Beams in 6/8

Discuss the rules of notation, standard notation practices, efficient notation practices and graphic design.
Post Reply
DePaule
Posts: 12
Joined: 30 Apr 2022, 17:44

Beams in 6/8

Post by DePaule »

Is the beaming right?
signal-2023-03-15-162828_002.png
signal-2023-03-15-162828_002.png (392.45 KiB) Viewed 1789 times
swetom2011
Posts: 27
Joined: 01 Oct 2022, 06:09
Location: Germany

Re: Beams in 6/8

Post by swetom2011 »

While not being an engraving expert, it's what I would expect to see in orchestra music. Violin in my case.
User avatar
John Ruggero
Posts: 2453
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 14:25
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Beams in 6/8

Post by John Ruggero »

If you are asking about beaming vocal music like instrumental music, this is now standard and preferred by many to the older style. Your measure numbers are too close to the brackets. You could also place them midway between the two staves in each system.You need an "extender" for the "sind" in m. 12 since there are two notes in the alto part.
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

http://www.cantilenapress.com
Ander
Posts: 10
Joined: 08 Apr 2023, 08:39

Re: Beams in 6/8

Post by Ander »

Hi DePaule,

If you're still interested, I can offer a few (good-natured!) suggestions:

• Consider beaming over your rests, as I think it's easier for performers to count notes as beamed units rather than singly. In 2- and 4-based time signatures, you won't want to beam more than two beats; but in 3-based sigs like 6/8 (here), beaming three beats is fine; it's all about legibility.

• When a one-syllable lyric is held over two or more notes, it's fine (and often clearer) to hyphenate it.

• Serif text (lyrics, chord symbols) is usually easier to read than sans-serif, as it has a bit more detail for the brain to pick up on.

BTW, what notation app are you using? The notes seem unusually small. You may find larger noteheads easier to read.

Here's an example, using these ideas, that I just whipped up in the free MuseScore notation software (www.musescore.org), which has really come into its own with its latest version. (I've switched to it from Sibelius.) Once you learn the basics, it's quite fast; this example took about 10 minutes (including the special German characters—LOL).

It uses their new Leland music font, which I really like for its legibility and esthetics. It has a fun history, too:

How I Designed a Free Music Font for 5 Million Musicians (YouTube)

Finally, maybe it's just me—but when simultaneous rests in two voices of vocal music are a certain distance apart, I like to give each voice a rest (as in T/B in the 2nd bar here), rather than requiring both parts' eyes to jump to a single rest between them.

Hope this helps. (It helped me feel useful, at least 😊 ) Cheers, A.


music_example.png
music_example.png (40.74 KiB) Viewed 1630 times
User avatar
John Ruggero
Posts: 2453
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 14:25
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Beams in 6/8

Post by John Ruggero »

Very nice engraving, Ander. And the note head font is very, very nice. However, I would never beam two distinct phrases together over a rest like that and prefer the original beaming. The additional rest in "m. 4" looks redundant to me, but why didn't you also place one between the tenor and bass part in "m. 6"?
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

http://www.cantilenapress.com
Post Reply