Jump to content

The best way to use slash notation in score


adamjhoward

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I'm creating a lead sheet. I want to insert some slash notation to indicate certain rhythms needed to play. I'm playing in the rhythm then change the note heads in the score editor so it looks like slash notation. But if I do that, all the note heads have the slash style, even half notes and full whole notes. Is there a setting to change the style to this slash notation for notes?

 

A

logic help.pdf

logic help.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Beer Moth. Yeah. I'd gone there. It just doesn't look that "pro". I'm using the jazz font, which makes it look a bit worse.

 

Also, if I have an 8th note tied to a half note, I can only have one note head, where really, the 8th note should be filled in, and the half note.

 

How do you insert a picture into a message?

 

Thanks.

 

A

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

Don't know if you found a solution ... but FWIW, the convention for indicating rhythms is using "x's" as the notehead for quarter (or dotted quarter) and smaller note values and using x's with a circle for half notes and greater values. Attached is a pic. If you need to cross the bar with a note value you have to add the value in the next bar and connect the notes with a tie.

 

Of course you can use whatever symbol you want. But normally slashes are used for indicating that instrument simply comps and chords are added above the staff.

 

Once again, you can use whatever symbols you'd like, these are just the common conventions.

 

Hope this helps!

390484942_RhythmNotation.png.85092364281cbf282aee4b350fcb78c0.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's jump all over tenorman, why don't we?

 

:mrgreen: Just kidding, of course.

 

Tenor (sax, I presume), meet Beer Moth. Fine alto player (and then some). Mothy? Tenorman. Oh, and I'm Ski, fly on the wall.

 

OK, now that we've all been properly introduced... Tenorman, this is the first time I'm seeing that notation too. Would you mind expounding a bit on where this kind of notation comes from?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi and great to meet you both! And yes, I blow a little tenor.

 

My apologies if I came across a bit presumptuous and assuming. Not my intention. I'm kinda' new at this sort of communicating and might not have my etiquette together. : )

 

A little background, as well as play saxophone I do score work both classical and jazz. I've worked with several publishing companies over the years and primarily use Finale but Logic is my goto software for digital audio and quick and down and dirty notation. (I've been working with Logic since it was Notator, 1989, on an Atari 1040 Mega ST.) And every publishing company has their own conventions or how they want things to look. Or as adamjhoward mentions below making it look more "pro". There's really no right or wrong way.

 

Don't want to make this too lengthy but to expound a bit, in the jazz world in particular if one wants to indicate rhythms without specific notes or chord voicings or if you want the drummer to kick a particular rhythm the "convention" or what's most common in the notation industry is to use noteheads as I've indicated. Certainly does not have to be that way! In reality, whatever expedites learning the music and disrupts the creative process the least is the best way to go.

 

Feel free to visit my myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/tomwashatka

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A man from Oshkosh! Welcome to the forum. We need more horn players here. Hopefully one day we can form a virtual big band. We got tenor and alto, a good start! :mrgreen:

 

Hey, thanks so much for this info. Being totally outside of the publishing world this is a new perspective for me. I've never seen those kinds of noteheads used outside of drum notation. Interesting!

 

Now, a little OT (off-topic) perhaps, but being that you have the kind of background you described, could you offer a recommendation for a musical notation reference book? Sometimes the finer points of how to notate things escapes my brain. For example, do you start a slur before or right on the notehead?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice playing,man!

:D 8)

 

Pretty much always come across slash (with stems when nec) for chord rhythms,and the crossheads for drums and ghost notes and stuff.

Nothing's set in stone though,as you say.

 

Cross in circle might be used for alternate fingerings,f'r instance.

But there are other ways.

 

I bow to your superior qualifications,but suspect it varies from one to another quite a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice to see another Finale user on here! Interesting to read the convention about x-heads as opposed to slash-heads though… my understanding was that notes with slash-heads were the norm for specifying a certain rhythm.

 

Anyway, not to "hijack" the thread, but to answer Ski's question, for all the work I've done with Finale (or manuscript, for that matter, which I do as often for fun as efficiency, depending on what I'm writing), I picked up Alfred's Essential Dictionary of Music Notation. It came in handy as a supplement to my Theory I textbook from way back when, as it keeps pretty much everything streamlined and easy to comprehend. Though I haven't even touched the Logic score editor much yet, so I don't know how that one works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone works a little differently. And everything is contextual. For every rule or convention there is an exception. I think the point might be to not get too bogged down with convention at the expense of the creative process and sometimes a simple explanation can remove any vagueness. Sometimes three weeks of email can be eliminated with a three minute phone conversation or a clarification at rehearsal. : )
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sometimes three weeks of email can be eliminated with a three minute phone conversation or a clarification at rehearsal. : )

 

So... what's your phone number? :lol:

 

BTW tenorman, you can probably tell that we like to have fun around here. But that said, what you said in your post is just sooooooo true.

 

Regards,

 

-=sKi=-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I definitely agree there. When writing part books for some musicals we've done at the school where I work, I've learned that a page up front with a key or guide of some sort (in case of drum set books, as an example,) really went a long way. Even before I had a system of my own, so long as the player had that, s/he was fine.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...