I frequently run into this situation in guitar music. I have never found a
rule for the stem direction of the middle stems and so always point the
stems to best minimize confusion caused by wrongly reading the notes of two
voices with stems in the same direction as one voice (and not adding up
correctly, of course). I think it is often better if the top line is the
only one with up stems, but there are exceptions. Richard's idea of changing
the middle voice half notes to two tied quarters is a practical solution
that completely avoids ambiguity. 

And, yes, the alignment of the rests in your example (both horizontally and
vertically) does not look right to me. No reason for the first in each
measure not to be higher. 

Richard Yates


> Say you have three voices on one staff, as in the first bars 
> (left hand), of the Goldbergs (see link to scan below). 
> Assuming the upper voice has all its stems upwards, the lower 
> voice all stems downwards, what is the rule for the middle part?
> 
> www.collins.lautre.net/files/goldberg.jpg
> 
> (By the way, shouldn't the rests in these bars be 
> horizontally aligned?)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dennis

_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale

Reply via email to