Hey dear friends, I’m writing a jazz arrange that the real duration of the note is a Whole note, but starting at the second half of the four beat. As shown at first example…
Writing the Whole note and dragging with the shortcut to the position I need, I’m getting this eighth note tied to a dotted half, tied to an eighth note (next example).
For what it’s worth, I disagree that the version with two dots is “cleaner and easier to read.” I think the version you printed second is much easier to read. I know exactly at a glance what it means, whereas in the first version I have to stop and figure it out.
It’s pretty standard notation in jazz/commercial/musical theater contexts, especially in older hand copied parts. Any musician in those contexts at least would recognize it instantly. That said, I typically don’t use that anymore, and only use double dots for values less than a beat, like in 4/4 a double dotted 8th followed by a 32nd, and so forth.
