Which way do stems go on music notes?

If the note is above the middle line, its stem points downwards. If the note is below the middle line, its stem points upwards. If the note is on the middle line of the staff, its stem direction is determined by the stem directions of any adjacent notes, beam groups, or chords.

What is a stem direction in music?

If the stem points up from a notehead, the stem originates from the right-hand side of the note, but if it points down, it originates from the left. If there are multiple notes beamed together, the stem’s direction is defined by the average of the lowest and highest notes in the beam.

When to write stems up or down?

1. If you are writing a single melodic line, stems should go up if the note is below the middle line and down if the note is above the middle line. If the note is on the mid- dle line, the stem may go up or down, depending on the stems of adjacent notes (example B.

Does stem direction matter?

A. No. It doesn’t matter what direction the stem is going. You will still treat the note the same.

When stem direction is mixed the slur is written?

When all of the stems are in the same direction, the slur is written on the side opposite from that of the stems. When stem direction is mixed, the slur is written above the notes.

What do upside down notes mean in sheet music?

It’s just to prevent the stems from extending too far away from the staves. If the note is below the middle line of the staff then it’ll point up, otherwise it’ll point down.

Does middle C get a stem?

The general rule of thumb is this: The stem of the note is the distance of an octave. So if you have a note on middle C, the stem would extend all the way to treble C.

Do all notes have stems?

All notes except the whole note have stems attached to the note head. The stem can be drawn up or down depending on the note’s position on the staff. Up stems connect to the right side of the note head. Down stems connect to the left side of the note head.

Does stem direction affects note duration?

Stem direction affects note duration. The shape of notes represents their pitch. The position of a note on the staff represents its duration. The downbeat in every measure happens right before the barline.

Does the slur go on top or bottom?

A slur on a single staff always curves upwards and is placed above the notes, unless all of the notes under the slur are up-stem, in which case it curves downwards and is placed below the notes.

What does it mean when a note has two stems?

This piece of music has two voices. The note has two stems because the voices are playing the same note. It looks like the lower voice holds the note (hence the tie) while the upper voice changes in the next measure. If it’s choir music then two voices are singing in unison.

What is the difference between a slur and a tie in music?

A slur means the notes should be played as smoothly as possible, with no space in between. 1. On each line, write the number of counts each pair of tied notes would receive. A tie is a curved line that connects two notes of the same pitch.

What do 3 slashes on a note stems mean?

Where a triplet is required, one slash on a quarter note with a “3” above the note would indicate a eighth note triplet. In jazz notation, a single diagonal line in a measure indicating that the chord shown above the measure is to be performed in a rhythm pattern in the style of the genre of music being performed.

What is the stem direction of a note?

1 If the note is above the middle line, its stem points downwards. 2 If the note is below the middle line, its stem points upwards. 3 If the note is on the middle line of the staff, its stem direction is determined by the stem directions of any adjacent notes, beam groups, or chords.

What determines the stem direction on a piano staff?

If the majority of notes in the beam group are below the middle line, stems in the beam group point upwards. If the beam group contains an equal number of notes either side of the middle line of the staff, the stem direction is determined by the stem directions of any adjacent notes, beam groups, or chords.

What is the stem rule in music?

The stem rule tells us which direction the stem of a music note must be written on the music staff . You may have noticed that sometimes you see stems going up for some notes and going down for others. This is not just random.

How do you find the stem of a chord?

If the note furthest from the middle line is above the middle line, the stem of the chord points downwards. If the note furthest from the middle line is below the middle line, the stem of the chord points upwards.