Characteristics of music notation (1) |
Note stems [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] We have seen that half notes, quarter notes
and all shorter rhythmic values have a stem. This vertical line starts from the right side of
the note head and moves upwards, at least in the examples
seen so far. Its length does not influence the note and is
purely a question of convention, readability and esthetics of
the graphical layout. According to the note head position on the staff, the stem can be oriented
downwards. In this case, it starts from the left side of the
note: Generally, one acts so that the stem
exceeds the staff the least possible while having on average
the length given in this example. When the note is placed on
the third line or lower, the stem is directed upwards. When
the note is placed higher than the third line, the stem is
directed downwards: This is not a mandatory rule, because it
does not at all influence the performance of the note. The
same principle is valid for the eighth notes. When you draw
rhythmic values with hooks, they also change orientation, but
they stay on the right side of the stem. The hooks always
point in the direction of the note. Here is an illustration: For reasons of clarity and readability of
the score, this rule is sometimes broken. We will see
examples of it further.
Beams [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In order to make the score more readable and easier to
sight-read, it is very common to connect together several notes
having one or more hooks. To illustrate this, let us take for
example the following measure: It contains 4 beats. To facilitate the reading, we will gather
the notes per beat. Here is the result: In this way, you directly distinguish the 4 parts of the
measure. The ends of the note stems are connected together with
one or more lines that replace the hooks. It is necessary to have
the same number of lines as there are hooks. These stem
connection lines are called beams. Generally, the notes will be
connected together inside each beat. When several different notes are placed inside the same beat,
the principle stays the same. Thus the following measure : can be written like this: All notes are connected by a line (called a beam) and
additional lines are added for the notes having more than one
hook. For each note, the number of lines attached to the stem
must be the same as the number of hooks when the note is not
attached to other notes. The angle of the beams does not really
matter. It often follows the angle suggested by the note
positions. Sometimes they are fixed horizontal. It is a question
of graphical design. More than one rhythmic voice [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] We have seen that in a 4/4 measure, the total duration of the
notes and rests must always give the equivalence of 4 quarter
notes. It happens that several melodies are written on the same
staff, which slightly modifies this rule. Let us take the example
of two flutes in an orchestra. They play for example the
following melodies: For various reasons, the two staves are sometimes put
together. It is often the case for the orchestral instruments,
when the two parts are not too condensed. For each measure, the two melodies have both 4 beats. One also
speaks about a complete rhythmic voice. If we write these two
voices on the same staff, we get: By adding the note values, you find for each measure a total
duration of 8 beats. Nevertheless, the way in which beats are
laid out shows rather clearly that they are organized as two 4
beats melodies which must be played together. This is even more
obvious if you compare it with the two separate staves. Notice that to better differentiate the notes of the two
rhythmic voices, the stems of the higher voice are oriented
upwards and those of the lower voice downwards. These two examples are located in the Ex013 and
Ex014 files. Successively open them with Pizzicato and
listen to the sound result. The notes starting at the same time
stay aligned, even when they are on the same staff. In the above example, the two melodies are played by two
different instruments. With the piano or the organ, it happens
that the same hand plays two melodies at the same time, which
produces the same kind of notation. In more complex scores, it
happens that you can find three (and sometimes more) rhythmic
voices on the same staff. Here is an example: One voice plays 2 half notes, the second voice plays 4 quarter
notes while the third voice plays 8 eighth notes. You always find a multiple of the measure total duration. Two
rhythmic voices in 4/4 give a total of 8 quarter notes. Three
rhythmic voices will have the equivalent of 12 quarter notes,
etc. What is important to understand is that these multiple
rhythmic voices are played at the same time, they thus do not
lengthen the measure, which keeps a total duration of 4 quarter
notes. The layout of the rhythmic voices often clearly shows it,
because beats are aligned together, as if they were placed in
different staves.