I used to parenthesise courtesy accidentals, so as to differentiate them from real (needed) accidentals, kind of as a wink to the performer as if to say, "I know you know this is flat now, but this is just to keep you from having to look back and waste CPU cycles thinking about it."
But I noticed that they were being misread a lot, and finally realised the reason. A sharp has a much different outline than a flat, so we can identify them without even really thinking about them. (Not so much a natural, which looks like a sharp somewhat, but that's another story). As soon as you put parentheses around an accidental, they ALL have the same outline, meaning that you have look inside the parentheses to identify and interpret the symbol. This might JUST be enough time to prevent a performer in a dense passage from making the correct decision. Also, parentheses take up more horizontal space, messing with the spacing, which is more important to correct rhythmic reading than I ever thought before. So, to wrap this up, I don't parenthesise accidentals any more. I just put them in where I think they are needed, even if it isn't in accord with the rules of notation. Christopher On Sun Dec 4, at SundayDec 4 12:18 PM, Linda Worsley wrote: > It's my experience that when I give a new piece to the players either for > live performance or recording, that leaving out courtesy accidentals > *does* waste > time. I have always erred on the side of using them, especially when > cancelling a previous accidental that might prove confusing. I made this a > rule after having to stop and clarify, especially in the studio where *I* > was paying the tab. Some bits of notation "clutter," but I think courtesy > accidntals do not. I don't use parentheses except in cases where it seems > clearer than a naked accidental. > > By the way, I just created a whole library and put it in the articulation > tool. Six different characters (w and w/o parentheses.) I also created a > key command for them. (I love this particular feature!) But I don't > remember having to create this library before, and I have used Finale since > the very first version in the 80s. But maybe I am getting dotty after all > these years... > > Thanks to all for help! > > Linda _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
