Questions tagged [notation]
For questions about visual representation of music and its uses. If the question is about a specific type of notation like tablature, that should also be tagged. Questions about how to input specific notation are best served with the engraving tag.
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How to notate late attack/almost a grace note
I'm transcribing a piano piece. There is a short note that should be attacked slightly later than notated, but should not be played fully as a grace note—rather somewhere in between. (Even playing by ...
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What are these diagonal dashes in the Schnabel Ed. Beethoven Sonatas?
I'm working on Beethoven Sonata No. 1 and have noticed these diagonal dashes in the left hand in movement 2 (see bar 3).
I assume these are editorial markings as I am seeing them in other sonatas in ...
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What does laissez vibrer mean on a wind instrument?
I'm a bassoonist and when I play in a wind band I often get given a trombone part.
Sometimes I have to transpose a score because it is in E♭𝄞. And sometimes I have to transpose passages that are too ...
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Best way for random (cluster) chord notation
I'm working on a piano part where the player needs to slam their fingers on the keyboard in semi-specific regions to create random cluster-like chords. What do you think would be the best way to ...
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Notation for 8va on the repeat
In piano music sometimes there is a section that is repeated (with repeat bar lines, or with DC), but on the repeat one (or both) hands are to play an octave up (or down).
Is there a common Italian ...
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How to play duplicated note at the same time?
I just start playing Schumann's Traumerei, but I noticed something unusual:
in a 4/4 meter, the F on the bass staff counts for 5 beats in the same bar.
My guess: press down the sustain pedal, play F ...
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Why aren't octave clefs used in piano notation?
It's not uncommon to find piano music where the left hand plays primarily in octave 1, or the right hand in octave 6 (i.e. below the staff of a bass clef or above the staff of a treble clef). This ...
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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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How to overlap notes from different voices to share note heads?
Voice 1 accentuates the melody that's woven through the 8th-note pattern. I want the notes on the top staff the 'blend' together. I remember this being possible in older Sibelius versions, but I ...
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Notation and use of cross-staff beaming
I have been transcribing a piece in 4/4 time for the piano. There is a portion of the piece where I am unsure if cross-staff beaming should be utilized or not. I have provided two examples below for ...
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Notation question: Adding half a beat to a bar?
I've run into a quirk in a piece I'm writing, something I've never had to deal with—any ideas?:
The piece is in 4/4. One bar has an extra half-beat (with 18 sixteenth notes rather than 16).
4.5/4 = 9/...
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Do I need to explicitly cancel the damper pedal when switching to sostenuto?
I'm writing a piece where the beginning and end use the damper pedal only, and the middle uses sostenuto only. Currently these are notated with con ped. and con sost., but I wonder if that might ...
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What are the piano notes of Hum Ko Tumse Ho Gaya hai pyaar kya kare? [closed]
What are the piano notes of Hum Ko Tumse Ho Gaya hai pyaar kya kare?
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Align note with grace note in different stave in LilyPond
I am trying to make something like this in LilyPond, where the note in the upper stave is aligned with the grace notes in the lower staff:
Any solution should also work after a time signature change, ...
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Instances of note beams across measures
How rare was it, in classical and romantic periods, for composers to notate eighth note and sixteenth note beams across measures? Are there examples from composers other than Schubert?
In two of ...
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Note placement for beat/rhythm clarity
I have been transcribing a piece in 4/4 time for the piano. I am not fully certain as to how I should format the notes on the upper staff – as they split every beat.
I have provided 3 options below ...
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Issues with formatting multiple voices in 6/8 time signature
I have been transcribing a piece in 6/8 time which has two voices. I am worried that it is difficult to read the rhythm and was wondering if there is any other way to format this to make it clearer. ...
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Placing rest symbols according the convention of the time signature
I am preparing for a music school entry exam and I am given following problem:
"In the following example, place the missing rest symbols in the brackets. It's possible, that you have to write ...
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How to get Lilypond to produce a "repeat lyrics here" mark?
I'd like to get lilypond to produce the ://: mark above the stave used in hymnals (at least) to indicate "repeat the preceding line of words here" - for an example of what I mean, see the ...
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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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In David Fuentes FOM workbook 1.3, what does the arrow next to the V mean?, And the T?
I'm working through David Fuentes (Berklee College of Music) FOM workbook. In exercise 1.3, what does the arrow next to the V mean in the 3rd bar?, And also the T? I figure the T means 'Tendency Tone'...
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How to interpret this tuning description for a kalimba? a' c" c' a' A f' e' e" b'
This is the tuning description for my kalimba, but I have no idea how to read it. I don’t know the difference between capital letters and lowercase nor the meaning of the apostrophes.
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Is there a symbol like an "upbow" that occurs between notes in vocal and piano scores? [duplicate]
I'm looking at a hand-written score (with terrible handwriting) and I see something that looks like "upbow" (?) but it is between notes, and in a score without strings other than piano... It'...
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How can I create a tie or slur that goes to nothing in MuseScore 3 (let ring notation)?
I am transcribing the string bass part from a piece we are playing in Concert Band. It has numerous "let ring" notes, pizzicato with ties or slurs going to open space.
How can I do this in ...
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What symbol is used to go from common time to half time?
What symbol do I use to go from common time to half time when notating that particular change?
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What is the meaning of headless notes?
I recently listened to a piano piece which contains headless notes.
The piece is Invocación a San Gregorio for Piano (2013) by Marco Alejandro Gil.
Youtube-Link
What is the meaning of this notation?
...
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Suite Venezolana, I Registro by Antonio Lauro notations & fingerings [for classical (nylon strings) guitar]
As shown in the attached image,
(i) What do the numbers written in the circles indicate?
(ii)What do the numbers above the beams/below the "arm" notation indicate?
(iii) Does "arm" ...
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What are these playing instructions for classical guitar?
Throughout the score there are various CX, CVII signs and the alla breve sign (which is obviously not Alla Breve). From what I could gather, these are fingering instructions for the pinky (C), but I ...
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C Trumpet in Beethoven's 5th symphony
For a school assignment, I am playing part of Beethoven's 5th Symphony on keyboards. While analyzing the piece, I'm confused by the trumpet part. In the score I am using, it is written as 'Trombe in C'...
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Need help reading Muddy Waters's "Got my mojo working"
This is the rhythm guitar part to Muddy Waters's "Got My Mojo Working". I would like to know what beats the chords land on for this measure. I only know that the first chord lands on the and ...
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name for this "hold" line in contemporary music?
is there a standardised name for these type of "hold" lines in contemporary music notation?
I've googled around quite a bit but couldn't find a distinct name for this notation. Should I ...
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Notes not adding up to time signature How to play this?
Hi, any idea how to play this piece? The note on the last beats are not adding up to 6/8.
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Strange "less than" accent or ornament in Sullivan's "The Mikado" score
In the old Kalmus handwritten conductor's score for The Mikado, a few notes in the overture had a unfamiliar notation. For example, here's Measure 50 from the oboe part (other instruments have ...
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Can someone explain what those numbers mean? [duplicate]
Beginning of bar 2
Why are there numbers above and below the notes?
Are those two different fingerings?
What does the 14 under the half note mean?
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (First two bars):
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What does this phi symbol mean?
I encountered this symbol in sheet music. Searched the internet and it is nowhere to be found. Closest thing it might be a small letter “phi” but not exactly.
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NullVoice is affecting the orientation of ties and slurs in LilyPond
Adding a NullVoice to a staff with two other voices affects the orientation of ties and slurs. Consider the following three Examples and their output:
\version "2.22.2"
<<
\new ...
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Why do notes have stems?
How is it that stems became a part of standard music notation?
I was genuinely unable to find an answer to this anywhere on the internet - I couldn't even find an instance of anyone asking the ...
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In keyboard style harmony should there be a rest for each voice?
Here is a picture, and you can see the melody voice has a rest for the last 8th note, but I also added a rest for the alto and tenor. Is this correct, or would one rest have been ok?
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Do triplets always have a 3 written on top?
I was told by my teacher that a triplet will always have a three written on top. I've also seen this in theory books for graded exams which have also said that any triplet grouping will have a bracket ...
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Lilypond: Set key change signature before D.C. or D.S., and different key in next line
Imagine you have a piece consisting of 3 parts, say A, B, C, and they appear in order A B A C. You want to typeset this in the following form
with Da Capo and a Coda, and a line break after the "...
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What note would be used to fit 4 notes in a 5/8 time signature
What note represents 1.25 beats. Or in other words 4 notes in 5/8 time.
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To which voice does this note belong? The one above or below? thanks [duplicate]
Which voice does this note belong to? The one above or below? thanks.
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Bach Sinfonia 9 G flat or natural in measure 13?
I'm seeing two version of the Bach Sinfonia 9, measure 13, should it be a G flat or G natural on the top voice? G flat makes the most sense, since it keeps with the motif. But why most recordings have ...
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Ukulele strumming pattern and meaning of chords in square brackets and normal brackets (using Lemon Tree as example) [closed]
Hi I'm new to playing ukulele (and never studied any music theory) and I'm trying to learn to play along this arrangement of Lemon Tree.
The Intro goes like
Am Em Am Em Dm Em Am [Em] (Am)
As far as I ...
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Why an end repeat barline without a corresponding start repeat barline?
How should I interpret an end repeat barline without a corresponding start repeat barline?
I was expecting to see a few bars delimited by corresponding start and end repeat barlines, but in this piece ...
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How to notate going from staccato to "normal"
I'm writing a piano piece where r.h. is meant to play staccato for a large section. Instead of adding staccato dots to all the notes, it seems simpler to me to state "All staccato" above the ...
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What does it mean when the same note with the same length is on the same stem for the same instrument? [duplicate]
In Ravel's "Bolero" the violas play a repeated pattern in pizzicato that grows more and more complex. The second form, however, beginning at m. 21, has a notation that puzzles me. The middle ...
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What does this portion of the score mean where the treble and bass clefs intersect?
This is from a piano score.
I would appreciate it if someone could explain what it means -- which notes I am supposed to play, and on which hand.
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Correct Connected (Across Staves) Arpeggio Collission
In context, the collision looks like this:
Here's a minimum example that appears to reproduce the problem:
\version "2.22.1"
rh=\relative c'' {\key des \major
<g g'>4.( <e e'&...
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How Do I Insert Markup (ritardando) Without a Note
In the solo voice here:
a ritardando shows up on beat four of the measure, but there is only a whole note in the measure. If I attach the ^\markup{\italic rit.} to that whole note, the ritardando ...