[almost solved] A way to know the dynamics status of one particular note on the stave
Is there any way to know in what dynamics one particular note on the stave is?
I mean it's okay if its the fifth measure, in which case I can quickly scroll back to the left and see what the latest dynamics change for this instrument on the score was. But what if its the 128th measure? Then scrolling to the left manually trying not to miss any latest dynamics switch for the stave will turn into a nightmare!
Comments
There is not currently. I agree it would occasionally be useful, and there have been other requests, so perhaps something will be designed for a future release.
Meanwhile, I would also point out, if it's a pain for you while working on the score, it's likely a pain for the person playing it also. I recommend getting in the habit of explicitly restating dynamics periodically even when they haven't changed. Standard guidelines call for this to be done any time there is a rest of more than a measure or so; I recommend it at all major rehearsal marks or other milestones. After all, in rehearsal, the director says, let's take it letter "J", the players don't want to have to scan backwards any more than you do!
In reply to There is not currently. I… by Marc Sabatella
I see. Thank you.
"Standard guidelines call for this to be done any time there is a rest of more than a measure or so"
-- Are you saying that, according to the standard guidelines, the dynamics in case of multiple consecutive empty measures must be restated at least every other measure?!
Is there any place on the Internet where I could familiarize myself with those standard guidelines?
In reply to I see. Thank you. "Standard… by innerthought
Not every other measure - I mean literally after multiple measures of rest. The idea is, any time a player is going to need to play a note after not having just played another note within the last few seconds, you have to assume they either won't remember what dynamic they were last playing, or might remember but have doubts about whether it still applies.
As for guidelines on music notation, the internet is full of them :-), but I don't have a particular reference in mind. A quick web search for "music restate dynamics" turned up the following from a pretty trusted source:
https://youtu.be/snGRUhfC_uw
He points out that it's context-dependent. Pay attention to what else is going on in the score and if the player is going to be hearing the dynamics during the rest, also whether the new phrase is similar to or different from the previous one. He also points out, it's also for the benefit of the conductor. And there's a great quote towards the end, "The dynamic marking at the start of a passage is like a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence", pointing out that dynamics are often how we first grasp the structure of a piece of music. This applies both to when you can omit dynamics after rests within a passage, but also when it can be worth restating a dynamic even when there are no rests involved. He also specifically address the need to do this at major rehearsal marks or other similar points.
In reply to Not every other measure - I… by Marc Sabatella
WOW! Very useful resource! And thank you for the explanation.
Perhaps this may be useful...
![Velcity_levels.png]( "Velcity_levels.png")
At the bottom left of the Piano Roll Editor, you can choose 'Velocity (absolute)' from the drop down list and view a graphical display of note velocities. The contour will jump up for louder notes, stay level for same volume notes, and jump down for softer notes.
I have displayed a score excerpt at the top of the above image to easily compare to the PRE's velocity graph.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/piano-roll-editor
For any displayed (absolute) values in the piano roll editor, you may have to intuit that 96 is f, 33 is pp, 80 is mf, etc.
However, you can quickly scroll along the staff and instantly notice where any dynamic level change occurs.
In reply to Perhaps this may be useful… by Jm6stringer
It IS useful. Thank you.