Help requested: How to properly notate arpeggios [Solved]

• Jan 15, 2025 - 13:26

Good day everyone

I can read and write music reasonably well, and play various instruments, but I never learned how to do proper notation and engraving. My main instrument was trumpet, so I would love some help with my following problem:

I am trying to notate simple arpeggios (or arpeggiated chords) for the piano. The chords/arpeggios must be played from the bottom up to the highest note, and each note must be held in when played. Unfortunately, because my training never went beyond basic notation, I don't know how to properly notate this.

If you look at my first attempt ("First_attempt.png") you can see that those are the notes that I want played, but the notation does not indicate that the notes should be held in.

First_attempt.png

If you look at my second attempt ("Second_attempt.png") you can see that it is just a mess and that I have no idea what I am doing.

Second_attempt.png

If anyone could be so kind as to tell me what I should be doing, I would be most appreciative. Google has not been my friend in this.

Thank you in advance.

Attachment Size
First_attempt.png 56.22 KB
Second_attempt.png 77.27 KB

Comments

• Jan 15, 2025 - 14:43

Hi smittyVanilli

Thanks for the reply.

I am familiar with how those tools in MuseScore work. I'm more worried about the notation - in my examples, I tried to notate exactly how each note should be played, how long it is, and how the rhythm needs to work out.

I'm not sure that if I just put the chord there and add an arpeggio sign, that it will actually be played by the pianist in the way I need it to be played. Surely that will be up to the pianists' interpretation and how they want to arpeggiate each chord, instead of the notes as I need them to be played? The arpeggio sign gives no indication on exactly how the arpeggio should be played in the end, such as that I need each note played once and held in?

Perhaps this is just down to my ignorance as to how to properly group and tie the notes?

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• Jan 15, 2025 - 14:53

>I'm not sure that if I just put the chord there and add an arpeggio sign, that it will actually be played by the pianist in the way I need it to be played. Surely that will be up to the pianists' interpretation and how they want to arpeggiate each chord, instead of the notes as I need them to be played?

Yes, thats how it is. If you want to have it played precisely as in your example, there is no other option than to score it the way you did. There is no such thing like an advice "play arpeggio as 16th" or so. Either score the arpeggio as an arpeggio, which leaves the interpretation to the pianist, or score it precisely as in your example.

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• Jan 15, 2025 - 15:00

Hi rhalstenbach

Thanks for the replies and your advice.

It appears that perhaps my best option would be to use my first attempt and add pedal marks instead. The pedal would anyway be used by the pianist in my use cases, so this would solve my problem.

Thanks again for the knowledgable advice. It really sincerely helped me, as did smittyVanilli's

Pedal_instead.png

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Pedal_instead.png 67.98 KB

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• Jan 15, 2025 - 15:02

One last remark:

An arpeggio is typically used when the composer actually wants the chord to be strummed in its entirety, but due to the limitations of the human hand, simultaneous strumming is hardly possible. In this case, the arpeggio allows the chord to be rolled off, typically as quickly as possible. This is less a freedom of interpretation for the pianist than a technical necessity.

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