On Sunday, August 3, 2003, at 05:29 PM, Giz Bowe wrote:
Sort of. The rules are actually a little more complicated than that but that's not a bad generalization.
Can you give me the formal, or more complete rule? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but am truly curious.
Officially, you are supposed to break beams and/or rhythmic values in groups of four -- i.e., four consecutive eighth notes on beats one or three get beamed together, four consecutive sixteenths on any beat get beamed together, eight consecutive 32nd notes should have a secondary beam break in the middle, etc. But the same principle holds even when there are only three, two or one notes of that duration -- i.e., the smallest rhythmic value determines the beaming (and the breaking of single held notes into two tied notes).
So, when there are no eighth notes in a bar, there's no need to show the third beat. Dotted half - quarter; quarter - half - quarter; and quarter - dotted quarter are all just fine.
As soon as you have even one eighth note in a bar, you need to show the third beat. At least in theory. There are a couple of common exceptions that most people consider OK -- double-dotted half - eighth; or eighth - quarter - quarter - quarter - eighth. (Although I don't like that one at all, and some people don't like the double-dotted notation either.)
As soon as you have even one sixteenth note in a bar, you need to show every beat *in whichever half of the bar* contains the sixteenth. In other words, four sixteenths - quarter - eighth - quarter - eighth is fine, but two sixteenths - quarter - two sixteenths - etc... is not.
The same exception RE: double-dotted notes cited above is also (sometimes) used -- i.e. a double-dotted quarter followed by a sixteenth. Again, not a universally beloved exception, but you see it often enough.
In this same transcription, I just came across a dotted half-rest followed by a quarter note; it fills the measure, but I prefer half-rest quarter-rest quarter-note.
The dotted half rest is also incorrect. Dotted rests are only used in compound meters, like 12/8.
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston MA
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston MA
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