Outline:

Notation is a method of recording music in writing. Such as the guqin score handed down from ancient times and the gong and drum score used for gongs and drums. As well as the commonly used simplified musical notation and staff notation, they were all created according to the needs of development. And so far, there is no notation method that can perfectly express the various subtle changes in music. Therefore, when reading music score, you must understand the creative intention of the creator from between the lines, and then you can express it creatively.

Fundamentally speaking, notation is to use various symbols and methods to record the length (notes and rests), strength and level (position of the note head on the staff) of the sound. .

For the length of a sound, we use notes and rests to represent it:

The symbol that represents the progression of a sound is called a note;

The symbol that represents the stop of a sound , called a rest.

Notes include three parts: note head, stem and tail.

There are two types of note heads: hollow and solid;

The stem can go up and down. When it goes up, the stem is on the right side of the note head, when it goes down, the stem is on the right side of the note head. left.

The tail is always on the right side of the stem and bent toward the head.

Regarding the lengths of notes and rests, each larger note (or rest) has a ratio of 2:1 to its nearest shorter note (or rest). For example, the length of a whole note is equal to two half notes.

Based on basic notes and basic rests, some derived symbols that increase the length of notes and rests include dotted marks, extended marks and tie lines respectively.

Dotted: The small dots marked to the right of notes and rests. One dot means increasing the duration of the original note or rest by half, and two dots means increasing the duration by 3/4 of the first dot.

Extension mark: Use a small arc with a dot in the middle, written on top of a note or rest, to express the freedom to extend its duration according to the needs of the performance.

Tieve line: An arc, recorded on two notes of the same pitch, indicating that the two notes are connected into one note. When playing, two notes can only be played once.

There are 5 lines in the staff, which are called first line, second line, third line, fourth line and fifth line from low to high. The rooms formed by five lines are called one room, two rooms, three rooms, four rooms, and five rooms from low to high.

On the staff, the pitch of the note is determined by the position of the note head on the staff. The higher the position, the higher the treble, and the higher the position, the lower the bass.

Note heads can be recorded on the line or in the space.

Adding lines: In order to record higher or lower notes, many short lines are added above or below the staff. These short lines are called adding lines. The added lines above the staff are called upper lines, and the added lines below the staff are called lower lines.

Added space: The space produced by adding lines is called added space. The extra space above the staff is called the upper extra space, and the extra space below the staff is called the lower extra space.

You can add lines and spaces infinitely, but recording is not very convenient, so you can use other methods to write them.

The mark that determines the pitch position on the staff is called a clef. There are three commonly used clefs: G clef, F clef, and C clef.

G clef, as shown below, starts with a clef. The G clef represents the small letter g in group 1. That is to say, if the G clef is recorded on a certain line of the staff, the sound on this line is the small letter g in group 1. In this way, the pitch of each note on the staff can be fixed.

F clef, as shown below. The F clef represents the diminutive f.

C clef, as shown below. The C clef represents the c in the diminutive group 1.

Put the C clef on the third line, which is the alto clef;

Put the C clef on the fourth line, it is the tenor clef;

Put the G clef on the second line, which is the treble clef;

Put the F clef on the fourth line, which is the bass clef.

Various clefs can be used individually or alternately, and high and low clefs can also be used together to form a large clef, as follows:

As shown in the figure, bass clef The lower line of the treble clef is the same note as the upper line of the treble clef. This is also the benefit of using a variety of clefs, which can avoid too many additional lines. Use the treble clef to mark the treble, the bass clef to mark the bass, and the alto clef to mark the middle silver, making it easier to read music.

PS: The actual pronunciation of some musical instruments and human voices does not match. For example, the notation for a double bass is an octave higher than the actual pitch. The notation for the piccolo is an octave lower than the actual note. When the male voice is notated in treble notation, it is an octave higher than the actual pitch.

The mark indicating the decrease or increase of the pitch level is called the diacritical mark.

The sharp sign: ?, becomes a tone that raises the basic tone level by a semitone; (the increase here is relative to the basic tone level)

The flat sign: ?, becomes a tone that raises the basic tone level by a semitone; A sound that lowers the basic pitch level by a semitone;

A sharpening sign: The sound level is lowered by a whole tone;

Restore number: Written as shown below, the basic sound level that has been raised or lowered is restored to the basic sound level.

The diacritical mark can be recorded on the line or in the space;

The diacritical mark recorded after the clef is called the key signature;

The diacritical mark in the key signature The note mark is valid for all notes with the same name in the musical tone system, regardless of which tone group, before the key signature is changed.

The diacritical mark recorded in front of the note head is called a temporary diacritical mark. Its function is limited to indicating that sounds of the same height are valid after the diacritical mark and within a bar. The exception is the notes in the next bar connected by the tie line. When there is a change in the sound that has been raised or lowered within a section, a diacritical mark should be recorded.

Diacritical marks that can be written or not are called auxiliary diacritical marks and are used to draw attention.

The use of temporary diacritical marks: to raise the basic tone level, use a rising sign, and to lower it by a semitone, use a flat sign. When a raised note (including the note in the key signature) is raised by a semitone, a double sharp is used; when a lowered note (including a note in the key signature) is lowered by a semitone, a double flat is used. To lower a sharp sound a semitone, use a sharp, and to raise a heavy flat sound a semitone, use a flat. To raise a flat tone by a semitone, use the reduction sign.

As above, three notes in the key signature are flat marks, and the restoration mark at the back raises the current note by a semitone.

Moving octave marks: As shown below, the number 8 is followed by an omission line, followed by a vertical line. The moving octave mark is marked on the top of the staff, which means that the sound within the dotted line is moved up an octave. The moving octave mark is marked on the bottom of the staff, which means the sound within the dotted line is lowered an octave.

Moving an octave means, for example, C in the large character group to c in the small character group, and D in the large character group to d in the small character group.

Repeat octave notation: Use the number 8 above the note to indicate repetition of a higher octave; note it below the note to indicate repetition of a lower octave.

Repeating an octave means playing the repeated note higher or lower and then playing it again.

Longer repetitions of higher octaves are represented by the notation Con-------I, as shown below:

Long rest notation: used to record rests of many measures. , the mark is to write a long thick horizontal line on the third line, add vertical lines on both sides, and write the number of resting measures above the thick horizontal line.

Tremolo mark: represented by a slash.

Indicates the tremolo slash of a note or chord. When there is a stem, it is recorded on the stem. When there is no stem, it is recorded on the imaginary stem. If there are symbols, the slashes and symbols are parallel. At this time, the number of symbols should include the same symbols.

A tremolo slash representing two tones or chords is recorded where the symbol is written between the two tones or chords. The direction of the slash is parallel to the ***symbol. The duration of a tremolo is equal to the duration of one of the two tones or chords.

What is tremolo: the trembling effect produced by the rapid repetition of musical tones or chord tones.

Repeat mark: used to indicate that a part or all of a piece of music is repeated.

When a certain melody pattern is repeated in a piece of music, it is represented by a slash, and the number of slashes is the same as the number of symbols;

When a section is repeated one or more times, the mark ·/ can be used ·or·//· means that this mark is written on the bar line between two bars, indicating that the melody of the two bars is repeated again.

Repetition from one measure to a whole song can be represented by the following notation. The part within the mark should be played or sung repeatedly. When repeating, different parts can be enclosed in brackets, and Arabic numerals are used to indicate the number of repetitions. In a song, when a certain lyric is repeated, it is marked with a Roman numeral to distinguish it from other repetitions. When the music is repeated from beginning to end, the pre-repetition mark does not need to be used. This repeating symbol can be used interchangeably, but cannot be used interchangeably.

Large repetition applies small repetition: This application has two marks, D.C. means repeat from the beginning, and D.S. means repeat from the mark.

When using D.S. to mark repetitions, mark the symbol marked by the red box in the figure below at the beginning of repetition.

When using D.C. to repeat, be sure to mark where it ends, such as fine, end of song, etc.

When the big iteration has different endings, you can use the symbol marked in the red box in the figure below to indicate that the big iteration is omitted.

There are five performance notations: legato, staccato, sustain and portamento.

Legato playing method: Use arc marks, usually on the side of the note head, to indicate that the notes within the arc must be sung and played coherently.

Staccato playing: can be marked with ‘·’ or ‘▼’. A dot represents a long pick, and an inverted triangle represents a short beat.

Sustained note playing method: Marked with a dash, indicating that the note should fully maintain its duration and be played forcefully from beginning to end.

The three playing methods of legato, staccato and sustain can be used in combination.

For example, the combination of legato and staccato is called semi-legato, and the combination of staccato and sustain is called semi-sustain.

Arpeggio playing method: Mark it with a vertical curve, which means that the notes in the chord are played from bottom to top.

Adding an arrow under the arpeggio playing method is called reverse arpeggio playing method, which means that the arpeggio playing method is played from top to bottom.

Portamento playing method: Use an arc with an arrow to mark it. An upward arrow indicates an upward slide, and a downward arrow indicates a downward slide. Marking it in front of a note means sliding towards the note, writing it after the note means sliding away from the note.

Use the portamento symbol to connect two notes of different pitches, indicating that one note slides towards the other.

Portamento marks can also be recorded on minor notes to indicate the beginning and end of portamento.

Ornamentation is a kind of decoration for music, which plays an important role in style and image. Let’s talk about grace notes, echoes, tones, and trills.

Grace

Grace can be composed of one tone or several tones. It can be in front of the main tone or behind the main tone. Playing several notes of grace at the same time is called a grace chord.

One-note grace and grace chords are marked with a small slashed eighth note and connected to the tonic by a slur. The grace notes of several notes played one after the other are marked by small sixteenth notes that combine together, and are also connected to the main note by a link.

The singing of short grace notes should be light and short.

Echo

Echo is a melody pattern composed of four or five tones. There are two types: forward echo and reverse echo.

A sequential echo composed of four sounds starts from the auxiliary sound above the main sound, goes to the main sound, then to the auxiliary sound below, and then returns to the main sound. The five-note consonant echo starts from the main sound, and the other consonant echoes are the same as the four-note consonant echo.

The reverse echo is in the opposite direction to the forward echo. Echoes can be marked with minor notes or echo marks.

Echo marks can be recorded on the note or between two notes. Diacritical marks can also be added above or below the echo mark to indicate the rise and fall of the auxiliary sound. The following are several echo notations:

Boeing

Starting from the main sound, it quickly enters the adjacent sound above, and immediately returns to the main sound, which is called Shanshun Boeing.

Starting from the main sound, it quickly enters the adjacent sound above twice, and then immediately returns to the main sound, which is called a complex sound.

Starting from the main sound, it quickly enters the adjacent sound below, and immediately returns to the main sound, which is called a single inverse sound.

Starting from the main note, it quickly enters the adjacent sounds below twice, and immediately returns to the main note, which is called a reversal tone.

Boeing always has a strong sound at the beginning, and it occupies the main sound duration. Boeing symbols can also have diacritical marks.

Vibrato

Made up of the main note and the adjacent note above it played rapidly and evenly alternately. Marked with the symbols 'tr' and 'tr﹏'. When the curve contains many notes, these notes must be played with vibrato. The diacritical mark above the trill mark indicates the rise or fall of the adjacent sound above.

Most vibrato playing starts from the main note and ends with the main note. However, due to different historical periods, the melody has different connections before and after, and it can also start and end with different notes. In order to accurately express the author's intention, when there are special requirements, it is best to use small notes to write them down in detail.

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