Carets meaning half step

[Dorothy]

Larry,
I am working on "Expressive Techniques for Orchestra, Violin" and in the beginning of the book, they present Finger Patterns. When there is a half step, a caret is placed above the space between the two notes.
I had planned to ignore this, or use a hyphen, but at the back of the book, the author specifies that a dash (-) indicates a shift to a new position, and a caret (^) indicates a half step between two pitches.
Now I think I should use the caret (35, 26). Will that be confusing in the music line? Should I use a word sign?

The dash does not occur in a music line. I

I think I will send you a .pdf of the page where they both occur.

Dorothy

[Dorothy]

Larry,
Since you have not yet responded, and I need to move forward, this is what I have decided.

The author definitely wants to mark all of the half steps in these exercises. So I have used wordsign h to indicate a half step. I put this in a tn the first time it was used, and also on the appropriate p-pages.

When the - for the shift is used, I used wordsign s. However, I ignored these hyphens in the beginning part of the book, where shifting is first introduced, since it was not mentioned. What do you think?

[LarrySmith]

Dear Dorothy,

I must apologize. The forum website is sometimes unpredictable. I check it at least twice a day, and your first message did not come up until your follow-up arrived.

The sign for a shift is the same as a portamento (4, 1). The caret for a half-step is not standard music notation, so you have to make something up, and I think your word-sign h is intuitive and sensible. Congratulations.

Larry

[Dorothy]

Larry,
Thank you for your input.

I noticed that shift sign in the Code Book, but it is labeled "a straight line between two noteheads". That is not what I have. I have a minus sign in the fingering. It is used for the first finger placement after a shift (to a new position). So that would be, in braille, position sign, octave sign, note, fingering. If I used the (4, 1), where would it go? My inclination is to put in a general TN and leave it out. Also, sometimes the fingering number is the same as the previous note, and sometimes it is not. The author only uses this in the demonstration exerciss, not in the actual songs. I think it is a visual, and would make clutter.

What do you think?

Dorothy

Dorothy

[LarrySmith]

Larry,
More thoughts.. I like the portamento symbol for the end of the book, where they are only using the numbers, dashes, and carets.

However, we have not fully addressed my question about the fingering with the minus sign, at the beginning of the book. The .pdf I sent is the one that is upside down (sorry). Do you recommend skipping the minus (dash) signs? What about the footnote that the author includes?

I will hold this volume until I hear from you on this issue.

Thanks,
Dorothy

[Dorothy]

Dorothy,

Whatever happened to your pdf, I can't find it. I think I have a good enough picture from your description, though.

A "change of fingers" is the same sign as a slur (14). But that is for two consecutive fingerings following one note. I agree with you that the minus sign is a visual cue and can be left out, especially since the author did not use it in the actual songs.

You are doing fine work, making very sensible decisions where they are needed!

Cheers to you!

[Author]

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