5th voice?
This is my score, and in bar 8, I want to write 2 half-notes on one position. But I can't do that because I have used all the available voices. What can I do?
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| Ballade No. 1.mscz | 92.67 KB |
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Nevermind! Figured it out! I changed the quarter note head type to half. The stem is still bound to the beam, and the other voice made the other half.
Although it would still be nice to know how to add a 5th voice.
In reply to Nevermind! Figured it out! I… by alvin_szoke
There are only 4 Voices. There are very few situations where a 5th Voice would be needed but mostly there will be a workaround possible.
It's not really clear why you are wanting five voices here - I don't see what is going on here that couldn't be notated in fewer. Can you walk us through what you are trying to convey?
In reply to It's not really clear why… by Marc Sabatella
I fixed it. But thank you for your concern!
Have a great day!
For what it's worth, I have never felt the need for more than 4, and even 4 taxes the channel capacity between a five-line staff and human ability to read it. Even three-voiced continuo realization right-hands rapidly become unreadable unless "chords" with multiple heads on a stem are used liberally. Up-stems and down-stems simply don't have enough "address space" to render more than 2 without ambiguity. Five fingers is the mammalian limit for keyboard music, and if all are occupied .... but otherwise (not keyboard), If something really requires four or more voices on a staff, more staves are usually called for.
In reply to For what it's worth, I have… by [DELETED] 1831606
The situation where I see the possibility of wanting this come up is in arpeggiate-and-hold chords, which, because we have five fingers, sometimes might seem to be something we'd want to use five voies to notate. But in practice that is almost never the best way to notate this idiom. Instead, things like extended ties are more common, easier to read, etc.
In reply to The situation where I see… by Marc Sabatella
Indeed! I hadn't thought of that, but maybe there is some better design-solution for that (other than notating it a different way).
I realize this thread is pretty old...this issue comes up quite a bit in organ music. I would call it common, but not rare either. Frustrating that it can't seem to be handled.
In reply to I realize this thread is… by marypickleby
Can you post some examples that require five voices? Are you perhaps trying two notate two hands plus pedals on only two staves?
Cross-staff notation?