question 2 of many more to come about site reading notation

cassanova · #1 01-16-2002, 03:17 PM

I know the symbols for sharp and naturals, but im a bit confused on something relating to them.

F is sharp in the key sig, so I know all of them will be played sharp.

When I see a natural sign before an F in one of the bars or measures. I know this means to play that note as an F instead of F#, What Im not quite sure of is, if It cancels out all the F# in that bar/measure or if I just play that one note as F.

Also Im seing # symbols after the key signature, but before certain notes. (like C) I know that means to play that particular note sharp. Then ill see the same thing a few notes, or even bars down the staff. What the heck do I do in there, Im thinking Im supposed to play all C notes sharp untill I reach the next sharp symbol and once i reach that all C notes should be played normal and not sharp.

quick example and a crude one at that. starting with 4 E and Ah on bar one, then begining with 1 E and ah on bar 2,

b...d....#c....b..| #c....g.....a....g

Sorry if this sounds confusing, but I am confused about this.

jazzbo · #2 01-16-2002, 05:42 PM

By the by, what'ch'ya workin' on Half-a-mocha?

**Pacman** · #3 01-16-2002, 06:04 PM

I'm not sure, but I believe the accidental only applies to the note in that octave as well. But I could be wrong on this.

Oysterman · #4 01-16-2002, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pacman
I'm not sure, but I believe the accidental only applies to the note in that octave as well. But I could be wrong on this.

I've seen charts that implied what you say, but I've also seen other pieces implying that it counted for all other octaves as well. I have no idea which way is right.

jazzbo · #5 01-16-2002, 09:04 PM

To the best of my memory it's always been all octaves. Now I'll have to go find something.

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #6 01-16-2002, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pacman
I'm not sure, but I believe the accidental only applies to the note in that octave as well. But I could be wrong on this.

This is correct, although it is common for a courtesy accidental (or natural) to be used in the other octaves of the same pitch when there is a deviation from the key signature.

Either way, you're right - any accidental which represents a departure from the key signature affects only the specific pitch to which it is attached.

Turock · #7 01-16-2002, 09:31 PM

Get the tab and there won't be any confusion about whether or where the accidental applies.

cassanova · #8 01-16-2002, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ed Fuqua
CASSIE - if you see an accidental in a bar (not the key sig) it's good for only that bar. So, in your example, in the key of F#, having a natural sign in front of that note (F) changes the note from F# to F for every F in the bar that appears after the natural. If you had 4 quarter notes in a bar and all were written on the F line (top line in the stave) the first one would be an F#, because of the key sig, right? If the next note had a natural sign in front of it, the natural would "remove" the accidental from the key sig and you would play an F. Now for the following notes in that bar, since the # had been "removed" by the preceding natural sign, they would be F's as well. If you wanted them to be F#s, you would have to "re-introduce" the sharp by writing it in.

But only for that bar. As soon as you are into the next bar, the key signature re-asserts itself and the note becomes an F#. Now if you've got a wierd key sig (like F#) or if you are using a lot of accidentals in a bar (playing a lot of non-diatonic notes) common practice would be to give a "reminder" of the actual note given by the key signature by putting the accidental in parentheses in front of the note - (#)F. If you are writing out a line on an F blues and you write in an F# as a passing tone, you don't generally need to "remind" everyone that the F is natural. But Gb, it's a good idea, just to make sure.

So the RULE is: if it's not in the key signature, the accidental is good only for the bar it appears in. After that bar, life returns to normal (key sig).

Clear?

actually it crytal clear. I kinda thought thats what i was supposed to do when I saw that. But wanted to remove the doubt i had about it.
thank you.

Quote:

Originally posted by jazzbo
By the by, what'ch'ya workin' on Half-a-mocha?

The Cello Suites

Quote:

Originally posted by Pacman
I'm not sure, but I believe the accidental only applies to the note in that octave as well. But I could be wrong on this.

I automaticly assumed the note and all its octave, my logic behind this, is a C is still a C even if its an octave higher.