Quote:
Originally Posted by Just J  They always say there's no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid answers.
That said, I recall reading somewhere that there is a certain way to enter rests into a score. For the life of me I couldn't find it, so I figured I'd just ask.
I know that all the rests and notes in a bar need to add up to the time signature and all that fun stuff, but the article/post/bathroom wall I read said something about grouping rests and notes (ex. if there's an 8th note on an up beat followed by rests, the following rest should be an 8th to add up to 1 beat (4/4 time) then you can use whatever to fill the rest of the space), ... or something.
I'm working on a transcription with lots of space in the groove, and with tuxguitar it auto enters rests which you change to the proper notes. I'm still wrapping my head around writing rhythm, so using a program with "auto rests" allows me to place the note at the end of the bar instead of having to write all the rests in first (which takes me for friggin ever).
Anyway, I need to clean the transcriptions up and wanted to make sure I'm entering the rests correctly.
Any of this make sense.  |
rule number one is that you need to make your score as legible as possible... which usually means making stuff as simple as possible
you should mostly follow the standard 'beam subdivision' scheme of the meter you're working in... in other words, you use ties instead of dots or longer length values for notes that go over beats unless they're very very simple to read, and you maintain a clear visual distinction between beats...
for example, in 4/4 you might have an eighth note followed by a dotted quarter note, spanning two beats, but you wouldn't have three sixteenth notes, followed by a dotted eighth note and two sixteenths spanning those two beats... at some point it becomes more legible and clearer to split up the dotted note using ties... and that's usually the point you'd do the same thing to rests... you maintain a visual distinction between beats unless it's very very simple and clear what's going on
Pacman is right.. 'don't hide three'... there are times when you can legitimately hide it with a half-note, or a dotted half-note, but otherwise, it's the most important bar subdivision to maintain
in some cases (probably not needed so much for electric bass) for legibility, you can maintain the beaming structure and insert a rest underneath a note stem... this is useful for huge streams of very quick notes where you want to emphasise the 'linearity' of the phrase (for want of a better word)
you also might come across this kind of rest use if you look at scores like Stravinsky's - L'Histoire Du Soldat... the beaming and rest grouping is there to demonstrate the phrasing, and sometimes goes across barlines and all other kinds of polymetric goodness.. you'll see repeated bass figures, beamed across the whole phrase with rests inserted underneath...
in other words, it's written to be easily read and the phrasing understood... if you write in 5/8, there are two basic flavours... (2+3)/8 or (3+2)/8... just as you'd beam the notes different to show which one you were working with, you'd also group the rests accordingly
I'd also advise (since you're trancribing), looking at where you can use staccato marked notes... for example, the opening phrase from 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads could probably be written as eighth note - eighth note rest - eighth note - eight note rest etc... but it'd be cleaner to write four staccato quarter notes to a bar...
it's amazing how you can get carried away talking about silence
