Re: Harmonics w/ Regular Notes

[Jonathan Kulp]

Dave Bellows wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 9:20 PM, Graham Percival
> <address@hidden> wrote:
> > I recommend
> >  < a\harmonic >4
> >
> > It's probably mentioned in Articulations, and is certainly
> > mentioned in the section on Unfretted strings.  The way that
> > strings notate artificial harmonics is
> >  < a e'\harmonic>4
> > but I don't know if that's appropriate for guitars.
>
> Ah, thank you for that.  I tried something similar but could not get
> the syntax correct.  Now the only problem is that the harmonic
> noteheads are "open" whereas I believe it is standard in guitar
> notation for the noteheads to be colored in when dealing with quarter
> notes and the like.  It's been a long time since I've dealt with
> guitar music so I'm not sure what the standard practice is now.  I see
> some old scores in my collection that just use text spanners to
> indicate artificial harmonics or what looks like a bold lower case 'o'
> over each note.  It would seem that having the note heads look like
> the duration they're supposed to be would be clearer.  Maybe someone
> on this list is more up-to-date than I on this issue.

Unfortunately there is a staggering lack of standards when it comes to 
the notation of harmonics in guitar music.  I think I'm even 
inconsistent in my own compositions.  So far people who play my guitar 
music have always played the harmonics I intended without intervention 
on my part, so I'm satisfied.  I always indicate with a markup whether 
it's natural or artificial, and I use filled-in diamond noteheads for 
durations of a quarter-note and shorter.  However, some of my harmonics 
are indicated at actual pitch and some are not.  For natural harmonics, 
I indicate a fret ("nat. harm. 12", for example, would tell the player 
to use the natural harmonics on the 12th fret), and for artificial I 
usually put the diamond notehead on the note that's to be fretted, 
indicating with a markup "art. harm. 8va" telling the player to touch 
the string an octave above that pitch.  I don't know that I have rules 
as such, I just tweak it until it makes the most sense for me as a 
player.  If in doubt I show it to another experienced player and see 
what he says.  Maybe there's a style manual about this but if there is, 
I haven't seen it.  If you want to run your harmonics by me off-list I'd 
be happy to take a look.  Best,

Jon
--
Jonathan Kulp
http://www.jonathankulp.com