Topics
Staff Signatures
Staff signatures (# or b in an oval) can be inserted at
any point along a measure. Staff signatures should not be
changed too often. Staff signatures should ideally be
changed simultaneously on all individual staves that make up
a grand staff. The only exception is when you want to reduce
a great number of accidentals in very complicated musical
passages. Staff signatures do not have to be simultaneously
changed for all individual instruments in a score.
Key Signature Symbols
Key Signature Symbols (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 2c) are a
means to show what the corresponding key signature is (or
could have been) in traditional notation. It consists of
either a traditional notation natural sign, or a sharp or a
flat sign that may be followed by a Roman numeral in
superscript. The Roman numeral corresponds to the number of
sharp or flat signs in the traditional key signature. No
numeral is written if it's only one sharp or flat. The
natural sign represents the key signature of C major and
does not have a numeral. The key signature symbol should be
placed above the staff. It should not be written above each
individual staff in a grand staff unless the individual
staves have individual key signature symbols.
The key signature symbol shows what "pie-slice", taken
out of the spiral of fifths, that will be mostly used; that
is, it points out where the focus along the continuous
sequence of perfect fifths is. The key signature symbol
doesn't say anything about the mode, or where the tonal
centre is; this will have to be deduced by analyzing the
music. One can nevertheless always specify the mode as part
of the song title; the way classical music often does. The
mode could be written in parentheses below the title, and
does not have to be limited to only major or minor. For
example:
Hear the Birds' Twitter
(F mixolydian)
Rests
The quarter rest sign does not need to have a strictly
regulated look. The natural variation found in traditional
notation should be tolerated. For rests that have associated
ledger lines (which should always be present), the ledger
lines should never coincide with staff lines or ledger band
lines.
Flex Notes
Flex notes, consisting of a stem with a flexed line (cf.
nydanaguide.pdf 3b), copies noteheads as well as any sign
that is written to the left of those noteheads (that is,
signs intended to affect individual noteheads). Thus,
accidentals, intonation signs, and asterisks are copied -
but not tenuto dashes, staccato dots, accent marks, or note
value indicators such as stem shapes/flags or augmentation
dots. Augmentation dots should be added to the flex note as
if the noteheads were there.
Accidentals
Accidentals (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 2a) have to be repeated
for tied notes (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3b). The notion of
courtesy accidentals does not exist in Nydana Notation (no
need to be concerned about when to use these). Choose the
most appropriate staff signature to minimize the number of
accidentals. Accidentals can sometimes be avoided by using
enharmonic spelling (substitute Ab with G#, for example).
Different staff signatures can be used for individual staves
in a grand staff, but only as a last resort. Also consider
using flex notes for repeated notes that need accidentals.
Small Noteheads
Small noteheads are banned in Nydana Notation. The reason
is that small white/hollow noteheads in fine print might be
taken for black noteheads. Pedal harp glissandi notes would
have to use normal-sized noteheads instead of small ones.
Small noteheads in traditional notation have sometimes
been used for:
- Writing out the opening notes of a composition
- Showing what another instrument is playing; or as a
reminder of the melody
- Pointing out notes that are considered less important
and thus could be left out or played softer
- Showing how to sing the words that belong to just one
of the verses
In all these cases it is suggested that noteheads rotated
about 90 degrees clockwise should be used (cf.
NydanaGuide.pdf 3f). Such rotated noteheads should never be
mixed with regular noteheads on the same stem. The rotated
noteheads behave like regular noteheads, and can be either
black or white.
Asterisks are recommended to make a leading voice
distinct from sub-voices instead of using small noteheads
(cf. NydanaGuide.pdf 3g).
Tempo Indication
Black noteheads should always be used for tempo
indication (that is, a small note followed by an equals sign
and a BPM figure). This is to avoid the confusion when you
don't know which kind of notation the tempo indication
belongs to. A quarter note with a white notehead might
otherwise be taken for a traditional notation half note.
Stem Flags
Stem flags should be oriented the way that is shown in
nydanaguide.pdf. The part of the flag that is on the right
side of an upwards directed stem should be on the left side
of the stem when the stems is directed downwards. However,
flags for eight notes (and notes with even shorter duration)
follow the traditional rules. These are the default flag
positions; but, a flag can nevertheless be flipped to the
other side of the stem in tricky situations to avoid
collisions with other objects.
Time Signatures
Always use numbers in time signatures. Never use c (=4/4)
or c with a vertical line (=2/2).
Grace Notes
Grace notes will be written as ordinary noteheads without
stems, to which a slur is added (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3c).
The long grace note is distinguished from the short grace
note by a fermata sign. The short grace note borrows time
from the foregoing note/chord. The long grace note borrows
time from the note into which it slowly resolves with a
heavy slur. Various text messages can be added to describe
whether short grace notes should be played very fast or
moderately fast. Grace notes can alternatively be written
out explicitly in the form of ordinary beamed notes. Use the
L-shaped symbols from traditional notation if it should be
marked out which notes to play with left and right hand
respectively (allows a series of grace notes to be written
on the same staff instead of being split between the RH and
LH staff). Horizontal brackets can be used if two stemless
noteheads, with the interval of a major or minor second,
should be played simultaneously. A dotted line could connect
consecutive short grace notes if the interval between them
is very big.
Asterisks
Asterisks can be used as a multipurpose tool. It's
possible, for example, to mark out a melody line that is
hidden inside chords (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3g).
Tremolo Bars
Tremolo bars that extend between notes never touch the
stems in Nydana Notation. The new wholenote stem is
convenient when applying diagonal tremolo bars across a stem
- it makes it clear which noteheads the tremolo bars affect.
Staff Configurations
There can be single-band staves, double-band staves,
triple-band staves, and so on (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3a which
shows music for pipe organ with pedals - and vocals). A left
hand staff and a right hand staff can be replaced by a
four-band staff if a compact notation is considered more
important than keeping left and right hand separated. To
avoid any confusion as to which staff a ledger band belongs,
it is advised to keep staves enough separated from each
other. As a rule, one should be able to fit at least 7.5
noteheads between two separate staves. When there are no
ledger bands between two staves, then a minimum distance of
4.5 noteheads would be sufficient. One could also let the
distance between the RH staff and the LH staff in a grand
staff be precisely equivalent to six noteheads piled on one
another. In this case the LH clef and the RH clef must be
consistent in such a way that they refer to the same octave
for the ledger band between the staves (which can be used
for either LH or RH).
Ledger Bands
Ledger bands should be discontinued when there is a
barline or repeat bar.
Clefs
Clefs (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3e) are placed on the staff
band of a single-band staff. For staves with more than just
one staff band, the clef can be placed on any of the staff
bands. Octave transposing clefs have a digit that tells how
many octaves up (+) or down (-) to transpose.
All'Ottava
The digit represents the number of octaves up (+) or down
(-) to transpose (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3e).
Breath Marks
The breath mark should be written as a small &,
instead of the traditional comma sign. This is to avoid
breath marks from being confused with Nydana's accidental
flat signs.
Barlines
Barlines on single-band staves should reach the next
imagined octave band. Although the default direction is
upward, these barlines can also be directed downwards. The
dots of a repeat bar should have a central position when
there is an even number of staff bands - otherwise move the
dots from the centre of the staff up to the next available
space between staff bands. Dashed barlines are recommended
rather than dotted barlines for rhythmical subdivisions of a
measure.
Microtonal Notation
Nydana's intonation signs (cf. nydanaguide.pdf 3h) assume
Pythagorean tuning (cf. the Nydanalyzer), and conform to
53-ET. A pure major third can be written as a diminished
fourth (-4). A pure minor third can be written as an
augmented second (+2). Accidentals can be employed to
accurately describe such intervals, but the intonation signs
allow you to pinpoint any of the 53 notes per octave
associated with 53-ET. The pierced intonation signs that
represent 11 cents make 106-ET possible - that is, you can
also access the notes that fall right between the dots on
the Nydanalyzer.
It is recommended that accent marks (>) in Nydana
Notation are drawn in such a way that the lower line becomes
horizontal. This avoids the possibility of having intonation
signs and accent marks confused.
Nydana's intonation scheme is the default system. Other
tuning schemes where, for instance, C# is considered lower
than Db, could also be employed, but then this should
ideally be explicitly declared.
Strictly quarter tone music, that would assume equal
tempered tuning, could use >> for quarter tone up, and
<< for quarter tone down.
Trills
It is recommended that a normal-sized notehead, without a
stem, is written in parentheses after the principal trill
note, to represent the auxiliary trill note. There can also
be slurred noteheads without stems after a trill note.
Flageolets
A small flageolet circle should always be used instead of
the traditional notation rhombic notehead (cf.
nydanaguide.pdf 3d).
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