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w3c / mnx

Music Notation CG next-generation music markup proposal.
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Open Harmonics between frets #179

Open snakebyte69 opened 5 years ago

snakebyte69 commented 5 years ago

The current MusicXML doesn't have a way to capture harmonics that are played between frets. Decimal places could be used, e.g. 2.8 or 3.2. Only exact fret locations are allowed for in the current version.

See the chart below.

snakebyte69 commented 5 years ago

natural harmonic 2 7

snakebyte69 commented 5 years ago

guitar harmonics

snakebyte69 commented 5 years ago

Harmonics from the Fundamental to the Tenth Harmonic

The chart includes information on the harmonics up through the tenth harmonic in the series. Details are given on where they occur on the guitar and their intervallic relationship to the fundamental pitch.

snakebyte69 commented 5 years ago

  1. Harmonics at any interval other than an exact octave (or multiples of an octave) are only an approximation of the actual interval.

  2. Fret numbers in red indicate that the node is occupied by (or close to) a harmonic lower in the series, which therefore overrides the higher harmonic. This may be somewhat confusing, but these frets are mentioned so that you can more easily see how each successive harmonic divides the string, creating one additional node as you move up the series.

  3. An asterisk indicates a harmonic that occurs between the end of the fretboard and bridge of the guitar. The exact location will depend on the length of the string, which will vary based on the size of the guitar. A number after the asterisk indicates that the harmonic is found in multiple locations on this part of the string.

  4. All fret numbers with decimal points are approximations of where the harmonic occurs. For example, the harmonic at 3.2 is roughly two-tenths of the distance between the third and fourth frets. You need to experiment to find the exact location on your guitar.

  5. This harmonic is somewhere around the twelfth fret, but is overpowered by the second harmonic in the series.

mdgood commented 5 years ago

I think that these harmonics should be able to be represented using the current <harmonic> element, which was intended to handle fretless instruments like violin as well as guitar. This is not representing harmonics in quite the same way as you propose, as there are separate <pitch> elements to represent base, touching, and sounding pitch. Since <pitch> elements are used rather than fret numbers, decimal values are possible.

Is there a specific example of something that the MusicXML 3.1 harmonics are not able to represent?

This element would seem a likely candidate for redesign in MNX, as it has not been widely supported in software.