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#158743 05/05/12 10:25 AM
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This might just be a general copyist question, but I have a tune in BIAB where the ket signature is "A". An F natural was tied into a bar followed immediately by an F# (as per the key signature.) There was no accident even when indicated to "force" a sharp.

Is it not recommended as a "best practice" to indicate an accidental if it cancels out the one tied into the bar ?


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I've run into this, too, when taking BIAB MIDI into a notation program. I prefer to add the 'reminder' accidental, by using parentheses like this: (#)


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No way to do that in BIAB eh ? Since we're on the subject, is there any way to get Finale or Sebelius to recognize or import BIAB chord changes ?


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It would be a good thing if biab could export some songs into an open format like music xml.


Free tools for Biab:
Biab Scales and BIArpeggio to practice scales/arpeggio
Biab Explorer: the other song picker
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Several of us put Music XML on the BIAB Wishlist years ago. PG Music concurred that it would be nice to have support for that. I have since learned that other implementations of Music XML are not always done well enough to be reliable, so it must be harder to do than it seemed at first.

Since the MIDI standard does not support chord symbols, you cannot import a BIAB or any other file into music notation programs and get the same chord symbols. Until Music XML is fully supported, the best we have at the moment is to go between programs that use a proprietary format for storing chord symbols, such as BIAB to RealBand, or use whatever chord recognition tool software may have to reconstruct the chord symbols.


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PhillyJazz,

MuseScore will read MGU and SGU files. It's freeware and might provide the stepping stone you need to get the music into the other software.

Regards,
Noel


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Hey Noel, that's a good find. I've been playing with it a few minutes. Thanks!


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Hi Matt,

I wish I could claim credit for it but RodKastler in the Mac forum mentioned MuseScore a few days back. He was the one on the ball, not me

I agree, too, it's a great find and very useful. Apparently it's BIAB compatibility is still in the "testing" phase but it seemed to work pretty well for me. The interface for adding notation seems reasonable also.

Regards,
Noel


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I'm fighting it a bit but that's only because I always try out software without reading the manual first. Time for that later. What holds a lot of promise is if I can export Music XML to take the score, with chords, into another software.

Again, thanks for passing along the idea, Noel.


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Quote:

This might just be a general copyist question, but I have a tune in BIAB where the ket signature is "A". An F natural was tied into a bar followed immediately by an F# (as per the key signature.) There was no accident even when indicated to "force" a sharp.

Is it not recommended as a "best practice" to indicate an accidental if it cancels out the one tied into the bar ?




First of all, that would be a Slur and not a Tie.

Sometimes it can be made to work, if you enter both notes first, then change the second note using Note
Edit and then add the Slur figure. I don't know why it does not work in all cases, though.

My answer to that problem, which in my case is only a real problem if I have to use BB to print sheet music for other musicians, is simple enough, I print the part out and then pencil in the missing figure, then make a photocopy of the whole thing for distribution. Looks nice enough.


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I read the question as being an F natural in the second bar, tied to the prior bar, followed by an F#. If that is correct, it is a tie, not a slur.


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That is correct. It is a note held over at exactly the same pitch, therefore a tie. It is the not immediately FOLLOWING that goes up a half step, and therefore should have an accidental (if only a "reminder" one as Matt suggests. I am not sure what the "rule" is for copyists.


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I've wondered about what the rule is also for a note following a tied accidental. However, since I'm an old guy, I don't trust my memory so I just add the # or b so I'll know for sure. Just aaying.... I do like Matt's idea of adding the parentheses. I'm in a symphonic band and sometimes you just have to play the notes to figure out what they are supposed to be and a some pencil reminder.

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The use of the parentheses is perfectly normal whenever there are situations that could make someone stumble, particularly when sight-reading. It's often called a 'courtesy accidental'.

I wish more composers/arrangers/copyists would use them. When I used to play shows full-time (40 years ago in Albany), we often marked up the scores for a lot of reasons, and one of them was this kind of readability issue. Since the show's books traveled with the star and the music director on to the next city, it often took us awhile after the last show to erase the pencil marks. It was worth the effort. Funny thing is, you could see that the players in the previous cities of the tour had often made the same additional markings.


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Hi Matt. I mark my charts even using a highlighter for key and time sig changes. If someone else has already done it, thats all the better.

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