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.
1,427
questions
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Can animated visualizations help to understand music better? [closed]
There are lots of animated visualizations (of a specific kind) of performed music around that I would like to understand better:
How accurate are they?
Do they help to understand music better? If so: ...
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0answers
56 views
How objective is the structure of a notated piece of music? [closed]
How objective can the analysis of a notated piece of music into a hierarchical structure of some "constituents" be?
Consider a given piece of music in notated form and structurally analysed by ...
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0answers
86 views
Improvised music by notes [migrated]
[Edit: I replaced "free jazz" by "improvised music".]
Are there legendary recordings of improvised music that have been replayed note-by-note by another band – either by notating and playing ...
5
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3answers
99 views
What do three layers of slurs mean for violin?
Here's a four-measure excerpt from an arrangement for violin (by Maxim Jacobsen). There are points in the score – two indicated in red here – where there are three slurs in effect simultaneously.
...
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1answer
59 views
reference request : English / Australian notation and vocabulary [closed]
I've been playing the trombone for some years in France and Spain. I'm about to emigrate to Australia. As I intent to keep playing, in some local band, that means quite a new system to learn for me.
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1answer
71 views
Meaning of “chords” in a bar with eight notes
First of all, LaM means AM and Sim means Bm. In the sheet music you will see below, what does mean AM________? Does it mean all the notes I will find on the _____ part will correspond to the AM chord? ...
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1answer
56 views
What do square brackets around one or multiple accent marks mean?
Here's the phrase in question:
It comes from Dvořák's Slavonic Dances op. 46, no. 7, in a piano duet arrangement. I do not know the arranger; the YouTube video was not clear about that, but I think ...
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2answers
93 views
Notating using ties on a 4/4 music
I am required to notate a note that is played on the 'and' of 1 and ring for the remaining beats of a 4/4 measure.
My choices is:
I use a quaver rest followed by a quaver tied to a dotted minim in ...
3
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2answers
155 views
Two dots below a note in the Bass Clef
I’ve come across some sheet music that has notes (Bass Clef) with 2 dots immediately below the note, as per the image below (right in the middle of the page):
What does this notation mean?
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4answers
64 views
Is it correct to write a score that repeats a phrase with 1 different bar at the middle like this?
I have a phrase that need to be played twice but there's a bar at the middle is different for second time. Can I write the score like this? Is this correct?
Thank you very much.
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2answers
41 views
understanding schematic analysis notation
What do the numbers above and below the staffs represent? I was assuming that the white-circled numbers under the bass parts were the thoroughbass and that the black-circled numbers above were the ...
4
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1answer
64 views
How do I raise or lower Lilypond's “repeat percent” symbol?
Lilypond's "\repeat percent" construct enables you to express a repeating musical snippet by writing the first occurrence in full then using a symbol as a sort of "ditto" mark for the later ones. ...
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vote
3answers
65 views
Inferring Position Number, String, and Shifts From Sparse Fingering Notation
I'm attempting to (re)learn some violin music using the composer's desired fingering. However, my background is not in violin but in fiddle, where fingerings and positions/shifts are rarely written (...
2
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0answers
45 views
How do I write with Sagittal notation and other microtonal notations?
I just found out that quarter tones aren't the only microtones. Now I'd like to experiment and write music with microtones. I'd like to know how to read and write with sagittal notation (or other ...
6
votes
1answer
877 views
Strange Ornamental Symbol on Bach Piece
This is from the marvelous andante from Bach’s organ trio sonata BWV 528. What does this symbol mean on the stave of the second keyboard? I am assuming it is ornamental. Is it just a strange version ...
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4answers
501 views
What is the practical importance of grasping the concept of tonality? More specially for piano players?
Let me explain the context of this question: my 12 year old niece is learning to play the piano and has to study musical theory; she recently encountered the notion of tonality and can't manage to ...
8
votes
1answer
304 views
Meaning of notation in violin part
I've been working on transcribing a score for my own edification, and I've come across a piece of notation in one of the violin parts that I'm not familiar with:
In the third measure shown, the A has ...
5
votes
3answers
114 views
Is there a reason an arranger/composer will choose a particular chord voicing when charting chords for guitar on a particular song?
When I look in music books for guitar or chord arrangements (or tabs) online for songs I want to learn to play on guitar, I notice that often a specific voicing for each particular chord is indicated. ...
3
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1answer
42 views
Notes with different duration on the same voice
I am a beginner piano student (by my own). Studying the sheet music for the song "The cranberries - Zombie" I came across to this part:
(G and F clef) Talking about G clef: What I understand is, you ...
2
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2answers
107 views
In Moonlight Sonata a note has both a natural and a sharp sign
In the first movement (Adagio sostenuto) of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata,1 there is a natural sign (♮) followed by a sharp (♯) on F. What does this mean?
1 Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor “Quasi una ...
4
votes
8answers
951 views
Piano and Guitar are the same music sheets?
I want to start learning piano. My friend said all my guitar lessons sheets can be played on a piano and that I would not have to buy sheet music for the piano. Is this true?
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6answers
458 views
How do I contextualize chords from different keys that sound good together?
For instance, an E major triad followed by an A minor sounds really good to me. I don't believe these can belong to the same key, because you can't have a sharp g and a natural C in the same scale as ...
4
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1answer
54 views
Bar lines in wrong place after removing staff lines
I need to set a rhythm-only piece in lilypond without staff lines. The following almost works but it puts the bar lines in the wrong place. It thinks I'm in 4/4 when I set it to 3/4.
\score {
\new ...
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3answers
2k views
When does one use an extra stave for piano music?
In complex piano music, one sometimes notates the notes over an additional stave - though I cannot say for sure I always know the reason. Here's an example from Stravinsky's Firebird, arranged by ...
3
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1answer
90 views
Identifying symbol in Claude Debussy’s Claire de lune
Can someone please let me know what the jagged line connecting the top note to the bottom note is?1
Footnotes
1 p. 14
Reference
Debussy, Claude. Suite bergamasque. Ed. Fromont, E. Paris, 1905.
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1answer
68 views
There is a scale with these notes?
C, D♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♮.
Does a scale using the notes above exist? Here is what is looks on a sheet:
1
vote
1answer
60 views
Pizzicato notation
I'm trying to figure out what (if any) norms apply to notation for pizzicato. As explained here, we have:
Do we not have any symbols used to indicate right-hand pizzicato? I have only seen it ...
5
votes
1answer
85 views
Upside-down up-bow
I have a piece here, that uses upside-down up-bows, that I have never seen before. Since I know other editions of the same opus, I can tell that they have the meaning of a normal down-bow. Does anyone ...
10
votes
7answers
1k views
Writing music by hand?
How do you write music by hand -- without using a ruler -- and not make it look like ugly chickenscratch?
Are there exercises for writing note heads, stems and beams while making them look relatively ...
21
votes
1answer
2k views
What does a long arrow pointing up and down mean in an organ score?
What is the meaning of this symbol (long vertical arrow) in old organ notation?
4
votes
4answers
107 views
Diminished 7th notation, match the key or key signature?
I'm planning on using a diminished 7th to modulate out of Eb minor and into Eb major. I'm thinking of using this diminished 7th or one of its enharmonic equivalents:
This chord could then resolve to ...
2
votes
2answers
83 views
Notating Sound Effects on a Score?
I'vw composed a piece of music that contains various sound effects, most notably movie trailer-style "braaaam" horn sounds, and large, synthetic drum hits that don't fall within the drum part.
For the ...
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3answers
126 views
What is notation for holding a note full value?
I'm a Jazz Trumpet Player. When playing written music, the lead/conductor sometimes asks for us to mark on the music to remember to hold a note for the full value.
So, consider music is in 4/4 time. ...
6
votes
2answers
165 views
Is 5/4 simple or compound?
I have seen 3 major ways of subdividing the quarter notes in 5/4. 1 is treating it as a simple meter and 2 others treat it as an irregular compound(or technically speaking, complex) meter. I have seen ...
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7answers
1k views
Anacruses, Bar Lines, and Line Breaks
I am an amateur composer.
Page layout is important to me; I like the line breaks to be significant punctuation to the score.
i.e. the end of: sections, parts, phrases, lines of verse/lyrics, are ...
25
votes
1answer
4k views
Two voices for a solo singer written in a sheet music
I was reading the score for Mozart’s insertion aria for his own opera Idomeneo “Non Temer Amato Bene”, K. 490. In it, Idomeneo’s son Idamante (scored for soprano; trouser role) expresses his undying ...
8
votes
1answer
168 views
Slurred half circle symbol
As an organist-amateur I recently bought "An Easy Bach Organ Album". In BWV 691 there's a symbol which looks like a half of a circle, or a small letter c. Moreover, the symbol is connected with the ...
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9answers
6k views
Why did we never simplify key signatures?
I understand that the key signature indicates what are the exact notes represented on the staff lines and spaces and thus tells us the diatonic scale in which the music is composed, which in turns ...
2
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2answers
66 views
What is this chord in Haydn's Symphony No. 94?
Can anyone tell me what chord is in bar 115 of the attached image, and how it relates to the key of F minor (just edited, accidentally said F# minor at first) (which is also the subsequent chord)?
It ...
2
votes
1answer
47 views
Enter Chord with top and bottom modifiers in Musescore
I have a few old printouts of music pieces, which I am trying to enter into Musescore. (The paper prints are old and won't survive much longer with any use.) While everything is going fine, I'm ...
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2answers
1k views
Mistake with Whole/Half step intervals problem
I took a beginner music theory class and there was a quiz on reading music notation.
H W H W H W W W W W
I got 8 of them right. I got the 4th and 10th bar wrong. I wrote it's a whole step (W) for ...
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vote
2answers
62 views
Odd looking notation from a MIDI editor
I've created a few bars in a MIDI editor and the sound is as I want (the instrument is intended to be a violin) but the notation looks very odd - despite the fact that the end sound at 120bpm is what ...
2
votes
3answers
117 views
Chord symbols don't match tabs
Im trying to learn Pure imagination on guitar following the tabs. Im going well, but I realised that when I see the fret board numbering with words above them like Fmaj7, Am and C, following the fret ...
5
votes
4answers
127 views
What do these notation marks mean?
So recently I have got this piece for a classical guitar (probably originally for some kind of lute) - Chaconne by Anonymous from Schwerin
It's full of mysterious parentheses, and I have failed to ...
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vote
2answers
42 views
Repetition sign at the end of a sequence using endings
I have the following 7 measure sequence:
To play it I go 1,2,3,4,5 repetition sign 2,3 use 2nd ending so 6,7. But at this point there is another repetition sign (the one at the end of the sequence) ...
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votes
3answers
99 views
Time Signature Dilemma, should I change the time signature for my Scherzo?
When I started writing my Scherzo in D, I initially thought of having the time signature be 3/4 since that is a very typical time signature for a scherzo, especially earlier scherzos that are closer ...
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votes
1answer
30 views
Notation for Eastern European pan flute
Years ago composed a piece of chamber music that included an Eastern European-style pan flute (Romanian or Hungarian, I don't recall which). It was a large one, with a 3-octave range from G3 (the one ...
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4answers
1k views
Why is there a key signature change in Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata (2nd movement)?
I have listened to the Hammerklavier Sonata many times, sometimes while following the score, and I have noticed that, in the second movement, there is a change in the key signature for just a little. ...
4
votes
3answers
171 views
In percussion notation, how does one interpret a slurred tremolo?
My question is about tied/slurred tremolos in percussion music notation.
I've had my bongo drums for almost half my life, and am just now deciding to buy a book and learn how to play Afro-Cuban ...
8
votes
1answer
1k views
What does the 1.-5. notation mean at the top right corner? [duplicate]
What is the 1.-5. notation in the top right corner telling me to do?
