On May 15, 2005, at 7:48 AM, John Howell wrote:
I played a concert Saturday night, and ran into something I've never seen before. I'm wondering whether it's something that's snuck in as, somehow, a "new notation" practice, or whether it's an indication that the composer doesn't know how to use Finale (if that's what he used).
All single 8th and 16th notes were printed not with the curved flags we are used to, but with beams going off to the right but not attached to anything, sometimes overriding 8th and 16th rests. Beams of different length, to boot, for 16ths and 32nds. It made sightreading slow and frustrating, because of the mental processing time needed to figure out measure by measure where the darned beats were, but I must admit that by the time I knew the music it wasn't bothering me any more.
Just curious whether anyone has run into this, and whether there is some way--certainly not at all obvious--in which it is supposed to be an improvement.
I'm not sure I get it all, but try this:
Go to Document Options, click Beams.
Check all five boxes in the second "paragraph"
- Allow Primary Beams within space (this is not related, you could leave this unchecked if you like)
- allow rests to float
- extend beams over rests (particularly this one)
- extend secondary rests over beams
- display half stems for beamed rest (it doesn't sound like this one was checked, by your description, but I would check it)
Does the example to the right look like what you saw that day?
I think in some situations that this kind of beaming is superior to the standard way, as it makes the placement of all beats very clear. In my hand-copying days I would sometimes use this kind of beaming for highly syncopated sixteenth rhythms, for clarity. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to apply it only to a limited passage of an arrangement, however. There may have been some other parts that benefitted from the special beaming, but it was impossible to turn it off in the string parts alone.
BTW, one would expect beams of different length for 8ths, 16ths, and 32nds, as they are supposed to take up different amounts of horizontal space. Is this what you meant?
Christopher
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