Weird bass clef.

I was looking at this musty, dank old composition book at the library today and it had piano music in it with a bizarre bass clef. What's with that?

It may not be a bass clef, what did it look like? Also, clefs have changed a lot over time, it may have been an old piece of music that hadn't been converted to newer notation styles.

That's funny, I don't know much about the, er, history of clefs.

It looked like a mirror-image bass clef that was extra curly. (did I just order something from a drive-thru?)

Did it look like this:

oh hey, I just think I found a picture of it actually!

That's an old F clef, same thing really. It establishes the 4th line as F.

That's crazy. I learn something new every day. I had no idea that the clefs we look at today may have been scribbled down completely differently by the past greats.

Oh, there's some crazy looking clefs. Take for instance the old C clef:

it looks like the front of a bug I found in my bathroom last week!

Talking of old notation systems, crotchet rests in older music are often printed as backward quaver rests. This can be confusing when one is not used to it!

Talking of old notation systems, crotchet rests in older music are often printed as backward quaver rests. This can be confusing when one is not used to it![/b]

That would confuse me to death! I guess I can see why they change notation practices over time. I wonder what in current notation practices has not yet been perfected yet. What will be the next thing to change, if any?

P.S. I had to google "crotchet" and "quaver" rests because I'm american and never was taught them! :) (I was relieved to find that I wasn't ignorant of some obvious type of rest, just not used to those terms)

Oh, P.P.S:

Is the british term for a 128th note really a "Quasihemidemisemiquaver"?

I think the American note numbering system has many merits over the naming system. However, a quarter note isn't always a quarter of a bar - and so may lead to confusion when learning to read music at an early age.

I've not come across the Quasihemidemisemiquaver - only a Semihemidemisemiquaver. I don't see why it would be 'quasi', as that doesn't mean half. 'Semi', 'demi' and 'hemi' all mean half. Quasi means 'sort of'.

?? - Breve (the value of two 'whole notes')

Whole - Semibreve

Half - Minim

1/4 - Crotchet

1/8 - Quaver

1/16 - Semiquaver

1/32 - Demisemiquaver

1/64 - Hemidemisemiquaver

1/128 - Semihemidemisemiquaver

128?

Is that used in anything?

Probably. I will keep an eye out for one and report back when I find one!

Theoretically they can get shorter exponentially, thus:

1/128 Semihemidemisemiquaver

1/256 Demisemihemidemisemiquaver

1/512 Hemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver

1/1024 Semihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver

1/2048 Demisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver

1/4096 Hemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver

and so on...

Just add an extra beam to halve the length.

=\

Crazy. The highest I've seen was a 32nd note. =\

I love the Voices of The Thronateeska. ;)

It has a bunch of 32nd notes. :thumbsup:

I've used 64th notes a few times, but I don't think I've used 128ths yet.

I've had some 128ths before in a solo I played once, but the tempo was really, really slow. I imagine that some instrument in a piece like "The Firebird Suite" must have at least one 128th note floating around somewhere in that mass of black.

Back to the british terminology, though - Do people say that, like in lessons and school? "Oh, and make sure that you accent the first note in that set of Hemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquavers, class. That's the pinnacle moment in the second phrase."

Yeah, I know, but you know what I mean. :-D

Are you talking of the terminology? Yes, of course! Except that I've never come across a hemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver...!

haha! Well I suppose not.

Still it;'s just hard for me to imagine someone just rolling "Hemidemisemiquaver" off their tongue during class! :D I'd probably be a bit confused if I sat in on a class using such terms, or vice versa for a student used to that.

What exactly is a "crotchet" anyway? I mean, besides in music? It reminds me of those sewing hook things. How did it end up being the term for a (as I know it) "quarter note"?

Hehe. Funnily enough, I think it comes from the French crochet, which means something like 'little hook'.

Yes, it does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotchet

There seems to be quite a bit on Wikipedia on where our modern notation comes from.

I've been dancing around the house singing this song to the tune of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" in a bad british accent for two days. This is how demented I can be:

A quaver and a crotchet

went up the leger line.

Down came the pen

and made it all align

Out came the guys

and tried to play the notes, and

the crotchet and the quaver

rang out from in their throats!

I've been dancing around the house singing this song to the tune of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" in a bad british accent for two days. This is how demented I can be:

A quaver and a crotchet

went up the leger line.

Down came the pen

and made it all align

Out came the guys

and tried to play the notes, and

the crotchet and the quaver

rang out from in their throats!

Hahaha, awesome!