Brackets before chords
Hello.
I have been working on a score of a song from 1935: These Foolish Things. The original has quite a lot of brackets (the round open brackets character) before chords. I've tried to attach the page in .jpg and .png format, but it hasn't worked.
I've wondered if it might be something like an arpeggio marking (but arpeggio markings are used elsewhere). Or in some instances it could be used to differentiate what chord is played in the left, and which the right hand. But that doesn't seem needed. So with the majority, I'm basically puzzled, so maybe someone can enlighten me:
* What does this bracket mean in music notation terms? It seems none-standard.
* How can I input this bracket in Musescore?
Thank you.
Comments
I've tried to attach the page in .jpg and .png format, but it hasn't worked.
It could be temporary, so try again to attach an image so we can see exactly what you mean.
Are these brackets used with chord symbols. (i.e., the chord's name) or do the brackets appear in the musical staff (near the chord's notes)?
Is it music for piano?
Okay, I tried again having closed and reopened the browser, and this time it worked. So here is the page of the refrain with examples of the brackets.
Dave
And the Musescore file (without These Foolish Brackets!)
Indeed, makes no sense at all to me, speaking as a professional pianist.
I guess you could add parenthesis as staff text and then position and size them, or try the Symbols palette (press "Z" to display) - search for "parent" and try the double or triplet height version. Or, in staff text, press F2 for the Special Characters dialog, and try either the Unicode or Musical Symbols sections. Triplet height from Musical Symbols then sized bigger might do the trick.
In reply to Indeed, makes no sense at… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc. If they don't make sense to you, then I think I can forget them. They were certainly baffling me. And many thanks for the help.
I like the cafe!
They could possibly represent arpeggiation.
In reply to They could possibly… by xavierjazz
Thanks for that suggestion, Xavier. Is that similar, or identical to what I seem to recall being referred to as a swing era "stride style" or "stride bass"? That's the sort of technique that arguably reached its pinnacle in the music of Fats Waller.
That certainly begins to make a bit more sense to me where the chord spans an octave + a third. And my hands can't quite reach except doing it as as stride.
If I'm interpreting that correctly, it could be notated like the attached graphic. Of course I'm only notating it like that to force Musescore to play it as a sort of anticipatory arpeggio usually ending with the bottom note on the main beat of the rhythm. And I recognise that interpretation of that sort of jazz technique similar to swing is a minefield of massive variations over individual players on different days of week etc!
In reply to They could possibly… by xavierjazz
Plus a small modification to that:
I probably should have notated it as an acciaccatura, placing the emphasis on the main note itself, rather than doing it as an appoggiatura. I keep forgetting the differences. Give me a bit of grace.