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How should I transcribe a loop of several bars without affecting other voices?

It's actually a repetition of repetitions. I've already used abbreviations for the latter. But now, I don't know what I could use for the "master loop".

I made the first bar and repeated it using, for example, an abbreviation sign in the next bar. Then I write the third measure and repeat it with an abbreviation sign in the fourth measure. So how could I repeat these 4 bars until the end of the song?

By saying "without affecting other voices", I mean that I could use a "repeat sign", however, this sign affects the entire piece.

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  • Hi olnod. Welcome to the site. Just to clarify: you're writing down some music which contains a series of repeated segments, in which the entire series also repeats? That is you have, say, three sections A, B, and C, and the whole pieces goes something like Ax4, Bx17, Cx2, Ax4, Bx17, Cx2, Ax4, Bx17, Cx2, ....
    – Aaron
    Sep 13, 2021 at 19:30
  • I'm also not clear on the issue of "affecting other voices". Are you saying there are additional elements to the song, simultaneous with, but independent of (i.e., non-repeating or differently repeating) the main repetition of repetitions?
    – Aaron
    Sep 13, 2021 at 19:32
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    It would be immensely helpful, I suspect, if you would post an image of what you've done so far. That may well answer all of my questions.
    – Aaron
    Sep 13, 2021 at 19:33
  • Thanks. still don't know how to post an image. It goes something like this: I made the first bar and repeated it using, for example, an abbreviation sign in the next bar. Then I write the third measure and repeat it with an abbreviation sign in the fourth measure. So how could I repeat the 4 bars until the end of the song?. By saying "without affecting other voices", I mean that I could use a "repeat sign", however, this sign affects the entire piece.
    – olnod
    Sep 13, 2021 at 20:19
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    At the end of How do I format my posts using Markdown or HTML? is an explanation of posting images.
    – Aaron
    Sep 13, 2021 at 22:17

1 Answer 1

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As I understand it, you want to create a four-bar ostinato that repeats throughout the piece. It just so happens that the pattern contains some repetition, in an A A B B pattern.

You indicated that you're already using a sign to indicate repeating measure A in the next measure. Hopefully you mean this: https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/4804-repeat

You can also use a multi-measure repeat sign like this: enter image description here So you can just write the four measures, then use the four-bar repeat sign as many times as necessary to fill up the piece.

OR you could just notate the first four measures, and then say something like "Repeat throughout the piece," and stop printing that part. After all, cello players love to complain about "Pachelbel's canon" and its page full of the same 8 measures over and over, but the manuscript didn't bother repeating anything; it just gave it once and figured everybody knew how a "ground" worked.

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  • Thank you. It's exactaly what I mean. Could I use the Multi-Measure Repeat sign for more than 4 bars?
    – olnod
    Sep 19, 2021 at 23:11
  • Theoretically you could use it for any number, though at some point it becomes impractical as musicians have to ask themselves “wait, how far back was 17 bars?”
    – Andy Bonner
    Sep 20, 2021 at 1:21
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    Oh, if this is about Musescore and having it play it properly, afaik, it can't do more than single % repeats, so you'd have to copy and paste the group of bars you want to repeat.
    – Nevin Williams
    Sep 25, 2021 at 22:37

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