Are there any recommended books that would detail the rules and conventions regarding music notation? I would like a guide, possibly, in the form of one complete book. I would like to know things about notating rests (should a rest be dotted), repeat signs, coda etc.
Thanks!
That should be covered in any music theory book, but you can find books specific to reading music on guitar that would probably cover it, too.
For writing notation, Elaine Gould’s Behind Bars is the industry standard. It’s priced like a text book: Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (Faber Edition): Gould, Elaine: 9780571514564: Amazon.com: Books
For learning to read, I like David Oakes’ Music Reading For Guitar: Music Reading for Guitar (The Complete Method): David Oakes: 8601404993978: Amazon.com: Books
If you give me a little more context about where you’re at currently and where you’re trying to go, I can give a more specific recommendation.
I’m looking for books on writing notation. Behind Bars looks good, and very detailed. Are there any other books you would recommend, or is Behind Bars the best there is?
Behind Bars is the most-referenced work among engravers—ie people who prepare notation for publication. Might be overkill. The price alone has put me off of it.
Berklee Contemporary Music Notation by Jonathan Feist is also quite good, especially if you’re somewhat new to notation.
Only caveat there is that it uses Berklee’s method for chord symbols, which is stupid and definitely not the standard. (For example, they don’t write “D9”… they write “D7(9)”. 
)
For me personally, the biggest improvements have come from personal feedback on my charts. For the first decade, I would ask a couple trusted friends/experts to nitpick my work.
And these days whenever I arrange/notate a project, I ask the players to send me their marked up charts afterwards. Really allows you to empathize better with people who play different instruments and better serve them next time.
Thanks, I will go for the Berklee book. As you say, the Behind Bars book is overkill - especially for a very casual reader such as myself.
It depends on what your weaknesses are in notation. But, assuming you know basics of clefs, and pitch notation, for the vast majority of people, rhythmic notation is the stumbling block - both for writing and for sight-reading. Have you seen " The Rhythm Book: Beginning Notation and Sight-Reading for All Instruments" and " The Rhythm Book: Intermediate Notation and Sight-Reading for All Instruments," both published by Hal Leonard and sold on Amazon?
Mark McGrain- Music Notation. Berklee Press
Just curious, do they explain their rationale? I’m not familair with the book or the system, but theoretically I could see an argument for notating the chord primarily by function, from a comping standpoint. I.e - first and formost, in the key of G that’s a V7 chord, that happens to be voiced as a 9, but it easily could be a 7 or a 13 or whatever and any of those are fine since they all function the same.
It would make less sense from a “replicate this performance” standpoint, but from a “here’s how the harmony is functioning, if you were comping it yourself” one I guess I get that…
No, they’re not doing it from a functional standpoint.
Like, if you were playing a blues in A, they would call that one D7(9) and then they would also call it E7(9) for the V chord.
That’s just the way they do it? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
Especially because in a sight reading situation, too much information is often worse than not enough information.
They are far from the only offenders though. In general, there are a lot of things that are permissible or standard for publication or in academic contexts that are totally different than what’s preferred in a gigging context.
In a gigging context, the guitarist is part of the rhythm section (along with the bassist and the drummer and the keyboard player). And the most important thing in the chart is to make the form really obvious.
So you want there to be four measures in each system so that you can see where the form rhymes with itself.
And you break from that rule of four bars per system when it makes the form clearer, because you want the whole chart to be glance-able.
Another thing that’s really changed the way charts are written is the ubiquity of iPads for gigging musicians.
No one uses paper charts on a stand anymore if they can avoid it. When it was two or three pages on a stand that were taped together, you could have repeats that wrap or span more than one page.
But it’s a faux pas to do that on an iPad. It’s better to avoid repeats… with the exception of very specific vamps, like “this is an open solo” or “we vamp on this thing while the singer talks and then we play these hits.”
I mention these things only because you won’t find them in a textbook but you will very much find them out in the “real world.”
Odd - thanks for the color! I agree, that doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense.