I'm not talking about esoteric spelling matters that are the legitimate topic of debate. I am talking about D major chords spelled with G-flat.
On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 11:42 PM, Darcy James Argue <[email protected]>wrote: > To be fair, it's also because "proper" vertical spelling of enharmonics in > highly chromatic music (like jazz, and like a lot of interesting > pop/B'way/etc) frequently results in less legible parts than you'd get by > spelling parts in a horizontally logical fashion. > > At one point, I experimented with spelling every accidental according to > Hoyle, regardless of the resultant double-sharps and double-flats, etc. The > musicians I presented this to universally *hated* it, even those with > extensive classical backgrounds. > > The expectation in jazz (and pop etc) is that you will spell accidentals > with a minimum of fuss, and players get ornery if you get too cute, even if > the accidentals are technically correct. > > I'm all for spelling basic chord tones consistently on parts that actually > show the entire harmony (piano, guitar). At no point should anyone ever > write a B major seventh chord with an Eb and A#. But at at a certain point, > musicians of all stripes learn to tune by ear, not by eye. So no, I'm not > that sympathetic to the idea that string players tune an F# and a Gb > differently, because in point of fact, *good* string players learn to hear > where they are in the harmony and adjust accordingly, enharmonics be damned > -- just like wind players and brass players. > > Cheers, > > - DJA > ----- > WEB: http://www.secretsocietymusic.org > > > > On 10 Jun 2012, at 12:33 AM, Christopher Smith wrote: > > > Well, G flat in the key of G is not completely out of the question, but > I get your point. > > > > A lot of pops arrangers come from a jazz background, where proper > enharmonic spelling seems to be valued much less. Maybe it's because they > don't realise that string players actually choose a different finger to > play an F sharp than a G flat, and the two notes are tuned quite > differently in most contexts. After all, the piano plays them both exactly > the same way. > > > > Another factor is most jazz musicians don't know about augmented sixth > chords and how they should be spelled, and don't realise that their > treasured Tritone Subs are actually augmented 6th chords. So an Ab7 chord > resolving to Gmaj7 in the key of G should have an F sharp (aug 6th), not a > G flat. So that might be considered to be illiteracy. > > > > Possibly some of those flipped enharmonics comes from Finale itself, > where hitting the 9 key in Speedy does not flip the enharmonic in a > bulletproof fashion. I have often come back to a part that I was certain I > had spelled correctly, only to find that some of the enharmonics I had > flipped had changed themselves back again when I wasn't looking. I sure > hope they fix that bug soon. > > > > Christopher > > > > > > On Sat Jun 9, at SaturdayJun 9 7:06 PM, Robert Patterson wrote: > > > >> I see as much pops rep as any pro horn player, and almost all of it has > key > >> sigs, so you are certainly going with the flow. Nevertheless I greatly > >> appreciate when the parts don't. Key sigs are not a problem except when > the > >> (often just momentary) key of the piece is different than the key > >> signature. That's when they turn into a pain. That's when I wish users > of > >> computers would follow the old practice of adding courtesy accis when > notes > >> are chromatic to the momentary key. For example, if the piece is in F > but > >> has momentarily modulated to C, any B-flats should have courtesy accis, > >> even though they are in the key sig. Or if the momentary key is Ab, then > >> D-natural should have a courtesy acci. > >> > >> The other thing that drives me crazy in pops charts is gross > mis-spellings > >> of notes. These are the result of working at lightspeed with Fin/Sib, > etc., > >> and not always the result of a flatly illiterate arranger. At least I'd > >> like to think so. (I can't tell you how many times I've seen F# in the > key > >> of G spelled as G-flat!) Ironically, this is a hazard mainly of > providing > >> parts with no key sig, so pops arrangers just can't win. :-P > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Finale mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
