Piano. Arpeggio. Does this look right?
Hello piano players, this is a Musescore result from a midi file. It sounds like a somewhat simple arpeggio (if that is the right term). But it looks a bit complicated. Question: Does this look right for piano? Or should it be scored more simply?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| arpeggio.PNG | 14.83 KB |
Comments
It's a mess, but one that is kind of to be expected from MIDI import because it wasn't really designed to convey notation. What's going on here is that the MIDI file has each note held while the note note is also being played. Music notation doesn't have a great way of handling that case. Usually we don't bother notating it at all - we just notate plain sixteenths or whatever, and assume the pedal will handle the sustain for us. but in the specific cases where there is no pedal and you need to tell a pianist to to actually hold the notes down for the full duration, see https://musescore.org/en/developers-handbook/scrapbook#Extended-Ties for the most common notation. You can enter this as just the plain arpeggio followed by the help chord, then going back and selecting the arpeggio and pressing the tie.
In reply to It's a mess, but one that is… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you. Your reply is, as always, helpful and clear.
In reply to It's a mess, but one that is… by Marc Sabatella
A follow-up: To what extent is it necessary to notate the sustain pedal in this passage, and in general? I take it from your message, perhaps incorrectly, that maybe a pianist would assume the sustain pedal is to be used with such a passage, and would use the pedal at the beginning of every arpeggio and release it at the end and repeat for each arpeggio. Is that correct, or should I notate the pedal for each arpeggio?
In reply to A follow-up: To what extent… by VGF666
More context is needed, but overall, the only time it would generally be necessary to notate pedal is when the composer intends for it to be used in a very specific way that would be counter to the natural instincts of the performer. If it's just to accomplish the standard things the pedal is normally used for, pianists are more than capable of figuring this out themselves.
In particular, yes, the norm is that pedal would be lifted at each change of chord, which is precisely why you don't need to notate it if that all you want. But if you have a special reason to want two different chords to bleed together, you'd want to notate that. Or if you have a desire for the pedal to be lifted in the middle of a single chord, that could also be worth notating. Although if your reason for that desire is the presence of non-chord tones in the arpeggio or in a melody being played elsewhere, again, pianists will generally figure this out for themselves.