hey darcy, >I think for maximum clarity, I'd probably want to use a circle X for >the cross-stick, and a circle with two slashes through it for the >stick shot. That way, you can label (with text) the first instance, >and leave all four techniques unlabeled thereafter.
i agree with this in part... but: 1) why the circle x for the cross-stick? an x is already one level of "new" information indicating divergence from the standard technique, why would a second be needed here? 2) what do you mean by a circle with 2 slashes through it? ------------- first [and i won't be offended if you skip to the conclusion below if you are bored by my exposition of empirical data to the end of a critical reflection of notation "standards" in new music notation], i should mention that am **strongly** against -- and violently discourage -- the use of alternate noteheads in general. this comes after years of seeing hundreds upon hundreds of scores and many many divergences in the ways alternate noteheads are used, often in completely contradictory manners. one of the most problematic noteheads i come across on a VERY regular basis is the x-notehead. so many composers use it in so many different ways that the symbol itself has become meaningless except in a few firmly established uses and its use often brings about yet another compromise in the consistency and transmissibility of notation. not to mention that very often (and apparently not only in new music milieux [weinberg 1994, 20]) instead of "doing their homework", composers "invent" new noteheads (or other symbols) when there sometimes already exists a standard and recognized way of doing exactly what they think they have invented. >Rimshots -- In the works examined for these guidelines, five >different note heads were defined as "rimshot" and 12 different note >heads specified rimshot variations. These figures only represent the >use of note heads to indicate rimshots. When articulations are used >to indicate rimshots, 14 additional rimshots and rimshot variations >are encountered. Obviously, drumset notation shouldn't require 31 >different notational procedures for a single effect. ... It is >recommended that all rimshots be written as a normal note head >surrounded by a circle. This conforms to the standards set forth by >both Stone and Gardner Read's Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice. > >Weinberg, Norman. "Guidelines for Drumset Notation." Percussive >Notes 32/3 (June 1994), pp. 15-26. >http://www.propercussion.org/filer/notation.pdf i have found the x-notehead the most useful -- and clear -- when indicating a "non-standard" way of playing (e.g. key clicks, knocking on the instrument body) and it should **never** be used to notate "normal playing", such as can sometimes be found in new music, e.g. to indicate a non-pitched percusison instrument on a 1-line staff. that said... ------------- CONCLUSION: A FIRST DRAFT... 1) rim shots should be notated as normal noteheads with: a circle around the notehead (jazz); a symbol above the note as in my graphic (new music). despite thinking it is an excellent symbol to indicate a rimshot (you can imagine the notehead as the snare and the slash as the stick), i have always refused to use the slashed notehead, it is just too easy to miss in performance. (and recently i had intense experiences with what can be <ahem> missed in a drum part. 2a-b) playing on the rim and cross-stick are indeed "non-standard" snare techniques, in the sense that they are exceptions that appear only periodically and therefore the x-notehead is perfect for both, moreso because the x to indicate cross-stick is already a well-established standard, it does indeed make sense to use x for both. text could be used to indicate "on the rim", while cross-stick would require no text unless it immediately follows on-the-rim playing. (i don't have a solution if both were used simultaneously...) the circled x is also used to indicate cymbal crashes, or sometimes used to indicate half notes for x-noteheads, so it might be worth trying to avoid it here. except that the cymbals are far from the snare so maybe this isn't such a problem... would you propose that it would be clear to use x for playing on the rim and circled x for cross-stick? 3): i would say (1) and (3) are different means to "somewhat similar" ends and therefore should be notated fairly similarly -- the stick shot is a "variant" of the more common rimshot, so the notation should be very close to identical. but i'd like to know what the 2-slashed circle is you mention... _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
