Music reading question

fjeanmur
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:13 am

OK, guys. Boy do I have a "duh" question. I had a few extra minutes and my TG song binder was right here, so I thought I'd look over the sight reading lessons because seeing the low E, F and G hanging off the treble clef is so foreign to me, and I noticed something that I never thought about before--

In looking at the quarter notes and half notes, why are the the note "stems" sometimes pointing up and sometimes pointing down? I've been reading music since I was 5, but this never occurred to me before. And it's not just through the sight reading pieces, it's everywhere, and it doesn't seem to do with ascending, descending, beats per measure--but completely random.

Niel, Vanessa, anyone? :S

Jean


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daryl
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:50 am

I always thought that it was a sort of symmetry thing. Notes from "low E" below the staff to "A" (2nd space in the staff) or "B" would point upward, and notes from "C" (3rd space in the staff) and higher would point downward. And sometimes when two separate voices are being shown on the same staff the stems would go in opposite directions (ie. one voice the stems point down and the other voice the stems point up). But it could be the case that there are no hard and fast rules. But I'll leave the official answer to those who really know.


Hydroman52
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:13 am

Daryl,

I agree with you. I got this from Wikipedia.

"....... notes are drawn with stems to the right of the note head, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the staff. When they are on or above the middle line, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, facing down."

This is what my grade school music teacher taught. However, in the same breath, he said there were exceptions to the rule. I would guess that would be in the case of "tied" notes and places where the stems would interfere with each other, or become too close together to easily read.

That is my understanding.....

Our elementary music class didn't go much further than teaching the very basics of musical notation. I believe more advanced notation was taught when a student took the elective band classes and learned to play an instrument. I never took a band class. I was too busy playing guitar, and guitar was not considered a band instrument.

Hydroman52


fjeanmur
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:46 am

Daryl, Hydro,

Yes, that does seem to be the general rule BUT . . . I pulled out an old piano book and the first thing I looked at showed exceptions all over the place. I never noticed this before and now I'm completely confused! Anybody else?


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TGNeil
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:33 am

Hi Gang,

Daryl pretty much had it. For a single voice stems go up or down to look balanced in the staff. When there are two voices the lower voice goes down and the the upper goes up, even if they cross somehow. There are times, even in guitar music, where there are three voices on a single staff, which can create a bunch of confusion.

When there are multiple voices each voice must have all beats accounted for, maybe using rests or ties that can confuse as well.

Neil


fjeanmur
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Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:12 pm

Thanks everyone!

I see the idea of balancing now and two voices together and still a lot of unexplained other things. Yikes! Here I thought I was asking a simple question. Not to go crazy over, but I learned something. :) Now back to that pesky sight reading.


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