Customer Reviews

Norton Manual of Music Notation

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This book is essentially a primer on the basics of how to notate music by hand, meaning how to draw noteheads, space things, etc. It does not contain information on score layout, terminology, etc. that are also essential to notating a piece of music. For instance, it will tell you how to draw a fermata, but not the common practice rules for how and where it should appear in an orchestral score and parts. Since I was looking more for these specific rules rather than for the basics, I was disappointed with the book.

Everyone who writes down music needs to own a copy of this, not just composers and arrangers, but music students, copyists, transcribers, and so on. It is by far the clearest, most useful, and most practical book on the subject. It is not encyclopedic, though, so eventually you may need to supplement it with other books.

Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.

I found particulary useful the advice about how actually to draw musical symbols, and I enjoyed reading the chapter on "Popular-Music Notation", which really has to do with special notational practices for film, television, and recording session use,--although I happen to have no need for this sort of thing myself.

I have one small objection to lodge, however: the author uses the word "meter" through out to mean time signature. Though the distinction is moot in this context, at this stage of notation, it is important at an earlier stage of notation--that is to say, you need to understand the difference between "meter" and "time signature" in order to decide properly what time signature to use.

The distinction is analogous to that between "key" and "key signature". A key signature of two sharps, for example, tells us to sharp all F's and C's and only implies that we are in the key of D major or B minor. A tonal piece of any length and complexity will at some point change key without changing its key signature. Just so, a time signature of 3/4 tells us there will be three quarter notes worth of time in each measure and only implies that we will hear groupings of three beats or pulses. A piece of any length and complexity written will at some point change meter without changing its time signature.

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In my humble opinion, your reading skills and overall understanding of music notation will be improved if you take the time to write as much as possible. I have found this book to be a great help and resource in helping explain music writing practices.

Here is an excerpt from the product description: (taken from the back of the book)

"The Norton Manual of Music Notation is designed to serve as a practical guide to music handwriting and music-writing procedures. It provides the music student with an essential tool for learning to put notes down on paper with clarity and speed. At the same time, it serves as an indispensable reference to a wide variety of notational conventions."

Here is the Chapter Breakdown from the Table of Contents:

PART ONE: ELEMENTS OF NOTATION

1. Basic Writing Materials
2. Clefs
3. Key Signatures
4. Time Signatures
5. Accidentals
6. Noteheads and Stems
7. Ledger Lines
8. Barlines
9. Intervals and Chords
10. Accidentals in Intervals and Chords
11. Flags and Beams
12. Augmentation Dots
13. Rests and Pauses
14. Ties and Slurs
15. Dynamic Marks
16. Repeat Signs
17. Articulation Marks
18. Ornamentation Signs

PART TWO: COMBINING THE ELEMENTS

1. Spacing
2. Changes of Meter, Clef and Key
3. Courtesy Accidentals
4. Notating Syncopation
5. Notating Irregular Subdivisions of the Beat

Part Three deals with 'Scoring Practices' while the author also provides an 18 page Appendix as well as a bibliography for further reading and research.

Additional clarification is provided in the Preface. Here is an excerpt:


"Parts I and II deal with music written on a single staff - first as a single line of notes, then as two lines of notes. In Part III, music on two or more staves, from simple piano notation to full orchestral score is discussed. The manual is organized for maximum accessibility and clarity."

AND:

"Since this is a manual devoted to basic procedures in music notation, brevity and concision have been our constant watchwords. You will not find special instrumental signs or theory symbols herein, and are therefore urged to refer, when appropriate, to a good orchestration text, a theory book, etc."


Additionally, the book includes exercises to strengthen and reinforce what you've learned.



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I believe every composer and musician should learn how to write music down on paper. This book goes over all the rules, and tells you what tools you will need to make your music look amazing. I got this manual about a month ago and I can say my skills have improved. At first, writing it all down can be time consuming, but eventually you will get faster at it, as it is very satisfying. Music notation software has made writing and copying music faster, but in my opinion is dehumanizing the art of composing. I highly recommend this book for any composer and/or musician who wants to further there skills in writing music down on paper.

Comprehensive and concise. Formatted in such a way as to quickly provide answers to a multitude of questions regarding proper scoring notation. A must for the composers library.

I was a composition student at a prominent music school and no, I did not know all of the rules of proper notation even as I was turning out scores. Instead of taking a semester class in music copying, why not get this book? It is the clearest and easiest to use manual on music notation that I have ever seen. You will find the information you need quickly and you will see immediate improvement in the quality of your scores. Believe me, composers and arrangers need all the help they can get. Sometimes musicians won't even play your whole notes unless they look just right, honest! With the new computer programs you may not have that particular problem, but the same issue arises as when a non-musician writes music at his computer. Someone writes a violin piece in bass clef, nobody knows how to bow it, and the number of beats per measure does not match the time signature. The computer can sure write pretty notes, but you still have to know how to put them together properly.