Harmonics on guitar often stump me as a player/sight-reader and as a music notator.
Maybe I need a refresher on how natural and artificial harmonics are properly notated. Looking through countles editions of guitar music from various publishers (almost all classical) reveals little consistency. But then most of what I looked at is old. Here is a segment from one of my own pieces for seven string guitar. All natural harmonics. The top staff shows where to put the fingers. Bottom staff shows what it should sound like.
Originally this was done in Finale which has little understanding of the guitar. Since Dorico is much better equipped for that I tried futzing around with it. Some of it worked using the Harmonics options.
Two things I could not get to work are the second note, C fifth position on 3rd string, which is a natural harmonic.
At this point it may be easier to use the ‘as fingered’ version and add diamond note heads manually - coming to the second question:
When I show String Indicators, which gives me neat small circled string numbers, Dorico doesn’t often show the string I want it to be played on. From the Dorico 5.1 manual: “The string number shown in string indicators inside the staff is calculated automatically, but you can also specify the string manually.” But I can’t figure out how to alter the string number manually.
Yes, harmonics on the guitar are confusing. Over the years there have been a lot of approaches, but in recent editions the consensus has coalesced around the idea that the harmonic should be written at the sounding pitch. Your first example is a “geographical” location of where they can be found, as you clearly understand. I think the best approach is to:
–use diamond shaped noteheads, found in the Properties panel
– use string indications, fret markings, and possibly fingering to remove any doubt.
In the Properties panel, you can set which string will be shown
It can make the score a little cluttered, but it is the clearest; and anyone looking at the score who is not a player will understand what pitch(es) should be heard.
Hope that helps.
Looks good! For me, I’d just go with the lower staff, but with the fingerings, positions, and string indications. It is unusual to see regular noteheads with a “harmonic” text designation - the diamond shapes telegraph this. If you really want regular noteheads, then perhaps use the small circle above the note to indicate it is a harmonic.
Yes- the string settings in Properties is great; and the size is better, in my opinion. When I used the ones from right-side panel, I always had to reduce them in size, as they were too large for my taste. But then that’s what much of this is: taste and convention.
