Talk:Modern musical symbols
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Modern musical symbols is within the scope of WikiProject Music, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to music. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. |
How extensive is this going to be? I don't see the value in this beyond what's already in the existing notation articles. Seems like it's mainly an image gallery, which is prohibited on WP. Anyway, the lines and spaces on a staff don't show the chromatic scale, but rather the diatonic scale. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wahoofive (talk • contribs) 04:54, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
- Well, this is supposed to consolidate all of that information into one article. And besides, someone reading a piece of sheet music will occasionally encounter a symbol of which he or she does not know its meaning. This article provides a very good "legend" to those symbols, and it should reduce, if not eliminate, the necessity of having to search the 'Net to find them. Denelson83 03:37, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
OMISSION There is no mention of the dotted note until section on the grace note. This needs to be included with a visual example as well. Thank You
Oh my. In the event that someone encounters something that they do not know I seriously doubt they would find it on this page – at least at the time I am posting this, this page is very partial.
- I disagree that this page is useless. I can see that this might become a useful place for some people to turn to in the event that one comes across a symbol but knows nothing about what it's called. (How do you suppose someone would look up a mordent, say, or a tremolo, without knowing what it was called?) I might also add that some of the information could be expanded to include symbols, directions, etc. that are more specific to style -- rinforzando, for example. --Todeswalzer 03:06, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
- It's basically a kind of stand-alone list article. Maybe it should be moved to List of symbols in modern musical notation? — Gwalla | Talk 22:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] SVG?
Ideally, the article would use SVG versions of all the notation symbols. Would this be feasible? Ppk01 23:38, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
- Actually, I think it might be more useful to also have the Unicode equivalents. http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D100.pdf lists a lot of symbols not described here. --Connel MacKenzie - wikt 06:22, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Clefs
) I've been trying to improve the Clef page lately. The clef section here is admirably elegant and spare. But I think the Tenor clef could be added, since on the clef page it is listed, along with the treble, bass and alto clefs, as the fourth clef used in modern notation. (Other clefs are labeled "obsolete".) --Gheuf 19:37, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree. Tenor clef should probably be added. 212.143.66.129 11:13, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Quarter tones
Quarter-tone notation is not standardized. All sorts of different symbols are used, and the ones shown are some of the least common. Moreover, to this day quarter-tones are not commonly used at all in Western music; they are still experimental and likely to remain so.TheScotch 09:30, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
- I think the "quarter tone" accidentals (a bit of a misnomer) should show examples of a few of the more common types. — Gwalla | Talk 22:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Missing: Natural Sharp
There's a missing bit of notation I recently ran across, and tried to look up here: the "natural sharp". After a double sharp a natural sign followed by a sharp sign indicates a "normal" sharp. Maybe someone who can work with the images on this page can add this? 67.40.200.194 17:20, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- That doesn't seem like a distinct symbol, but rather two symbols being used together, with their usual meanings (natural = "cancel previous accidentals" followed by sharp = "raise by a semitone"). — Gwalla | Talk 22:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Microtonality
I think the quartertone signs et al should be grouped together rather than intersperced with traditional signs. Interspercing them gives readers the false impression that these signs are standardized. TheScotch (talk) 12:19, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Articulation marks
Are pizzicato, harmonic, and bowing indications really articulation marks? TheScotch (talk) 12:22, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, as the articulation is anything that is not merely the note (c' etc.) being played, but how it is supposed to be played. An up-bow has a different sound and appearance than a down-bow, and the same holds true for harmonics and pizzicati. T3thys::ben (talk) 22:54, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] C clef
Since the alto and tenor clefs are widely confused (even among musicians with degrees), it is unfortunate that this article doesn't gives us a separate tenor clef illustration. It's likely to exacerbate the problem. TheScotch (talk) 12:27, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Missing: m.d. and m.g.
Busy learning flight of the bumble bee, have m.d and m.g (I think it's got something to do with crossing hands in piano), but I'd like to know exactly what they mean. Also if someone is thinking of responding that "That's specific to piano" I'd argue that ALL instrument notation should be on this page initially, and if the page gets too big THEN can start thinking of splitting it.
- m.d. = "main droite" = right hand; m.g. = "main gauche" = left hand. —Wahoofive (talk) 07:16, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Missing "Melody transfer" (?)
Hi great article! I've been working on teaching myself piano and have been forever coming to this page to figure out what everything means. Just came across one that's not on here though: a diagonal line going from one note on one clef to another note on another clef. If I had to guess, I think it's saying that the melody part is switching from one hand to the other. I've seen this line both solid and dashed, but never wavy like the glissimo example. --jwandersTalk 22:01, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
- It points from a note on one staff to one on another staff, I assume you mean. This indicates that an interior voice (whether or not it's a "melody") continues even though it's switching hands. This is especially common on keyboard reductions of choral music. I've never heard of a name for this line, though. —Wahoofive (talk) 22:47, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know if we could call that a "symbol" as much as just a convention. That is, I don't think its use is all that formalized, and usually the composer needs to indicate whether it means to switch hands or is just there to help the performer parse the information. I think Webern even used it on chamber scores to help the conductor figure out which instruments were playing the main theme. (But I could be wrong on the composer.) Torc2 (talk) 22:50, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] missing "rip"
there is a notation (should be in the 'note relationships' section) for a rip, which is where on a brass instrument (only seen it for the horn, but it should be doable for any other instrument) where like a gliss, you play notes between the two notes, but instead of playing chromatically, you kind of force through each partial between the two notes. it is represented by a straight slanted line between the two notes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.177.164.231 (talk) 21:18, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Fortississimo
Isn't there also fff for a fortississimo (I think that's what it's called), and a ppp for pianississimo. Even louder and even softer. -- 142.59.94.192 (talk) 20:22, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
