[HANASHIR:1574] Re: Notation methods

[Bailey, Kent R., Ph.D. <baileyk...>]

Michelle, I'm sure you are right about the rhythm in Not by Might, in
terms of the published version.  I wrote it the way I remembered it,
without reference to the music.  By the way, thank you for putting your
correction in counts instead of dotted and un-dotted 4's and 8's.  I
knew very quickly exactly what you meant.  For very syncopated things,
it is easier for me to learn from this representation than from the
actual written music with quarter, eighth notes, because I can see the
sequence of counts at a glance and anticipate the rhythm in a way that
I cannot with regular musical notation.  Try it.

I agree that if I am transcribing from written music, and planning to
take the information and put it back into written music, then the "4",
"4.", "8", etc. is fine, since I am not going to need to process the
numerical information in my brain, only the notes on the page.

Bottom line, it doesn't really matter as long as the information is
there.  The point is, that if someone says "hum a few bars," you can
approximate an answer in any of the systems, and all of them are
possible to use and read.  Thus it is another tool to communicate with,
rapidly, using email.

There is no substitute for either written or recorded music.  But
aren't these systems a lot better than nothing?  I accept that many
people learn best from listening.  I enjoy listening, but learn much
more easily from a written representation. People are different.  After
I "learn" a song from being taught, its half-life in my brain (and I'm
talking about songs that I'm absolutely crazy about when I'm learning
them) can be days, hours, or even minutes.  This can be extremely
frustrating.  I suspect those of us who have an easier time with
written music, even code, than remembering, are the minority.  Let's
not discriminate against people who don't use written music, but how
about not discriminating against people who do use written music, and
who are mnemonically differently abled?

Regarding Adrian's point, I'd be curious to know how many variations
there are on characters per line before wrapping.  It is definitely a
nuisance to have to re-align things.  Is there any way this can be
standardized?  Perhaps most mail tools have the ability to change the
line wrap, either temporarily or permanently.

    
Kent