Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The image was from a video on YouTube. I think I only heard one G played on the third measure. So why did the author have the two one quarter G in the 4th measure instead of a single one half G similar to the 2nd measure?
tides
Edited: My bad, I just forgot this post. If you are still interested, it was “You are the Reason” from this video.
You occasionally see this sort of thing in ensemble music where the chord changes but one instrument holds the same note. Unnecessary, but might add just a LITTLE useful information. This, for instance:
But, most likely, it's just sloppy notation.
Both notations are exactly equivalent, so I see no reason for the conclusion to play something differently just because notation is different.
I can only guess, that in the next bar more changes happen (eg. change of note for second half of bar), and this notation is the chosen method for indicating it early.
If the notation works in bars 1 and 2, can't see why it wasn't the same for bars 3 and 4. B♭ gets held for 2 bars, then G gets held for 2 bars. Pointless writing!
In this age of FINALE and other such notation software, I suspect many people use default settings while hyperscribing and either accept what the computer discerns or they become blind to these things when editing. I think this is a case where the computer made the decision to tie the notes based upon some factor of the arrangers playing and they never caught it or just let it go.
I have noticed that young people today, when they let the computer default transcribe everything for them, they don't always see nor learn the finer details of engraving. I always instruct students to write it out by hand with pen and paper so they can learn what they don't know.
It's the same thing. Even if the author uses a single dotted half note like you have suggested, it won'y make any difference to how the piece sounds. However, if you had posted some more from the piece like next few bars, we could analyse more and come into a better conclusion as to why this notation is specifically used.
