROADWAY 
    11TH FLOOR 
    NEW YORK , NY, 10019
    Phone: (212) 654-7418 
    Fax: (212) 654-4748

I just called Addax in New York. It was very funny. A wonderful woman
answered the phone in her own name, there was lots of stuff going on
in the background, I told her what I was calling about, and she said
yeah, I do that too. We had a nice conversation, I told her what I was
doing and asked her how I could send some money to the musician since
I ripped off a midi to sheet music for that song. She told me don't
worry about it! :)