How does an accent mark work on two tied notes?
You accent the particular note the accent is above. An accent is a short burst of emphasis, so there's no way to make it last over all of a tied note anyway. If you're thinking at accent means you play the whole note louder, you're misinterpreting it. With a very short note the accent ends up being on the whole note, but a longer note has the emphasis only at the beginning.
On piano sheet music, what is intended by the use of the pedal symbol (P.Ed.) numerous times in a row without an asterisk to lift up the pedal in between? (e.g., PG 4 of Jeux D'eau)
If there’s a pedal symbol, lift the pedal up and bring it straight back down. If there’s an asterisk, lift the pedal and leave it up until the next pedal symbol.
What is some feedback you can give on my piano composition?
That's a really neat piece! I was listening to it on my phone, and even though, as someone else said, the robotic computer-generated playback evens out the dynamics and hides some interesting things, I got enough out of it to know that this would be something I'd be interested in playing for myself once the scoring issues were worked out. Speaking of which, I notice you are using Musescore. I love that software, but it takes getting used to, I'll admit. I noticed a few funky things that appear to have been scored awkwardly, and I am assuming you know where I'm talking about. I recognize them as the peculiarities of Musescore, so I'll not dwell on them too much, except to say they should be sorted before you call it a done deal. In order for the score to feel complete, be sure to put your dynamic and performance markings in, too. I know I'm pretty lazy about it myself, and tend to assume the dynamics will be self-evident when you play it, but you can't always trust the next guy to automatically know what you were thinking. It will also help with that robotic computer playback I was just talking about. Musescore will play back according to your dynamic and performance markings, but they have to actually be there. That's enough about the technical problems, let me tell you my two favorite parts of the piece. Both of them are at the end, but at least one of them wouldn't mean anything without what came before. First, I love your return to the original theme. It is a simple thing that, to me, is just common sense and ties the piece together; but for whatever reason, not everyone does it. I was happy to see you did. The second thing I really enjoyed were the final two chords with which you ended. Not a full resolve, so there's a nice tension that doesn't get settled, but not painfully or transparently so, as it might be with a V7 as the last chord. Overall, nicely done! Polish that up so folks can print it, then let's hear what else you have up your sleeve.
What does swing 16ths and straight 16ths mean on piano sheet music?
To correctly play the piece referenced in this question (“Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin) you’ve got to understand the difference between “straight 16th notes” and “swing 16th notes.” This piece has swing 16th notes.You can’t just ignore it and pretend that’ll it’ll magically work out right. And swing 16ths are NOT played as a dotted 16th note and a 32nd note.Also, swing 16th notes are technically not “syncopation.” The definition of “syncopation” is when you place an accent on a weak beat (i.e. an offbeat). In this piece, there are good examples of syncopation in the vocal part. The words “shake” and “spot”—those notes are syncopated—they’re accents that fall off the beat.“Straight 16th notes” are played perfectly evenly— four to a beat.But “Swing 16th notes” are played with an underlying triplet feel, which is what we call a “swing feel.” Each pair of 16th notes is played like a triplet with the first two notes of the triplet being tied. Thus, the first of each pair of 16th notes is twice as long as the second of each pair.Listen to the way Elton sings the 16th notes in the melody. First, this piece goes quite slow—less than 70 bpm. When Elton sings a line like “The spotlight’s hitting something that’s known to change the weather,” he’s not singing the 16th notes straight and even, but he’s singing them in a triplet rhythm. That’s the swing feeling.Most often, with a “swing” feeling, it’s the eighth notes that are swung. But this piece is in a style often referred to as the “Elton John Half-Time Style.” The beat is quite slow and the underlying triplet feel is with 16th notes, not 8th notes. “Rocket Man” is another Elton John song in a similar groove that has swung 16th notes.Mastering a swing feeling is essential to playing Rock (which is often swung), Jazz (which is usually swung), Blues (which is usually swung), Country (which is often swung) and many other styles.
In music theory, how do you count cut time?
I think the problem of understanding meter is widespread, and it relates to how music instructors teach meter. In July I wrote about this on my blog: http://markcatoe.posterous.com/h...Basically, 2/2 means two half notes per measure. The top half of the time signature refers to the two, and the bottom half refers to half notes. Using this framework, 3/2 would mean three half notes in a measure; 3/4 would mean three quarter notes in a measure; 3/8 would mean three eighth notes in a measure. With that understanding, it comes time to perform something. If it's in 2/2 (or cut time), think of the half note as the things to assign your counting numbers to. So if you have two half notes in a measure, count 1, 2. If you have a half note followed by two quarter notes, count 1, 2 and. Good luck!
What are some examples of rhythmic devices?
Syncopation occurs when the beat falls in an unexpected place. Syncopation is generally known as an interruption of the regular flow of rhythm. There are a few different types of syncopation:1) missing a note that would normally fall on a strong beat2) tied notes - particular notes tied over the bar3) accented syncopation where you accent unexpected beats in the barPolyrhythm is another rhythmic device. It occurs when you have 2 or more rhythms with different pulses occurring together. You might have 3 against 4 (triple time against quadruple time).Triplets can be considered a rhythmic device. Triplets occur when you play three notes in the time of two!