Random Daily Banter

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Pross

Senior Member
Three reactions to this:

- it's obviously very carefully conceived and set up

- if you're going to take that much trouble, you should have realised that the tail should be pointing down, not up, as the notehead is above the centre line. (But I know that would spoil the composition).

- I should get out more

View attachment 11753

Never knew that tail rule, I the tail is down for a bass part when the baritone / tenor part is written on the same stave due to lazy writing / cheap publishing but have never paid attention to what it does the rest of the time.
 
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briantrumpet

briantrumpet

Squire
Never knew that tail rule, I the tail is down for a bass part when the baritone / tenor part is written on the same stave due to lazy writing / cheap publishing but have never paid attention to what it does the rest of the time.

Yes, that too. But the general rule about tails is simply for the practicality of not having tails sticking further out from the stave than is necessary and cluttering the space in between staves. If you've got more than two, you take the 'average' and that's what wins (e.g. if two noteheads in a group of four beamed notes are above the centre line, one on it, and one below, the tails will point down.) Having learnt the rule from years of music theory and writing out by hand, it becomes second nature. Whether people who have barely ever written music by hand, having been born in the age of easy music notation software, will know the rule as thoroughly, I'm not at all sure.

Side note: if I were doing composition/harmony classes, I'd insist all written exercises were done by hand on manuscript paper first, and only put into notation software once completed. But then, I am a bastard.
 

Ian H

Squire
Three reactions to this:

- it's obviously very carefully conceived and set up

- if you're going to take that much trouble, you should have realised that the tail should be pointing down, not up, as the notehead is above the centre line. (But I know that would spoil the composition).

- I should get out more

View attachment 11753

Also, there must be a stepladder just out of shot.
 
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