More monkeying with notation: d, D, u, and U

General Music Discussion
#1

I was thinking about notation again, as good notation makes it easier to express things. How about the following?

  • d = a downstroke that is trapped at the end
  • u = an upstroke that is trapped at the end
  • D = a downstroke that is escaped/free at the end
  • U = an upstroke that is escaped/free at the end

So,

  • DBX looks like this: DUDUDUD, with no lower case letters.
  • Sweeping is a bunch of lower case letters in a row, e.g., dddd, or uuuu.
  • USX looks roughly like dUdUdU.
  • DSX looks roughly like DuDuDu.

Not just that, I can explain how I would play a scale starting with 2 notes on the first string, 3 on the second, and 3 on the third: dU duD udu. This is neat, because I do some thing that are strange, but it’s easy to notate, a good sign.

I think one can express everything with these four letters? (I’m not sure.) And there is an interesting rule of thumb:

  • For alternate picking: the last note on a string has to be D or U.
1 Like
#2

I like it because it’s a bit pared down from your previous systems, but I am still not sure that it’s necessary. Some thoughts:

-If simple down and up pickstrokes are notated, is it not obvious which forms should be used for a given note?

-High level players (to include instructors here) frequently aren’t doing what they think they’re doing (using trapped picking plus swiping when they believe they’re using DSX, for instance). This erodes the utility of highly-detailed pick directions.

-There is more than one way to get a free stroke.

-Di Meola-style crosspicking would be notated with multiple trapped strokes in the same direction, but would not be sweep-picking.

#3

Yes, my prior attempts at notation were too confused/heavy… I think this latest attempt is a lot closer to something that might actually be useful.

So I think the up/down is not obvious. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say a string has 3 notes on it, and one starts on a downstroke, and it leaves escaped. It could be:

  • DuD (DSX)
  • DUD (DBX)
  • dUD (is this classical 2WPS?)
  • duD (what I do, keeping the pick trapped)

I think that all of these are actual options. So, instead of lots of English, if it is possible to just write them down, that would be best… but does this suffice? I’m not sure… :thinking:

You are right that what people think is often not what they’re doing, but it’s still important to be able to notate what they think, or whatever it is that they’re talking about. Notation ideally enables accurate description, but it’s on the user for correctness.

Regarding getting free strokes, the notation doesn’t say how. But, I think it does make thing more obvious… Regarding Di Miola, I’m not really up to speed with him, I mistakenly thought he was regular DSX! (Shame on me.)

#4

Sure, but the reader will likely not be able to do all of those “ways” - the really important pickstroke is the final one, if they can’t do that they can’t really play the line. I’d also argue that any way which uses consecutive escaped pickstrokes is inherently slower than one without, and shouldn’t be used for this exact situation, but that’s a different conversation.

I suppose if you yourself were trying to notate something you did, so you would remember it later, maybe it would be fine for that purpose? But wouldn’t it be simpler to just lay out ground rules first [Attention: this piece was played with all trapped picking, excepting where escaped notes were necessary, which were accomplished with minor forearm rotation]?

#5

For example, 5 notes/string:

  • dUdUD (classic 2WPS)
  • duduD (what I currently do)
  • dUdUt (is this YJM? [where I just wrote “t” for HO/PO, I’m not sure of the letter])
  • dUdtU (or is this YJM?)

And there are so many other options. I have no idea what’s faster or slower, but it’s important to try to talk about things in a dense but easy-to-understand way. Does such notation exist? I don’t know, but I’m always on the lookout for it.

Yes they should layout their rules! But as you observed, most people won’t do what they said, and this likely changes on a measure-by-measure basis throughout the song. I don’t think that people need to adhere to just one set of tricks… that’s another reason why general-purpose notation can be useful.

#6

Guiltyyyyy! Not of being “high level”, just the part where I can easily not do what I think I am doing :slight_smile:

That’s why we just keep filming ourselves.

But I think the notation @kgk came up with is very cool to succintly communicate the intention of the player / the ideal combination of escapes and trapped strokes for a given technique.