Technique in Music Writing

Some of us still write our music by hand.  Even though an individual may write his or her by hand initially, it will most likely be set up by an individual who will use a computer program to print it nice and neatly.  Certain techniques are necessary to make the music easy to read and to correspond with rules just as applicable to bagpipe music as to music written for other instruments.

Considering the staff, on which musical notes are written, it is composed of 5 lines and four spaces.  The spaces are named from the bottom upward with the letters, FACE and the lines are named in the same order.  They are EGBDF.  To memorize the lines, one remembers the phrase, “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor,” or “Does Fine,” whichever way one is taught.  Bagpipe music writing also requires a high G and a high A.  Its range actually extends from the low G to the High A. The high A has a ledger line drawn through it.  The range of notes in the bagpipe scale is short, being just one octave, from A to A along with the low G note, but the scale enables one to write innumerable combinations.  Amazingly, there are thousands of musical selections written for the bagpipes.  They are catalogued under slow marches, quick marches, retreats, laments, strathspeys, reels, jigs, polkas and hornpipes, as well as popular songs.  Even bugle calls have been written for the pipes.  

A musical staff is very much like a graph.  Horizontally, the lines measure time when divided periodically by vertical lines called bar lines.  Vertically, the lines and spaces will accommodate the notes, and because notes are given a certain time value or distance between the bars, one can see at a glance, how long each note is to be sustained.

A typical example of a tune written for the pipes would be, “Abide With Me.”  Here, one could write four staffs, one above the other across the page, and then divide each one of the staffs into four bars using vertical “bars lines,” to produce sixteen “bars.”  The time signature, which will have been given at the beginning of the selection is 4/4, which means that each one of the 16 bars is to be considered as having its time divided into four portions.  Consequently, the basic note is a quarter note and it is allotted a quarter of the time given to a bar. If the time for that note should require twice as much time as a quarter note, it will be a half note, and it isn’t blackened in.  A half note is given half the distance along the bar.  A whole note is not blackened in and it doesn’t have a tail.  Its location should be at the beginning of the bar and hence a musician will know at a glance that the note will sound for the entire length of time which is designated by the time from one bar to the next.  Often, one sees that a whole note may be placed by the careless music writer, anywhere within the bar; even towards the end of the bar, and this is a misdirection for the musician.  Correcting such errors in the writing of pipe music is one of the reasons for this article. 

Both a quarter note and a half note will each have a tail.  A little flag on the tail of a quarter note would make it an 8th note.  Two flags would make it a 16 th note. 

If a quarter note or a half note is to be played longer, it is given a dot.  Its time is extended by adding half its initial value.  That is why, when actually playing a dotted quarter note, one beats twice; first it’s for the quarter note’s value and secondly for the dot, because the dot falls in the space of time that would be given to a subsequent quarter note if it were written there.  Instead, it’s the dot that gives an extension of the note into the next quarter of the bar.  Some players miss this point and consequently begin to speed up the tune.  So, it’s an important reminder to be aware of the dots and to hold onto the note for the next beat.  Along with the dot, an eighth note or in actuality, two sixteenth notes would have to be included in that second beat to complete its amount of time, and they would have to be spaced accordingly.  Such is the case when writing tunes such as “Highland Cathedral” and “The Sands of Kuwait.”

There is more to explain about writing music.  Musical notes must be presented on the staff so the music can be visualized at a glance, enabling one to play the tune in his or her head without actually hearing the music.  It is a salient point about writing music, and yet writers are not always conscious of presenting the music in this manner, which is to write the notes according to time, precisely where they should fall in each bar.

In “Abide with Me,” for example, the first note, is a half note C, with a high G grace note preceding it.  Being a half note, the C should be given half the length of the first bar.  The two quarter notes following it, should be given the second half of the bar, and be spaced so one can see clearly that the first quarter note doesn’t crowd the half note and that the second quarter note will have an equal spacing before and after it.           

When one writes the two half notes in the second bar, the first one should fall close to the beginning of the bar and the second half note should be placed at the halfway mark.  Thus, one can visualize sounding the second half note for the time devoted to half the bar.

When writing music, the beginning of the first staff line is indented somewhat, not unlike indenting a paragraph in a letter. Only the first line is indented.  A bar-line is drawn at the beginning and another at the end of the line.  Similarly, each subsequent line should have a bar-line at the beginning and at the end, but not after the treble clef.   A treble clef is drawn on each staff line.  It looks somewhat like a stylized G.  It winds around the G line so it’s called a G clef; but usually it is called a treble clef to differentiate it from the Bass clef.  There is also an Alto clef for instruments such as the viola, which play in the middle range, but neither the Bass nor Alto clef is of concern to the piper.  There should not be a bar line drawn after any G clef. 

Before dividing the staff into bars, there are several other necessary considerations: The first is that music is played in one or another key and that key must be indicated after the G clef.  For most conventional instruments, the key may be that of A, B, C, D or innumerable others, which have their significant symbols.  These symbols are sharps or flats.  However, the key in which bagpipe music is written is an ancient one, known as a Pythagorean scale or a Mixolydian Scale, and since the bagpipe instrument is designed to incorporate sharps, the key signature is not required as it is for other instruments.  For them, music is written in various keys.  Occasionally, one will see music written for bagpipes, with one, two or three sharps in this location, and they are not required, and often incorrect if one were to consider the correct key for that music if it were to be played on a conventional instrument.  Do not use a key signature when writing bagpipe music.  The Mixolydian scale was designed with its corresponding sharps built in.

The time signature comes after the Treble clef and is recognizable by 2/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 5/8, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 and other less common time signatures.  They tell the musician how many beats are to be given in each bar of music.  One might beat twice, three times, four or more times in a bar depending upon the time signature. Three-four indicates there will be three quarter notes in each bar and there will be three beats in each bar.   Four-four indicates there are four quarter notes in each bar and that each of those quarter notes will get a beat.  Similarly, with two-four time.  (Two beats to a measure.) 

Timing is different in six-eight, nine-eight and twelve-eight time, in that the notes are grouped together in threes and each group of eighth notes must get a beat.  Occasionally, one finds a tune written with four quarter notes to a bar and it sounds best when the player beats only twice for each bar.  In this case, the time signature is a capital C and it denotes Common time.

A person reading a musical selection notices first of all, the indentation of the staff, then the treble clef, and the key signature, then the time signature in that order.  The key signature is not needed in bagpipe music writing and it is incorrect when added.  Next, the music often has an introduction.  If so, whether the introduction is one note, two, three or more, it comes before the repeat sign.  After that, the staff is divided by bar lines into bars.  There may be three, four, five or more divisions in one line and their purpose is to divide the line into time intervals.  A staff is essentially a graph.  With the notes graphed vertically and the time devoted to those notes graphed horizontally, the music becomes easy to read.

 Repeat signs must be considered as they are designed to give clear direction throughout the musical selection.  The initial repeat sign appears immediately after, and not before the introductory notes.  There will be a first and second ending, and the first ending must contain the introductory notes that were excluded initially.  This ending is bracketed.  The bracket is drawn down to meet the repeat sign.  The second ending is not closed like the first ending, but the line above the second ending simply appears to continue on.  Here, the bar must satisfy the rule of the satisfied bar.  The bar must contain notes to the value given in the time signature, and if the music of a selection is in 4/4 for instance, but only notes to the value of three quarters is to be played, then a quarter note rest should be written.  Similarly, a quarter note rest will be written in place of the third beat in a 3/4 selection, if a note hasn’t been written to be played.

Some have said the written music is only a guideline, but the truth is that music must be written very accurately and played accordingly.  Even so, one musician may bring expression into his or her rendition excelling another person.  To a great extent this is because careful attention is given to providing the correct time to the notes, just as they have been written.

Effort has been taken to explain the details of writing music because many are writing music for their pipe bands who may not be following precise rules.  Instead, they may have learned their methods from having seen the way in which others have only done their best without having had any formal training.  Their music may indicate it is to be repeated from here to here, or to be played regardless of the spacing of the notes.  I hope these explanations will help in the provision of professionally written music for bands that haven’t been so fortunate.