It doesn’t make sense for the flexatone, which is an “indefinite” percussion instrument, to default to a five-line staff. If it were on a five-line staff, it should allow the note to move beyond a single line, meaning above or below the third line. However, this does not happen—instead, it mimics the behavior of an indefinite percussion instrument on a single-line staff.
Therefore, the instrument should either default to a single-line staff, like any other indefinite percussion instrument, or to a five-line staff with the possibility of placing different pitches. I believe the best option would be for the instrument to be on a single line but with the ability to move the note’s pitch up or down, as is done with a normal instrument.
I know that this effect can be achieved by taking a five-line instrument and converting it to a single line, but in the case of the flexatone, since it defaults to five lines yet only allows notes on one of them, this effect cannot be achieved. It would have to be done using a different instrument.
No, I don’t agree. It is difficult, but possible to play the flexatone with exact pitches. An example is this recording of Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto with a wonderful flexatone solo, starting at 18’ 29’’ (unfortunately often omitted in other recordings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dA-GBD-cNg&t=1110s
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That’s great! I didn’t know about that work, but regardless of that, what I’m saying is that I can’t change the pitches of the flexatone. They are limited to the third line only, and I can’t modify them. So, I would have to create a different instrument and rename it.
Therefore, it doesn’t make sense for the flexatone to default to only one pitch and not have just a single-line staff.
Sorry for my english!
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Bump! Dorico should make flexatone a multi-pitch instrument by default – we should be able to write ascending/descending glissandi for it by default, whether shown relatively on a 1- or 5-line percussion staff, or on a 5-line definite-pitch staff.
Can you not do what you need using the Instrument Editor?
I’m new enough to the program to say that I don’t know! In looking at Edit Instrument for flexatone, I can change a bunch of parameters for it, but I’m not finding the setting that allows me to enter notes in different vertical locations for the instrument on the same staff. Am I missing it?
I understand that a workaround would be to take an instrument with that capability and rename it “flexatone,” but would love to have it coming out of the Dorico box with the requisite functionality to write for it without an elaborate workaround. IMHO, it’s an instrument mostly about changes in (relative) pitch, so would love to be able to notate that for the instrument from the jump.