Stem length question

[Hector Pascal]

Hi all,
Should I (or should I not) lengthen the stems of the tied notes to match the preceding beam's height? (I should mention that I chose the beam height so as to keep the lower of the fractional beams higher than the bottom staff line).

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Thanks as always!
Cheers,
Hector.

[Hector Pascal]

Here is what it looks like with the fractional beam sitting on top of the bottom staff line. The problem with this is that the fractional beam interferes with the bottom stave-line (Gould mentions that there must be one clear stave-line between the innermost beam and the first ledger-line; p.19).

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Any thoughts welcome as I continue to research it.

Cheers,
HP.

[John Ruggero]

Very nice ties!

As far as I know, the stem lengths don't have to match. At least that is what I see in well-engraved music. Perhaps others disagree.

And yes, one should avoid doing anything with beams that obscures the outer staff lines and thus obscures reading ledger line notes. And there are various situations in which this can happen, so one needs to judge each instance. Another case is when the ledger lines touch each other. That is also poison for reading.

[Hector Pascal]

Thanks for your reply, John, which is much appreciated!
Cheerio,
HP.

[NeeraWM]

I second John's answer.
Stem lengths don' have to match.
Especially, beams do not have to obscure the first and the last staff line.