Questions tagged [dynamics]
For questions related to the intensity, or loudness, of sound.
145 questions
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How quietly can a flute manage this high note?
As far as I can tell from this wiki page, this note (B#6) is still playable on a flute, though it’s not easy:
But how quietly can it be played? Can it be done in pp or p dynamics?
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What would be louder for a melody on piano against orchestra?
If I double the melody across an octave, the sound stands out to me. But I never played with an orchestra before, so I don't know, if it would be noticeable (brass held out notes forte). If I play the ...
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How I could specify a dynamic that is not as loud (intense) as mf, yet not as quiet (soft) as mp?
Sometimes, epecially in my music editor, I stumble upon this need. I have no idea, though, how this need is really valid in real-life music situation.
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Meanings of "più mf" and "meno mp"
I am confused here:
Does "più mf" mean "louder than mf" or "more moderately loud than mf" (that is, "quiter than mf")?
And does "meno mp" mean "...
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Can a trombone sound as brittle as in *f* dynamics, yet as quiet as in *mf*?
In my music editor, the trombone sounds very different in mp and mf dynamics compared to f dynamics. In mf, it has a soft quality—almost like a French horn—and mp is nearly the same, just a bit ...
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Is it possible to put a crescendo on top of the staff markings?
I'm writing some music and the notes on a particular staff are divided. I only want one part to crescendo. How would I show that? Should I put the notation and stuff above the staff for the top part?
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Is there a way to put a "niente" into Sibelius?
“Niente” (“Nothing”, usually written as an n or ø) is pretty much silence. In the piece I’m writing, I would like for the player to fade in and out of silence, using Niente. However, I can’t type the ...
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how to play sf/sfp? [duplicate]
I'm a bit confused what sf and sfp mean.
do they mean to suddenly play forte/loud, or to simply play an accent, or both?
and are all the following notes after sf supposed to be played forte?
for ...
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How can I dampen the sound of maracas?
I bought these Meinl PM1BK Studio Maracas. They are way too loud for me. Just way too loud. I kinda need to wear ear protection to use them.
Now… is there a way to easily dampen the sound of the ...
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questions about some direction markings in Chopin's op 28 no 6, prelude in B minor
in bar 1, there is 'sotto voce' written between the right and left hand. what does it mean in this context? does it simply means to play softly or is it asking to play the right hand softly?(since ...
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Are different dynamics for different hands on piano permissible?
Is it a normal practice for a piano part to have different dynamics for the left and for the right hand?
And if it's not common, what will happen if I specify different dynamics for the left and for ...
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How to know which areas of a new song to sing softly and which areas to sing loudly?
I can sing with dynamics, but the problem is I dont know how to effectively apply it. Can someone tell me how do I know which areas of the song to sing softly and which areas to sing loudly while ...
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What is the first known use of the "fp" dynamic marking?
I'm wondering when fp (fortepiano) was first used. I looked it up on Google but found nothing indicating its etymology. Are there any records of this at all? Could it potentially have coincided with ...
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Hairpins in Late Classical and Romantic Music
I have spent a year and a half researching the notational enigma of hairpins in late classical and romantic music, and now I am at a bend in the road.
The esteemed Czerny claims that opening and ...
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Write text and dynamics vertically centered
I've been rewriting this piece using a PianoStaff with Staff, Dynamics, Staff scores as others have suggested and haven't found an easy way to represent the "rit. descresc" dynamics below
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What is this "<>" thing above a note
It looks like a crescendo and a decrescendo on one note, but I don't think that's it:
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How to cancel the term "sotto voce"
I have always understood the term sotto voce to be more of an expressive instruction - a feeling - than a specific dynamic mark. It's used to mark a passage (often in vocal music, but it's not ...
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How to play notes with evenness
I am learning to play the piano and while playing pieces, I generally find that I tend to hit some notes louder than others despite me wanting to have them at the same dynamic level. How can I develop ...
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How to place a number by a sustain bracket to indicate variation in lilypond?
I have the following markup which gives the output below:
\version "2.22.2"
\language "english"
global = {
\key df \major
\numericTimeSignature
\time 2/4
}
right = \fixed c'...
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meaning of the small circle at the end of the decrescendo?
Came across this variety of decrescendo in a vocal piece our choir is working on. 3 in the 13-page piece, all in the space of 3 bars, early in the piece, 2 of which are shown here. My choral director ...
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What does 'sostenuto (come IVa corda di violino)' instruct a keyboard player to do?
Baldassare Galuppi, a composer of the Italian Baroque, wrote a collection of twelve sonatas for harpsichord. In the first movement (Larghetto) of sonata number 2, the instruction sostenuto (come IVa ...
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Should the last chord before the last four chords be fortissimo in Chopin Op. 10, No. 12?
I'm learning Revolutionary Etude by Chopin (Op. 10, No. 12), and I am thinking about the last chord before the last four chords (fifth to the last chord, at the beginning of m. 81). Should it be ...
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Which is more comprehensible for a player after writing fortissimo: forte or meno forte?
So after writing ff when you want musicians to play very loud, would you rather write f alone or meno f if you want them to go a bit softer but still loud enough?
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Which version of notating dynamics for woodwinds is more clear?
As in title - which is better (if any)? Specifically for flutes and oboes.
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Strange dynamic marking 'fmo' in Clementi sonata
I have come across an odd dynamics marking 'fmo' whilst studying at a copy of Clementi's Sonata in Bb major, Op. 24, No. 2, dated c1790. The below image shows mvmt. 1, mm. 90–94.
Newer editions have ...
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Difference between fz, sz and f
What is exactly the difference between f (forte) and fz (forzato) ? I thought for long time that fz is similar to sf (sforzando), i.e. that it's a punctual dynamic that works only at the moment where ...
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Notation for rapid diminuendo
I am writing a part for strings and I want a rapid (but not instant) diminuendo across one bar from forte to total silence by the end of the fourth beat. I had four possibilities in mind for conveying ...
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the difference between SF and an accent mark [duplicate]
what is the difference between these two? I know Sf is a dynamic, but what if it is already in a forte section?
and with sf do you play every note following as sf until another dynamic change or do ...
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Can you bass boost a song repeatedly?
I was using a plugin/service to bass boost a song when this question came to mind:
Can you Bass Boost a song that has already been Bass Boosted after being Bass Boosted? In other words, can you ...
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How do I write hairpins and dynamics between staves in LilyPond?
Here's a minimal example of the sort of result I want to produce in LilyPond. (This was produced in Finale.)
Notice that the crescendo-stop, f, and decrescendo-start align with a note in the bottom ...
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Dynamic markings in harpsichord music
I have come across books similar to L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin, but written by English Composers. One such book "The Art of Playing the Harpsichord" IMSLP page and similar works have ...
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Why does photography promote high dynamic range whereas music production tends to reduce it?
On my phone, for example, HDR is a feature. Whereas in music production, a good compressor is seen as essential.
Why the apparent discrepancy?
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Unattached decrescendo in a single measure/single chord in lilypond
How to code the single measure/single chord decrescendo in lilypond?
|\> <ees' aes' c''>1 \!|
the above code gives a warning in lilypond: unterminated decrescendo.
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Anacrusis in Bach BWV 816 (French suite no. 5 in Gmaj) Gavotte
I had learned piano when I was young, and now I'm learning it again. I'm interested in Bach's pieces and BWV816 is the first piece my teacher suggested to learn.
The following is the first 9 and half ...
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Does excessive humidity affect the ability to play pianissimo? (On the piano) [closed]
I have trouble playing pianissimo but ff produces a good tone. Could humidity have caused this?
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Which electric piano tone on keyboard can have good accent and can be played loud at the same time?
I have to play a song which has electric piano tone which has a good distinct accent sound and can also be played at different dynamics.
The problem is that you've to hit the key hard to make it ...
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Can an offbeat note be loudest when playing Bach?
My primitive understanding of Bach's music tells me that an offbeat note cannot be the most accented or the most important note in a phrase. But in the last gesture of the ubiquitous C major prelude, ...
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Is it possible to combine accent and tremolo in notation?
I want to have a strings part with tremolo, like used for example on the beginning of the 4th movement in Beethoven's 6th Symphony.
But I also want the beginning of every such note to be accented. In ...
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Notating Dynamics for Drum Kit
I'm currently finishing an arrangement in Sibelius. One of the last things I'm adding is dynamic markings. For context, there is a string section, an electric guitar, electric bass, piano and vocals ...
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Did Chopin use hairpins (adjacent crescendo and decrescendo) to indicate rubato rather than dynamics?
In her answer to Liszt's B minor sonata crescendo, user @Madeleine writes:
In many places in Chopin's music, he wrote hairpins ... to indicate rubato rather than a crescendo or decrescendo.
The ...
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Problems with playing dynamics on a yamaha psr e463
I recently (about 5 months ago) have taken up the hobby of playing piano. I'm following the Alfred Basic Adult Level One book. Really loving it so far but I keep messing up when it comes to one aspect ...
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How is a Compressor different from Gain/Fader riding?
Compressor reduces a signal's dynamic range but the same can also be done by riding/automating the volume fader.
Compressors add coloration but other than that is it any different from fader riding?
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What do back-to-back crescendo-decrescendo ("<>") markings mean?
Okay, So I understand the staccato and crescendo and diminuendo markings, and the accent mark...
But what does the less than and greater than mark that I highlighted mean?
This is Czerny, First ...
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Is my understanding about this dynamics correct?
Sorry if my question is too simple or obvious to the experienced piano players,
so the piece starts with the dynamics "f" and "marcato",
f - loud
marcato - stressed, pronounced
...
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Writing dynamics separately with Lilypond
I've recently been engraving more and more with Lilypond, and I stumbled upon a .ly file on Mutopia (public domain scores engraved with Lilypond) where the dynamics and articulations are written ...
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Is there a difference between 'decrescendo' and 'diminuendo'?
I'm a lifelong musician, and this is something I've always wondered about. I know that decrescendo translates to "decreasing" and diminuendo to "diminishing", but does this have any practical ...
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Using different dynamics for different staves of the same instrument in MuseScore
I want to use different dynamics ( p and ff for treble and bass staff respectively) in Musescore 3.4.2 but always the last one I've entered has the effect and the former gets kind of discarded.
Is it ...
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Custom dynamic mark
I am in the process of engraving a sheet of piano music. I wrote a custom dynamic mark — the look of which I am very happy with, but the behavior, not totally. It is the following:
mff = \tweak ...
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What instrument(s) lend themselves to playing different dynamics rapidly? [closed]
I'm a composer. What instrument(s) would it be easiest to play parts like this on? Thinking along the lines of unpitched percussion, but I'm open to anything. For example:
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Mastering oboe dynamics
I have been playing the oboe for a term now, and I have come across some songs that require me to use dynamics. How do you achieve dynamics on the oboe, and what exercises can you do to master it.
