Phil Taylor writes: | John Chambers wrote: | > | >The K:D=C_E_B^c example has a natural on the C line (below the | >staff), flats on the E and B lines, and a sharp on the c line. It | >might be better to put them in a different order; I just expressed it | >that way to make the scale clear. | | There's a problem here. In conventional notation, sharps and flats | in the key signature affect all octaves, unlike accidentals which | affect only the octave marked. You are proposing to change that | rule, not just for abc but for standard notation too.
You're right. That's a rule that isn't always followed in all kinds of music. Others here can supply examples. And even in "standard" Western music, this rule is sufficiently poorly followed that many editors like to insert advisory accidentals just to make sure that readers won't miss them. This may encourage people to believe that a different rule applies. | >Which does remind me that, although there's a conventional order for | >the accidentals in classical key signatures, there really isn't such | >an order for others. Some particular musical styles might have a | >conventional order, but I don't know of them. In recent music books | >that use non-classical key signatures, there are several orders used. | >I think they position them so that they look good on the page, | >whatever that might mean to the editor. | | The conclusion we came to the last time that this was discussed is that | programs should draw the symbols in the order in which they are given in | the abc. That way the order is left up to the user. A very good idea. (That's what I did, of course. ;-) There's a lot to be said for tools that do what you tell them, even if someone else might think you're stupid for doing it that way. Then, if it doesn't work, it's the user's fault, not the fault of the programmer. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
