Posts tagged with
swell

A common device that I see a lot of is 'stagger breathing', and I have some problems with it! Not the concept itself, just the way it is carried out. I often see a stream of notes in a woodwind part, perhaps copied and pasted from the violin part, and the words, 'stagger breathe' or 'breathe when necessary'. The latter I find particularly humorous, as they really have no choice. Even the world's most intelligent flute players have no way of knowing the best way…
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As I keep pointing out, there is a lot of phrasing that will happen naturally. However, we often need to indicate when to swell. This article mainly deals with the notation and interpretation of swells in isolation. For a very detailed discussion of what happens out in the wild be sure to check out my Error Code 7 article. 1. Conventional wisdom is that in this case (Ex.1), they will go up one dynamic. I have found that more often than not, all sections…
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