Re: Guitar harmonics indicators

[BB]

On 20.05.2016 15:44, Tim McNamara wrote:
> Bear in mind, though, that fairly few guitarists are used to seeing guitar 
> written as if for piano.  Johnny Smith advocated that, because it allows the 
> guitar to be written as it sounds, but he was almost unique.  99% of the 
> relatively few guitarists who can sight read expect to see treble clef, 
> transposed up an octave.  Few could play the example given.
That is real! In my classical guitar education (50 years from now) I 
just had to read and play such notes for training purposes. I never 
needed that again.
> One fairly common standard is using an open diamond head to indicate the 
> harmonic, but that is really only useful for octave harmonics.

I do not agree that the diamond representation is useful only for octave 
harmonics. But an open diamond indeed is exclusively used for octave 
harmonics in some natation systems. The filled diamond head is then 
usually used for the other harmonics. But it is also common to use just 
normal (eliptic) note heads with Arabic or Roman numeral to indicate 
fret number. The string number may or may not be expressed and the left 
hand fingering may or may not be expressed. Sometimes one might find a H 
or a small empty circle obove notehead or beside the fret number. All 
combinations will result in many different possible ways of notation 
really in use!

Some composer/arrangers who use this system of natural harmonic notation 
differentiate between harmonics that sound the same pitches as the 
written notes and those that produce different pitches from the written 
notes. Heitor Villa-Lobos used this type of notation, but to regret, 
there are many, many errors/mistakes in his printed sheets.

To summarise, there are many systems for notation of harmonics. The most 
used is the system of Heitor Villa-Lobos . (That is just my personal 
impression, I think it depends on the publisher that published most of 
classical guitar literature?)

At the 12th fret, the pitch of the written note and the pitch that comes 
out of the guitar are the same. At the 19th fret the harmonics sound the 
same pitch as the written pitch.

At the 7th fret, the pitch produced with a harmonic is an octave higher 
than the written note. At the 5th fret, the pitch that comes out of the 
guitar is an octave plus a fifth higher than the written note. At the 
4th fret, the pitch that comes out of the guitar is two octaves higher 
(though noticeably flatter) than the written pitch. At the 9th fret, the 
pitches that come out of the guitar are exactly the same as the 
harmonics at the 4th fret. (Will often be used for tuning a guitar or a 
bass.)

Regards

> > On May 20, 2016, at 6:35 AM, Andrew Bernard <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > Not being a guitar player, I am out of my area here, hence my question. 
> > Referring to the attached sample image, my composer uses a circled numeral to 
> > indicate the string number, with superscript roman numerals to indicate the 
> > fret on that string to play for a harmonic. Is this standard for fretted 
> > instruments? Has anybody got a function written already that does this? I was 
> > unable to find anything the same as this in the NR or LSR.
> >
> > Andrew
> >
> >
> >
> > <harmonics.jpg>
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