4

enter image description here

I’m transposing some music in Medly and looking at the sheet music I came across this in the timpani part. Does anyone know what this means because I have no clue >~< I listened to the music a few times but it honestly still makes no sense on what that does. All I recognize is it’s tremolo whole note but those other bars on the line I haven’t seen or heard of.

Thank you ^~^

4
  • 2
    What piece is this? That might help somewhat. As it is, my first guess is that something has gone wrong in the software. Either some things aren’t appearing, or the wrong character from the font has been substituted. Something along those lines. Apr 21, 2019 at 0:32
  • The piece is Gusty Garden Galaxy and maybe that might be it because it’s weirdly spaced and it doesn’t show up on other sheets, although if it is a software problem would it show up on multiple sources because it shows up in the pdf file the picture is from and on the YouTube video of the music itself. Apr 21, 2019 at 4:02
  • 1
    Based on a comment in one of the answers, was the score made with Musescore (or Finale, Sibelius, etc.), or was this from a printed score in a book? (PDFs can be created from book scans.)
    – Dekkadeci
    Apr 21, 2019 at 11:01
  • Yeah it was made in Musescore which lately has been having A LOT of bugs. Apr 22, 2019 at 16:29

1 Answer 1

5

This sort of looks like what the beams would be, if you wrote out the roll as an 8th note plus all 16ths. Not quite though, I think the 16ths would all be beamed together in each beat. So really, this looks like what the beams would be if it were one 16th and all 32nd notes, except missing one beam. And that would be a decent way of getting MIDI/notation software to play an accented roll if it didn't have the capability of interpreting the tremolo mark.

So my best guess is that this software implements rolls "behind the scenes" as described, but hides that layer, and some glitch has caused part of that layer to become visible.

Either that, or this is some weird visualization meant to show you what the playback is going to do, which wouldn't print.

1
  • 3
    I'll note that, in MuseScore at least, it's easily possible to hide the notes and stems but not the beams. I've accidentally left pieces of notes in scores where they were supposed to be hidden.
    – trlkly
    Apr 21, 2019 at 6:21

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.