I have never understood why when showing a guitar bend, the original note is shown in parenthesis and not the bent note, which isn’t the pitch of the fretted note. Any ideas?
I’m afraid I don’t think I follow: are you talking about bends where you bend after you pluck the string, or a pre-bend, where you bend the string before you pluck it, or something else?
I didn’t explain myself very well Daniel. And it isn’t something restricted to just Dorico. It’s a convention shared by your competitors too. It’s a curio really. The attached example from one of my Finale files demonstrates what I’m talking about. It shows a full bend from fret 13 to 15 which is then re-picked and let back down to 13 which is bracketed. It has always seemed more logical to me to bracket the number whose pitch isn’t at the actual fret number (in this case 15). I hope this makes it clear. It’s not something I expect you to change as it seems an accepted convention.
Ah, the release note. I believe it’s parenthesised because it’s not plucked, but of course you’re quite right that you might not pluck the bent-to note either…
I agree, I think it’s because it is not replucked. I think you get this with tied notes as well although I can’t check atm (away from computer)
Regarding the bent to note, the bend is an articulation between two pitches much like a slur. We don’t parenthesise slurs, ascending or descending.
I quite accept that you don’t parenthesise the destination note of a bend any more than you would a hammer, pull off or slide. This isn’t my issue. Parenthesising a note that is already bent up makes more sense to me as it indicates that that number doesn’t represent the actual fret that one is on. And further, regarding the quote above, the release note is in fact parenthesised!
Having looked again at the provided notation example, I actually think that it is incorrectly notated. As there are two separate rhythmic instances, rather than a tied note, there is no indication to suggest the second instance of g is actually the pre-bent f, neither in a computational translation to TAB nor from a sight-reading perspective of the notation. And then, once you have played a g, which is represented in TAB as a 15 on the 1st string, it is impossible to release a bend from a fretted pitch.
Yes you can say that, surely, it is assumed but clarity of notation is crucial…
How does it look if you notate the g to f as a pre-bend and release?
The example I have given is the default in Finale, Sibelius, Guitar Pro and other scoring programs. It is quite clear what’s going on. You can introduce the pre- bend as you have shown but it introduces another element of unnecessary clutter. It is self evident that the note in my example has been bent up, must be restruck then let down to the original pitch. But you are not focusing on what my curio was which is to do with the function of parenthesises.
Sorry that I can’t be more helpful mate. You will see that I addressed your concern for the parentheses earlier, after Daniel’s initial posts. I do think that it is because the note is note plucked (but continues to sound). It is common practice to place a parentheses around a TAB note to remind that a note is tied. Dorico does this across a barline as is shown in the attached image.
I know that this doesn’t support what you think should make sense. To reiterate, I think that the parentheses is there to indicate that the note continues to ring.
Fortunately. The ties can be turned off in tablature ties option. Less clutter.