Updated Instrument Genres & Groups
Proposed updates to default instruments.xml in order to:
Add Instrument Genres to better accommodate common use cases
Change name of some existing Instrument Genres to improve clarity
Change order of Instrument Genres based on potential frequency of use/common categorization
Change name of some Instrument Groups to improve clarity
New Instrument Genres:
Pop/Rock
Marching Band
Concert Band
Classroom
Name changes to existing Instrument Genres:
“Common instruments” to “Common”
“Jazz instruments” to “Jazz/Blues”
“Orchestral instruments” to “Orchestra”
“Ethnic music” to “World Music”
Order of Instrument Genres:
Common
Pop/Rock
Jazz/Blues
Orchestra
Concert Band
Marching Band
Electronic Music
World Music
Early Music
Classroom
Name changes to Instrument Grouops:
“Unpitched Percussion” to “Percussion - Unpitched”
“Pitched Percussion” to “Percussion - Pitched”
“Battery Percussion” to “Percussion - Marching”
“Jazz instruments” to “Jazz”
“Strings” to “Strings - Bowed”
“Plucked Strings” to “Strings - Plucked”
“Electronic Instruments” to “Electronic”
Order of Instrument Grouops:
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion - Pitched
Percussion - Unpitched
Percussion - Marching
Strings - Bowed
Strings - Plucked
Keyboards
Vocals
Electronic
Free Reed
Fill list of modifications: MuseScore - 2.3 - Instruments.xml (Google Doc)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| instruments_dray.xml | 405.24 KB |
Comments
I'm against the change away from "Ethnic", "World Music" doesn't tell me anything
Percussion should move down on the list
In reply to I'm against the change away… by Jojo-Schmitz
The suggestion to use "World Music" vs. "Ethnic" is two-fold:
1. It is the terminology used for this grouping by Finale and Sibelius, and seems reasonable to align for purposes of familiarity.
2. The term "Ethnic" does have a bit of a negative condescending connotation in some cases. The intent was to separate from this.
Regarding the order of percussion in the list, there are two schools of score order - above strings or below, both are in common practice.
The only reason I proposed score order with percussion above strings is that it is correct score order in dual cases, for both Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.
Anyway, that was the logic, and I can go either way on the subject, as both are correct and both are common.
In reply to The suggestion to use "World… by Daniel
Ethnic makes more sense to me.
In reply to The suggestion to use "World… by Daniel
The problem with that change: 'ethnic' and 'world music' are used as genre terms for two rather different genres.
'Ethnic' is used for music from a specific ethnic group while 'world music' is used for music that combines/mixes together music from different ethnic groups/cultural traditions. And why would ethnic have "...a negative condescending connotation"? Ethnomusicology is the standard term for the research on music fron different nations.
To me, this isn't a big deal because I normally live in Common and use the search box for all else. So take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
Trying to put myself in the mindset of using these genres at all, I'd still want to see MuseScore err on the side of being broad. I think it would be more disruptive to find an instrument missing than to see a few instruments I don't need. Some of the proposed genres seem unnecessarily narrow in that respect. In particular, I'm not comfortable with having Jazz/Blues and Pop/Rock separate. Seems that whatever small differences there might be here - instruments used in jazz but not in pop or vice versa - would not be worth the inconvenience given that there is huge crossover. Even if the two genres are defined identically, just having to make that decision - is this blues or is it rock - feels disruptive to me. I have similar reservations about Concert versus Marching band, although here I can imagine the lines might be a little clearer.
Regarding the order of the instrument groups - I wonder, is there any way we could make this genre-dependent? The existing order is fundamentally orchestral. I always experience a bit of cognitive dissonance when I am writing a jazz chart and find percussion above keyboards. Also, FWIW, while of course a guitar is a stringed instrument, I would similarly suggest that when in the jazz/blues/pop/rock genre, it always takes me a minute to find the guitars there, and the proposed name change doesn't really help.
In reply to To me, this isn't a big deal… by Marc Sabatella
You make a good argument for "Jazz/Blues" being simply "Jazz". The reason for "Pop/Rock" as a separate category is two-fold:
I do like your suggestion to reorder groups based on what is common for specific genres, rather than forcing everything into orchestral score order. Right now it seems the order is based on the order in instruments.xml file, and seems this would require some additional logic.
In reply to You make a good argument for… by Daniel
The order of instruments is the order I see most scores written in for western music. The genre doesn't really matter. When people go off on their own an create scores with unusual instrument combinations they will sometimes rearrange this order, but most anyone with formal training will keep this order.
In reply to The order of instruments is… by mike320
Western classical music. As mentioned, the conventions are very different in jazz. Guitar/piano/bass/drums is the common order for the rhythm section.
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/3611