NOTATIO

I would in fact place staccato dots also on the 8th notes, to remind myself that they are all played equally short. However, I would hesitate to use this notation if it was intended for other people to read: there would always be someone who'd argue that eighths and quarters with staccato dots shou...

What about either of these? 12-8 spacing.jpg More clear? Less clear? Just weird? I nudged the first and last eighth notes towards the center eighth in any beats consisting of three eighths. Obviously this would be a PITA, but does it help, especially if it could be automated with a plug-in or someth...

If I were performing this, I'd probably whip out the pencil and draw hashmarks above the beats. I would do the same. That sort of points out the problem here though. If the goal of notation is to make the music as clear as possible and the performer has to add information just to see the beat, then...

Strictly following Boosey's "triple-time bars or beats should be split in thirds" results in the first measure in my original post, which is not very clear IMO. It's a 3/8 bar, but they do not consolidate leading rests in their example. I don't think this is as much of an issue in 3/8 as t...

Schirmer says that leading quarter rests are acceptable, but never following. So, qr, e, qr, e is OK- e, qr, e, qr is not. Yep, that is discussed on pg 74 as I mentioned. Upon a quick glance, it appears that Boosey disagrees. The Boosey style guide is from their London office, not NYC, but here's a...

I prefer the 2nd with consolidated rests, for no other reason than I find it easier to keep track of the beat--whereas I have to stop and count all those pesky little 1/8th rests--and will sometimes get it wrong. The first bar is essentially unreadable IMO. If I had that placed on my stand I would ...

Ok, here's a situation that I'm always a little unclear on how to best notate. I've heard some say that one should never consolidate rests in a compound meter within the beat, so any combination of an eighth note and two eighth rests in a beat (of three) in 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, etc. should always be indiv...

Thanks for setting this up OCTO! Glad to see dspreadbury here too! His Making Notes blog posts have been some of the more interesting engraving discussions recently.