Notation: Accidental Rules and Conventions.

[GuyBoden]

Accidental Rules and Conventions.

I was taught this notation method at music college in the early 1980's.


"An accidental’s scope is limited to the measure it appears in and only affects the note it precedes. In other words, an accidental will alter the pitch of a note for the rest of that measure, but once you cross the bar line into the next measure, its effect is nullified."

Example Notation below:



Any comments?

[supersoul]

Accidental Rules and Conventions.

I was taught this notation method at music college in the early 1980's.


"An accidental’s scope is limited to the measure it appears in and only affects the note it precedes. In other words, an accidental will alter the pitch of a note for the rest of that measure, but once you cross the bar line into the next measure, its effect is nullified."

Example Notation below:



Any comments?

An accidental only applies to notes of the same register, not in different octaves. In the first measure the accidental applies to the middle C, but a C an octave higher would be unaffected. Unless I've been doing it wrong all this time!

This example doesn't actually show an accidental acting for the rest of a measure. First measure has C#, Ab and F# but those notes only happen once. It would be nice to see a notated middle C later in that measure, and point out that it is in fact a C# because of the measure rule.

[pamosmusic]

Also if you have notes in different registers or lots of Fs and F#s back and forth or whatever, it’s good practice to put a courtesy accidental either way

[GuyBoden]

An accidental only applies to notes of the same register, not in different octaves. In the first measure the accidental applies to the middle C, but a C an octave higher would be unaffected. Unless I've been doing it wrong all this time!

This example doesn't actually show an accidental acting for the rest of a measure. First measure has C#, Ab and F# but those notes only happen once. It would be nice to see a notated middle C later in that measure, and point out that it is in fact a C# because of the measure rule.

Yes, very good points, I agree, my example was deliberately very simplistic.

Maybe, a more complex example is needed.

Also if you have notes in different registers or lots of Fs and F#s back and forth or whatever, it’s good practice to put a courtesy accidental either way

As usual, a very good point.

[James W]

An accidental only applies to notes of the same register, not in different octaves. In the first measure the accidental applies to the middle C, but a C an octave higher would be unaffected. Unless I've been doing it wrong all this time!

This example doesn't actually show an accidental acting for the rest of a measure. First measure has C#, Ab and F# but those notes only happen once. It would be nice to see a notated middle C later in that measure, and point out that it is in fact a C# because of the measure rule.

Yeah, accidentals apply to the pitch, not the pitch class.

[digger]

What are the rules / advice for notating enharmonic accidentals? I have some clarinet music where, in the same bar, there is both an Ab and a G# notated. The underlying chord doesn't change, so I assume it's the rise and fall of the line that drives the choice of notation? i.e. the G# is leading (upwards) to an A, whilst the Ab is leading (downwards) to a G natural. It makes the notation a tiny bit more difficult to read, but I guess it's logical.

[GuyBoden]

What are the rules / advice for notating enharmonic accidentals? I have some clarinet music where, in the same bar, there is both an Ab and a G# notated. The underlying chord doesn't change, so I assume it's the rise and fall of the line that drives the choice of notation? i.e. the G# is leading (upwards) to an A, whilst the Ab is leading (downwards) to a G natural. It makes the notation a tiny bit more difficult to read, but I guess it's logical.

This is my interpretation of the unwritten enharmonic accidental rules:

If moving to a higher pitch note use a sharp (#).

If moving to a lower pitch note use a flat (b).

Example below shows Eb and D# in the same bar:

[pamosmusic]

What are the rules / advice for notating enharmonic accidentals? I have some clarinet music where, in the same bar, there is both an Ab and a G# notated. The underlying chord doesn't change, so I assume it's the rise and fall of the line that drives the choice of notation? i.e. the G# is leading (upwards) to an A, whilst the Ab is leading (downwards) to a G natural. It makes the notation a tiny bit more difficult to read, but I guess it's logical.

Yep.

It’s also generally considered annoying to have to read more than two different sounds consecutively on the same line … so like reading G G# G Gb … I’d always write it as Ab and F#, even if they didn’t reflect the chord or whatever.

Usually that’ll end up fitting with the sharps go up, flats go down rule … but that would also be an instance where I use Fb E# or Cb B# …

So like … F# E# F#, instead of F# F F#.

good sight readers are often zooming through, reading the contour of the line. They’ll usually catch a weird thing like three Fs in a row with different accidentals, but my limited experience is that they’d rather read the weird accidentals that reflect the shape od the line

[dconeill]

What are the rules / advice for notating enharmonic accidentals? I have some clarinet music where, in the same bar, there is both an Ab and a G# notated. The underlying chord doesn't change, so I assume it's the rise and fall of the line that drives the choice of notation? i.e. the G# is leading (upwards) to an A, whilst the Ab is leading (downwards) to a G natural. It makes the notation a tiny bit more difficult to read, but I guess it's logical.

Generally, if the subsequent pitch is higher, use a sharp. If lower, use a flat. But always keep in mind, for music notation, that an important consideration is that the music be as easy to read as possible, which sometimes causes notation conundrums that have to be resolved using one's judgement.

(Also, G# and Ab are not necessarily the same pitch, except in equal temperament tunings. See, for example, Music and Engineering: Just and Equal Temperament, particularly slide 19. Some players on some instruments make minute adjustments to pitches to play closer to natural harmonic sequence frequencies.)

[Mick-7]

This is my interpretation of the unwritten enharmonic accidental rules:

If moving to a higher pitch note use a sharp (#).

If moving to a lower pitch note use a flat (b).

Example below shows Eb and D# in the same bar:

Surely the harmony will dictate how the enharmonic is written? For example, if the first four notes of the first bar were played over an E7 chord, with the remaining notes over an Eb7 chord, would you notate it like that?

[rpjazzguitar]

Now and then the usual rules don't seem to result in the easiest to read version, at least to my eye.

So, I avoid Fb, E# and B#. I'm not crazy about Cb, but, of the four, it's the one I see most often.

You can get to a point where the two guys in your band who are both educated and opinionated -- disagree with each other. That's how you know you're done revising.

[GuyBoden]

This is my interpretation of the unwritten enharmonic accidental rules:

If moving to a higher pitch note use a sharp (#).

If moving to a lower pitch note use a flat (b).

Example below shows Eb and D# in the same bar:

Would you notate it like that?

Yes, I would and do.

When there are lots of incidentals:
If moving to a higher pitch note use a sharp (#).
If moving to a lower pitch note use a flat (b).

[pamosmusic]

Surely the harmony will dictate how the enharmonic is written? For example, if the first four notes of the first bar were played over an E7 chord, with the remaining notes over an Eb7 chord, would you notate it like that?

Nah. I mean this specific example I think Guy was just trying to show how accidentals work, but in general I don’t think it much matters what the harmony is. Melody should be easy to read.

Exception being a chorale style thing where you might tune Fb differently in a Dbm chord than you would E in an E major

[Bob_Ross]

What I learned -- and note, my education spent as much if not more time studying modern pitch schemes as traditional tonal ones, so this approach is informed by atonal, pantonal, and serial works (but also applies to any scenario) -- was that the enharmonic spelling should be chosen to achieve one primary goal:

Make the part easy to read/execute by the performer.

As such, the harmonic function of any given pitch (i.e., how that note that you are playing relates to the chord(s) that someone else in the ensemble is playing) is immaterial, and a distraction.

Rather, the important feature is that the spelling doesn't obfuscate the interval between the Note With Questionable Spelling and any preceding or following notes.

So, for example, writing a G natural followed by an A# followed by a C natural might make sense if there are some B naturals in close proximity, because that G>A# is an augmented second. But absent any local B naturals, it makes more sense to use the enharmonic spelling of Bb, because G>Bb is easily perceived as the much more commonly encountered interval of a minor 3rd by the musician reading the part.