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Questions tagged [dynamics]

For questions related to the intensity, or loudness, of sound.

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7 votes
2 answers
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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?
brilliant's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
128 views

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 ...
mikechad's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
165 views

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.
brilliant's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
910 views

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 "...
brilliant's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
77 views

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 ...
brilliant's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
388 views

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?
David S's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
219 views

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 ...
Blue Skin and Glowing Red Eyes's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
233 views

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 ...
jackseven's user avatar
  • 131
6 votes
3 answers
512 views

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 ...
Toskan's user avatar
  • 160
2 votes
1 answer
108 views

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 ...
jackseven's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
2k views

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 ...
brilliant's user avatar
  • 1,626
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

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 ...
Akash Sunil's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
138 views

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 ...
Slipstream2022's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
455 views

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 ...
Benjamin Rivas 's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
175 views

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 ...
Alwin Kesler's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
4k views

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:
Ian Miller's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
524 views

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 ...
nuggethead's user avatar
  • 6,212
0 votes
2 answers
152 views

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 ...
Ved Rathi's user avatar
  • 263
3 votes
1 answer
62 views

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'...
Yakov Galka's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
bekkodavis's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
785 views

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 ...
AakashM's user avatar
  • 421
6 votes
1 answer
351 views

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 ...
Ethan Chan's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
553 views

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?
Mart33n's user avatar
  • 180
7 votes
2 answers
520 views

Which version of notating dynamics for woodwinds is more clear?

As in title - which is better (if any)? Specifically for flutes and oboes.
Mart33n's user avatar
  • 180
14 votes
1 answer
802 views

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 ...
NBoss's user avatar
  • 335
7 votes
2 answers
3k views

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 ...
Surb's user avatar
  • 171
5 votes
4 answers
924 views

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 ...
yerman's user avatar
  • 794
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
Foxy's user avatar
  • 41
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
Joseph Casey's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
824 views

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 ...
Victor's user avatar
  • 113
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
NBoss's user avatar
  • 335
5 votes
5 answers
3k views

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?
Ian Warburton's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
582 views

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.
Vinod's user avatar
  • 433
5 votes
3 answers
387 views

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 ...
dust05's user avatar
  • 153
1 vote
2 answers
106 views

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?
Lorie's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
283 views

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 ...
Ishan.J's user avatar
  • 340
5 votes
5 answers
200 views

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, ...
Wynne's user avatar
  • 426
2 votes
1 answer
187 views

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 ...
cincplug's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
2 answers
250 views

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 ...
yerman's user avatar
  • 794
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Aaron's user avatar
  • 94.8k
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

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 ...
Ayush Roy's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

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?
Lyric Roy's user avatar
  • 717
2 votes
2 answers
5k views

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 ...
JoeyJon's user avatar
  • 21
4 votes
1 answer
178 views

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 ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
997 views

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 ...
MacroController's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
13k views

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 ...
David K's user avatar
  • 325
4 votes
1 answer
306 views

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 ...
Parsa Mousavi's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
265 views

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 ...
MacroController's user avatar
-3 votes
3 answers
142 views

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:
Eriek's user avatar
  • 546
4 votes
2 answers
586 views

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.
The Masked Rebel's user avatar