Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2019 June 14

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June 14

Is it possible to play this on the piano??

Is it really well-defined to play the following on the piano??

In music notation, write 2 notes with the same pitch with no tie in between and no rests. For example, in 2/4 time write 2 G's on the second line of the treble clef staff, both quarter notes. Is it really possible to play this precisely?? That is, you aren't even playing a dotted eighth note tied to a thirty-second note followed by a thirty-second rest and then a quarter note. Taken literally, this isn't possible unless they're tied together. Any flaw??Georgia guy (talk) 01:29, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

You're doing it backwards. Notation exists to tell the musician what to play, and as such (at least theoretically) the music exists before the notation does. First figure out what you want it to sound like THEN figure out how to write notation so the musician can reliably recreate what you want. --Jayron32 02:18, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

That, plus if you use the sustain pedal there will be no rest between the notes. ---Sluzzelin talk 06:06, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

The example given by the OP would be written thus:

.
Compare that with the first two measures of the chorus to Jingle Bells:

.
   → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 10:09, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

And what is it actually?? Is it really 2 quarter notes with nothing in between?? (This contrasts with a dotted eighth note tied to a thirty-second note followed by a thirty-second rest and then a quarter note, for clarification.) Logic suggests that this isn't possible unless the notes are tied together. Georgia guy (talk) 16:30, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

What it is often depends on what is intended, and occasionally it's up to you as a performer to decide. The first two notes of jingle bells aren't meant to be read by a machine in a binarily unambiguous way. It looks really stupid if you have to write music that way (with multiple dots and demisemihemidemisemiquaver rests and what not). Sometimes there are instructions regarding articulation (legato, portato, staccato etc.), sometimes there aren't. But it's not unusual to write quarter notes, even when they don't last exactly that long. ---Sluzzelin talk 19:15, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

What does "binarily unambiguous" mean here?? Georgia guy (talk) 21:26, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

I meant that musical notation alone won't always tell you, in an unambiguous, one-to-one fashion, how the music should be played.

For example swung notes are sometimes written as dotted eigths plus sixteenths, sometimes as straight eighths, but rarely in triplets, though this would often be the better approximation (but more difficult to read for a human player).

Similarly, when you listen to the Vienna Philharmonic performing Viennese waltzes, you'll notice that the accompaniment often plays the second beat in slight anticipation (maybe about, but not precisely, a sixteenth note before the actual beat, random example: Tales from the Vienna Woods with Barenboim), but you'll never find the sheet music reflecting this. These are traditions and practices known to the players, but not explicitly written in the music.

Likewise, a note can be played longer or shorter than the actual value it represents, often depending on convention and sometimes depending on the musician's choice. See also agogic; this isn't always spelled out in the sheet music in a way that could be interpreted by machines unambiguously. ---Sluzzelin talk 13:07, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

It sounds like you really want MIDI. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 10:10, 17 June 2019 (UTC)