Guild Wars 2

I love playing my harp, and I would like to play songs that haven’t been transcribed into in-game notes. I want to know how it’s done.

I first converted from guitar tab to notes, like in the attachment. But I don’t know where to take it from here. I don’t know what the notes in the game are, or which octaves, or if there are even enough octaves for this song. I only have a harp btw.

Oh and the song is the Metro 2033 main theme.

The in-game harp’s key is C major/A minor, and you’ve access to C3 through C6. You’re going to have to transpose the piece or arrange it to play it on the harp.

I don’t know how much music theory you know, so just in case you haven’t correlated this, C3 – B3 (+ C4) is the lowest octave on the skill bar, C4 – B4 (+ C5) is the second octave, and C5 – B5 (+ C6) is the third. Skills correlate to notes as follows:

• 1 – C
• 2 – D
• 3 – E
• 4 – F
• 5 – G
• 6 – A
• 7 – B
• 8 – C
• 9 – shift down octave
• 10 – shift up octave

Starting with the C3+ octave, you could shift your transcription up a fourth, fifth, or an octave. Shifting it up an octave, your notes are perfectly fine. Just start with A3 (skill 6 from the lowest octave).

If you shift it up a fifth, you’ll miss out on an F sharp (originally high B in measure 2); if you shift it up a fourth, you’ll miss out on a B flat (originally F in measures 1 – 3) and an A (originally E in measure 4).

Having said that, I shifted your transcription up a fourth and changed a few harmonies to account for the missing B flat and A. The altered harmonies preserve the originals as best as possible.

• q – quarter note
• e – eighth note
• s – sixteenth note
• . – dotted note

1. e(D3) – e(A3) – e(A3/F4) – e(D4/G4) – e(D3) – e(G3) – e(G4) – e(D4)
2. e(D3) – e(G3) – e(G3/E4) – e(A3/F4) – e(D3) – e(A3) – e(E4) – e(D4)
3. e(D3) – e(A3) – e(A3/F4) – e(D4/G4) – e(D3) – e(G3) – e(G4) – e(D4)
4. q(C3/E4) – q(E3/C4) – e.(D3/D4) – s(D4) – s(E4) – s(F4) – s(E4) – s(D4)

Note that in line 4, I added an extra note (the D4 before E4) to be more like the original piece. Of course, you’re going to have to manually switch octaves when you go from 3 to 4 and vice versa. The key-based version of this arrangement is below, with octave-shifting indicated by d (9) or u (10):

1. 2 – 6 – 6/u 4 – 2/5 – d 2 – 5 – u 5 – 2
2. d 2 – 5 – 5/u 3 – d 6/u 4 – d 2 – 3 – u 3 – 2
3. d 2 – 6 – 6/u 4 – 2/5 – d 2 – 5 – u 5 – 2
4. d 1/u 3 – d 3/8 – 2/u 2 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 3 – 2