Is cross-staff beaming helpful or confusing?

Question

I'm writing a fairly simple piano piece which has a repeated pattern which crosses staves/hands. I think it looks clearer musically to write it with cross-staff beaming as in the first bar below, but I suspect that others, particularly those less confident reading music, might prefer the staves to be written separately as in the second bar.

Are there any rules/guidelines for the use of cross-staff beaming? I guess it's partly a matter of opinion, but I do want it to be as clear as possible for a wide range of readers, and as it's a fairly easy piece I don't want to put off less experienced players. If anyone can point me to any hard and fast rules, or something from a grade syllabus, that'd be great. I don't recall being taught about cross-staff beaming myself, but I think it might have confused me as a beginner.

Answer 1

The notation helps you to see to which voices the notes belong to.

The first measure clearly suggest there are two voices, the top one moving in half-notes and the bottom one playing eight-note arpeggios.

In the second measure you have dotted rhythm melody in right hand and arpeggios consisting of three notes in the left hand. Notice that even the note lengths are different (is the first G in the violin clef supposed to be a half note, or dotted quarter-note?) That's quite different music, isn't it?

See also:

• Sheet Music query, a note printed in a bar as half note and quarter note on the same beat
• Rest above a note in a piano piece
• Why does this note have a stem pointing up and another pointing down?

Answer 2

I think the two alternatives to consider are...

...cross staff versus ledger lines.

I think using ledger lines is the modern way to do it.

It seems to me that cross staff beaming is found in older scores. This beaming...

...also seems to be an old practice.

Personally, I like those old methods, but it's probably better to follow the modern practice.

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EDIT

It seems unclear in the posts on this question how to regard the hands in cross staff beaming. My understanding is the same as this quote from Berklee Contemporary Music Notation, although I didn't learn it from that particular book...

...cross staff beaming is used to make clear phrasing and using a single hand.

Also, it seem worth noting that textbook example uses cross beam to avoid three ledger lines. The OP would avoid only two ledger lines.

Answer 3

These two do not sound the same. The E in the left hand (first example) sounds against the RH G; in the second example, the E stands alone (like a piece of cheese).

Whether one uses cross-staff beaming as in the first example or just writ it with two ledger notes doesn't much matter I slightly prefer the ledger lines above the bass clef as it keeps the RH voicing pattern visually separate. The second example places the E as part of the RH pattern.

Answer 4

Some standard ways to write the same thing: (The "OR"s are just alternative beamings.) I agree with you, Bob: the first bar, which was your original, looks clearest. It's odd how, without any expression marks or slurs, bars one and four look the most legato and bar two the least. In fact it looks choppy. Bar three seems to emphasize four beats to the bar, while the other bars sound as if they could be in 2/2.

Answer 5

On keyboard instruments, the upper staff is, in the absence of markings to the contrary, used to indicate notes played by the right hand and the lower staff for notes to be played by the left hand. The normal purpose of cross-staff beaming would be to show that a rhythmic figure includes some notes which are played by each hand. The first measure in the original question would suggest that the E should be played by the right hand. If the E had instead been written as a ledger line on the bass clef, that would suggest that it should be played by the left hand.

An alternative way of notating the music to show that the right hand should play the E without using cross-staff beaming would be to place the E on a cleff ledger line, but include an L-shaped bracket with the notation "R.H." to the left of the note, with the horizontal part of the bracket just below it.

Some people may find the music easier to read using ledger lines and an explicit R.H. notation, while others may find it easier to read if all right-hand notes were placed on the upper staff. Which approach is better would likely depend upon factors like the relative skill of the person who will be reading the music, whether it would likely be performed by someone who was sight reading, etc. People should be familiar with the different ways of notating such constructs, but that doesn't mean they would be equally adept at reading all of them.