In notation, a tremolo note, will have slashes across the stem. What is the difference in a note with two slashes and a note with three?
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In notation, a tremolo note, will have slashes across the stem. What is the difference in a note with two slashes and a note with three?
Slashes may indicate measured “tremolo”, so two slashes is 16th notes, three is 32nds. In classical music, we usually say tremolo when we mean unmeasured, so the distinction may be moot. But it is a compact form for writing repeated notes. One slash means 8ths (often seen in Debussy).
Thanks Tom!
I think sometimes a horizontal, squiggly line is used to indicate either a tremolo or a trill ...
Squiggly line, a tilde above the note is a trill or mordent (short trill).
Slashes through the note stem are tremolo or measured subdivided note.
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Squiggly line, a tilde above the note is a trill or mordent (short trill).
Slashes through the note stem are tremolo or measured subdivided note.
In drum notation 3 bars indicate filling the available rhythmic space with a 32nd note roll - bouncing each 16th note into a second stroke. So a half note with 3 bars would require filling the two beats with 16 32nd notes.
I was taught another technique whereby the 3 barred note had the word "press" under it which indicated that rather than 16th notes being double bounced into 32nd notes each stroke is triple or quadruple bounced to create up to 64th notes, a speed at which one can't distinguish individual notes.
Although the originally meaning was 32nd notes, three slashes in drum music means a roll. A "press" roll is multiple bounces on each stroke so that is sounds like a continuous buzz, but I've never seen "press" written in the music. Modern drum corps style notation uses three slashes for a double stroke roll (whether actually 32nds or not), and a "Z" shaped slash for buzz rolls. Notation continues to evolve to match the literature.Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg P. Stone
I was taught this over a half century ago so I'm not surprised that "buzz" has supplanted "press". "Press" is a description of the technique to produce a "buzz. In my day this was never used in drum corps.
Great thread.
In some musical situations, all longer notes are tremoloed in mandolin music, so that the long notes without tremolo are so marked as "senza trem.".
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I think press roll is the older, more traditional term - I've heard "buzz roll" a lot, but largely in jazz and rock circles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg P. Stone
In violin notation, two slashes means measured sixteenths, three for tremolo. The squiggly line is a trill, a sideways S is a mordent.
"Press" and "buzz" mean the same thing, a multiple-bounce roll. Drum corps and marching bands would have called it a "closed" roll as opposed to an "open" (double bounce) roll.Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg P. Stone
The slash marks are variable depending on composer. But the sideways S is turn, a roll above and below the pitch. The tilde alone is typically a mordent, a brief trill of one up and back, while “tr” is the common indication for a substantial trill. When a trill extends to another note or measure a long squiggly line indicates how far it continues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Louise NM
So, for example, in the choro “Apanhei-te cavaquinho” there is a tilde above the first of a group of 16ths, and every next group. These are quick mordents.
Thanks David. I've been puzzling over this as I've been learning to read Italian mandolin music. For example, a whole note would always be tremolo unless marked as "senza trem"? Or a quarter note tied to an eighth note that crosses the measure?Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidKOS
While some composers may not follow the standard, there are definite rules for slashes: one slash means eighth-notes, two slashes mean sixteenth-notes, three slashes mean 32nds or a tremolo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Wright
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Originally Posted by Tom Wright
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Originally Posted by Louise NM
I think I've been doing it wrong. In the stuff I write, the need for indicating tremolo only rarely comes up, but I have a vague recollection of posting a transcription of a bluegrass tune (or something similar that uses tremolo) sheet music here on the forum and/or in the Song-a-Week group sometime in the last few years, where I think I might have used a sideways S (or similar-looking character) to indicate tremolo. Then again, maybe I didn't... but it vaguely rings a bell and I distantly recall being unsure at the time as to how to notate it. Or I might have used a "tr", assuming (wrongly) that it meant tremolo... At this point I have no clue what tune(s) or thread(s) that might have been. :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Wright
I will try to remember the correct way, now that it's been explained in this thread, if I ever need to indicate tremolo in notation in the future. Thanks to everyone above for helping to make it clear how this stuff works. :mandosmiley:
I wouldn't fret too much about it, JL :)Quote:
Originally Posted by JL277z
FWIW, I know for certain I've notated some things incorrectly in a couple of the pieces I've transcribed or written, using the squiggly line for trill to represent a tremolo. Two vastly different techniques. We live and learn.
I'd tremolo all those notes! But the style I like in Italian mandolin playing uses lots of tremolo. Pretty much any note that can be tremoloed is, unless it's part of a fast run or needs to be articulated without tremolo. Of course on fast passages the picking is almost like tremolo, except that each alternate pickstroke is on another pitch ascending or descending.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Foss
Plus, whole phrases can be tremoloed, much as a violin player may play a whole passage under the same bow stroke.
(But one slash on an eighth-note stem means play sixteenths, two means thirty-seconds, etc.)Quote:
Originally Posted by David L
If you have "one slash on an eighth-note stem", you must already have one bar or flag to indicate the eighth-note. It is the total that matters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Clausen