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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Ties for Chords
Are the chords should be always tied like this? Or there are rules when the ties should connect top/bottom of note heads in chords?
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Identifying a chord with seeming multiple suspended notes
I cannot figure out what would be the name for the chord containing these notes:
D,E,G in the key of C Major.
Also, does a sus2/4 exist. For example, Csus2/4 being C,D,F,G?
To make things clearer ...
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How to convert Sibelius score to MusiXTeX?
I want to create images of bars of notated music for use in video. Is there a way to write the score on Sibelius and then export this to some Python library in order to better create the images for ...
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What does this note - B# - mean?
I'm confused as to how I should play the second note below, B#. Does it mean it's C? It is possible? In which case, why is it written like this, and not just C?
Sonata quasi una Fantasia, First ...
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Eighth-note missing from score?
In this version of sheet music "The Rain" by Joe Hisaishi, how should I read this line?
It seems that voice y in measure 42 is missing one eighth note (between eighth note B in treble clef ...
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Is there a duration or rest error in the last bar here?
In this example - my understanding is that every bar has four quarter notes, in the third bar, we can see only two eighth notes connected to a half note - does that not make a total of 3 quarter notes?...
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Duration of a note in Moldau score
Let's consider the piano version of Moldau/Vltava from Smetana, the first two measures for example:
What should be the duration of the blue circled notes, as expressed in units of an eighth note:
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Piano what is this symbol name and meaning? [duplicate]
What is this symbol name and meaning (symbol above the red line) - the line travel from Bass clef through Treble clef, then go back to Bass clef?
It seems that this symbol is not listed in musical ...
Dom♦
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Why not use only octave clefs?
There are a lot of clefs: G, F, and many C clefs. And it is not trivial to read some clef is you are familiar with another one. I think music comprehension would be made easier if we only used one ...
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LilyPond: words connected with hyphen
I started working on a songbook with English songs and came across lyrics where the words are connected with hyphens.
What would be the best way to show these in LilyPond?
In the example below there ...
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What does a straight line connecting notes on different clefs mean?
What is the meaning of the straight lines between notes in opposite staves, as shown in the picture? I keep seeing it, but Google and Wikipedia are not helping me.
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Why are baritone vocals written one octave higher in the treble clef?
I have a lot of sheet music where the singer is a baritone and sings a lot in the C3 - C4 region. This would normally be written in the bass clef but in my sheet music, the notes are written in the ...
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Is there a way to adjust the tab setting in guitar pro so that certain frets are not used when converting notes to tab?
For example in Sibelius I can control the lowest and highest frets I would like to be used when converting standard notation to tab. There doesn't seem to be anything like that in guitar pro. Thanks!
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Notating Sheet Music with Strict Tempo for Accompaniment but Rubato for Vocalist
I have some sheet music for vocal + piano accompaniment where I want to notate that the vocalist should feel out the rhythms and phrases and sing expressively while the pianist maintains a steady ...
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Transposing Piano Accompaniment for Vocalist - When to Change Clefs
I have been transposing some voice + piano accompaniment music originally written for a mezzo-soprano or alto into a key for a tenor down (usually by a third or a fourth) and have found the resulting ...
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How to notate 3 quarters framed by eighths?
Context: I recently transcribed a Piano solo piece in MuseScore 4. It was based on a different person's transcription that used ♩ = 70 as tempo marking. My transcription initially used the same tempo. ...
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Why is guitar music written one octave higher?
I was always a guitar player and so I never really cared about the difference, but since starting piano it is a bit annoying writing the guitar parts since I always have to transpose by an octave. Is ...
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There are 2 square brackets around 2 notes in this trombone part. What does it mean? [closed]
In this trombone part there is square brackets and slide numbers on these notes. What does this indicate?
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What does this diagonal line in the drums sheet music mean?
As the title says, what does the indicated line in the figure mean in a drum sheet music?
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Spacing in tuplets (in sheet-music)
I am trying to understand whether it's okay to have different spaces within tuplets in case if I have other voices, or should I aim somehow to have even spaces in tuplets?
Here is an example:
For me ...
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Why are 6/5 chords written in different ways? [duplicate]
Sometimes the 6th of a 6/5 chord is displaced to the right and other times the 5th is displaced to the left. Why?
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Different Piano Octaves
What comes after 8va and 15ma in Piano music? I have tried searching, but nothing helpful comes up.
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Skip Beat in a Measure
Can we skip some/a beat(s) in a measure in music notation?
In the picure, I want to skip that quarter rest so we can play directly the next c note?
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How to read this measure of music with "in between" notes?
I have a score in 4/4 time with the following measure:
My music program (MuseScore) plays this with the two 16th F notes "in between" beats 2 and 3, with the second F/C chord playing at beat 3 and ...
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Regarding the music notation symbol "simili"
I have been researching the music notation symbol "simili" after coming across it in the piano score for Debussy's "Passepied" from the "Suite bergamasque".
The score ...
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Alternative ways of notating this example of metric modulation
At 3:08 Seconds into this video (Johnny Winter, Mama talk to your daughter, Live CPH 1971):
a hemiola cross-rhythm effect, and the guitar strums and bass temporarily ...
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Theoretically Correct vs Practical Notation
My music theory studies ended 20 years ago, but I am busy with some notation by combining piano accompaniment with vocals for solo piano, for personal use.
So, in 4/4 time, music theory dictates that ...
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Rachmaninoff C# minor prelude: towards the end, staff lines are joined together, and there are two end markings
I'm studying Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor and towards the end, the staff lines are joined together, with two ending lines.
Do I need four hands? :)
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Changing the time signature so all notes fit in one bar
I'm currently making sheet music for a song that isn't mine and I know it's in 4/4 but as the song progresses, there's no way I can fit all notes in that time signature, so I'm changing it to 6/4, 7/4,...
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Can there be five flutes in (a score for) a symphonic orchestra?
If I were to write a score for a symphonic orchestra, could I include five separate staves for five separate flutes (each one having its own unique part throughout the score) or is it forbidden in ...
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How to play tremolo on violin
I found an orchestral score in 3/4 time that instructs the first and second violins to play tremolos:
First violins should play those notes as quavers so do the second violins play semiquavers? I ...
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How do I enter these triplets into MuseScore?
I'm a total beginner with all things music theory, so I figured I'd ask.
I'm trying to enter this into MuseScore, but the triplets in the last two bars are confusing me. If I try to enter them I get ...
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How do you represent different instrument of the same section alternating a part?
I've composed a passage with an upper tonic pedal point in the flutes. Problem is that the pedal point lasts 51 bars in an adagio tempo(roughly 2 minutes), and nobody would be able to play a ...
Dom♦
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Slight emphasis on a note (soft accent)
The attached image is the first couple of bars from the James Bond theme – No Time to Die:
The notes in yellow sound to me like they are played with a slight accent/emphasis, and I'm trying to find ...
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What do these letters and punctuation (d .s, :l, .s,) mean on this sheet music? [duplicate]
I’m trying to understand the letters and punctuation in an old piece of music (from around 1910). It’s a piece for ukulele and I’m assuming it’s a fingerpicking pattern, however it doesn’t use letters ...
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Is this a tenor clef?
My wind band is playing Saint-Saens' Pas Redouble, using the Josneau arrangement published by Evette & Schaeffer. It's on IMSLP. The bassoon part is mostly in bass clef, but occasionally uses a ...
Dom♦
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Secondary brackets in the string section
In an orchestral score, each section of the orchestra gets a thick square margin bracket, e.g. the woodwind section.
Within these, thin square secondary brackets are used to group instruments in the ...
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How can Key be understood differently when composing music vs playing it as a musician?
When I was younger, for years, I played musical instruments such as the french horn, violin, acoustic ("standing") bass, electric bass, piano, and electric guitar. During these years, I also ...
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What does the tempo marking "Andando" mean?
I'm reading through Nelson Riddle's book on arranging. As you'd expect, the musical examples use common Italian tempo markings, such as Andante, Andantino, Allegro and so on. However, the marking ...
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How to write overlapping lines when using 4 parts
Here is an example of what I want to do. This is not a chorale hymn! But lets just use the naming conventions since I want 4 lines. The "Soprano" and "Alto" are providing an ...
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Sharp getting erased without notation in Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor
On the sixth measure of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor there is a second chord that appears to be D#-E-D#. I didn't think that this sounded quite right, and in all the videos I've watched it's ...
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J.S.Bach's organ tablature notation
Is anyone familiar with some freely available guide explaining in detail how to read Bach's organ tablature notation?
Apparently, Bach was very comfortable in using the tablature notation, ...
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What does the marking "Tempo" mean in the middle of a piece of music?
In Hubert Parry's (1848-1918) choral work "There is an Old Belief", there is a marking in a few places that just reads "Tempo". The first time it happens after a ritard, following ...
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Which two pedals to use for the marking "due pedale"?
In the piano piece "Rumänisches Charakterstück, Op.44" on page 8 there is the marking pp along with "due Pedale".
Which two pedals out of the three available are meant to be used ...
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When using a chromatic mediant chord in a minor piece which accidental do you use?
If I am in D minor and want to write a Bbm chromatic mediant chord, will I have to write the Db, even though in surrounding bars I have the usual C# for the raised LT?
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What is this musical symbol (inverted "Z" inside a staff)
Can anyone identify the symbol circled in the image below? It's from a piece of piano music.
Thank you very much :)
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What is the name of and how to notate a "tremolo in random order"?
Given a chord, I can play its notes in random order (usually fast) for full note's duration. It's not an arpeggio, because arpeggios have ascending or descending order; and arpeggio ends when all its ...
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Unknown Notation with a sharp, curved line
I was looking at a piece of music when I came across the symbol pictured below (the sharp, curved line between the tenuto and accent).
Can anyone help me identify it?
For reference, the piece that I ...
Dom♦
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Same note on two staves in a piano score
These are bars 56–59 in Patrik Pietschmann's arrangement of Hans Zimmer's "Interstellar Main Theme"
How does one deal with the Es that appear in both staves?
The first two bars I can play ...
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Where do the double accidentals go in "theoretical" key signatures?
Recent questions led me to discussions of theoretical keys, which are defined by Wikipedia as keys with at least one double accidental in the key signature. (Unfortunately, the source of that ...
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