NOTATIO

I've always preferred left-aligned chords, especially in cases where sight-reading is important. When there are busy bars with chords on every beat (or more frequent), it is difficult to determine exactly where the chords line up. I remember this being a particular issue when doing work for Ian Fras...

I think John nailed it. There are two things happening that cause problems. 1. The length of the stub and spacing between the notes create a conflict. The stub beam is encroaching into the horizontal space occupied by the previous notehead. This makes it difficult to understand the rhythm. In fact, ...

Knut and I commented on this misuse of standard musical terminology when Dorico first came out. It really bothers me because it is so difficult to get students to think of individual melodic voices creating harmony without this new confusion in terminology. I think that "layer" is perfect...

As I've said in another post, I do most of my work on music that is to be sight-read. So hear my perspective through that lens. Where possible, I prefer the Vaughan Williams example. It's easily readable and the information is where the performer expects to find it. I generally dislike angled hairpi...

Arnstein's parts "played themselves" as he used to say because they were foolproof. Nothing bad would happen if the conductor forgot to give a cue, because they weren't reliant on the conductor, and none of the parts came back with added cues by the player. I almost reported this post bec...

The point was to make the part absolutely fool-proof. No need for the player to consult the score and put in the their own cues, as one often sees in parts that come back from rehearsals. Thank you, John! This is so often overlooked by copyists. I understand that publishers sometimes want to conden...

As somebody who primarily works in recording situations where time is money, I am wary putting anything in front of musicians that doesn't clearly match what they are accustomed to seeing unless it's very clear what is intended. Changing the format of the rests or these "enhanced tacets" s...

Thank you for sharing!

Second is definitely clearer.

If you did want to keep the tie, I'd break the second beam under it; and perhaps reverse it to keep the subdivisions clear.

I hate to be negative, but that's a bad part. This and a project I worked last week where I had to pull out some old Hollywood parts to recopy are harsh reminders that things weren't always better in the "good old days".