Bad BAD arranger

[David Richoux]

Since we are on the topic - happend to find this classic today!

[arminhachmer]

~~

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice ... but in practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra

haha...thanks Kevin.

1. new Yogi for me
2. good response

Armin

[jmerring]

Since we are on the topic - happend to find this classic today!

God, I am glad that I quit playing!

[tbn.al]

Since we are on the topic - happend to find this classic today!

This is obviously not a new problem. That comic chart has been around for years. There must have been some motivation, not unlike what sparks this discussion, back then for someone to spend that amount of time and energy on a spoof. I do think it is worse now with all the software out there that does whatever it wants and only the very talented have any idea how to fix it.

[ralphbsz]

When I was studying the piano (a generation ago, long before notation software), there was a photocopy of a joke piece in b sharp major, but with some nice chromatics, making for a completely unreadable score. It had lots of of double sharps (which are notated with a little cross), natural signs immediately followed by a sharp, and a few flats in the harmonies. It was actually a children's song, with a late-romantic sounding but simple left hand. The title stated that it was in "His Dur" (in German, b natural is called h, b flat is called b, and the -is ending denotes sharp, so "his" is logically an h sharp). The kind of thing that piano students slip into each others music folders when hanging out, just to watch the other guy's face. I might have a copy squirreled away somewhere, but it would be really hard to find.

Now, this thing was meant as a practical joke. It's disturbing that composers and publishers sell things that are just as unreadable, but are meant serious.

My favorite beef as a piano player are two things that make sight-reading hard. First, notating things that are way out of the staff with lots of ledger lines, instead of using 8va or 8vb. Sometimes that can require an extra staff, but paper is cheap. I'm sure tuba players have the same issue with pedal tones. The second one is piano-specific: In late 19th and 20th century music, you sometimes have the melody in the center, being played by the two thumbs and a few fingers, while the rest of the hands are doing bass on the left and figuration on the right. This can be typeset to be obtuse (you see a few disconnected notes, and need to figure out how to stitch them together), it can be made confusing (put all of the melody notes in one staff, then indicate RH and LH), it can lead to strange notation with slurs and straight lines to indicate what belongs together. I think the right way to do it is to put the musically coherent part on a 3rd or 4th staff, and again invest a little more paper.