>> I suggested an approach to this in the keep-it-simple spirit of ABC >> some while ago. A lot of percussion scores use a one-line staff for >> each instrument, with the note stems going up for the right hand and >> down for the left. I suggested this could be done with a new kind >> of key signature (as there already is for Highland pipes), say "K:P" >> and two notes (as well as rests) "u" (stem-up, right) and "d" (stem- >> down, left). > It's fairly standard to have an empty rectangle instead as a clef > for perc-stuff. Also if you notate a drumkit, it's nromally done in > a regular five-line system with this drum-clef. I saw quite some > drum-books that did it this way, and somewhere in the preface the > author just defines what his "pitches" and symbols means.
Yeah, but. That's instrument-specific to the drumkit (middling number of instruments), whereas the single-line notation works for any old drums/gongs/blocks/cymbals in any numbers from one to hundreds. Single- line has more widespread use across a variety of genres. ABC tries not to be instrument-specific unless it can't be helped. How does the notation you're talking about manage to avoid stemming conflicts? - I presume it still uses stem direction to indicate hands? With a bit of deviousness you can already do a five-line notation in BarFly and have it play back correctly, and even include stem- direction coding for the hands. But it would be so hard to explain what was going on that I'd rather not. (At one point I was tempted to try to notate something like Varese's "Ionization", but locating the Quicktime codes for all the instruments it needs seems to be impossible, even though they are probably all in there somewhere). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Campin * 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland tel 0131 660 4760 * fax 0870 055 4975 * http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ food intolerance data & recipes, freeware Mac logic fonts, and Scottish music To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
