Writing sheet music??

So I got a new program that I can write my sheet music with. Its pretty cool it's called "Finale 2008". There is a free version of it which is pretty badass in itself,or u can download it as a torrent and get the full version. Anyways Im having trouble writing this one passage, I dont really understand what note values to use. What note values would you use to fit 3 notes in a half of a beat in 4/4 time. Would it be some kind of triplet??

i dont understand sheet music at all

ive been playing trombone for ovr 6 years and i cant read sheet music.

I mostly play by ear but it is good to learn how to read too, for timing reasons and understanding different beats and rhytyms and such things. It is also handy for playing songs onstage that you have never played before.

Yeah, it would be a triplet.

Thats what I thought...so if the triplet opens the measure it would end on the 1 beat?? Right??

Uh, I'm not sure...

Haha....this is where im getting confused as well.

I, too, have no hell of an idea how to understand it.
I'm sure bhs probably would understand it though. He seems to know a lot about music theory and such

Yeaaaah...I'll stick to tab.

Dude its totally not hard to read the music just learn what each line and space stands for notewise then the only problm will be what fret to play on what string to play on and what octave its in

I'd rather not.

When I first started playing music for the first 2 years I learned from tablature. Later on down the line I found it really screws with your playing because it doesnt teach rhytyhm or note values or theory. You learn a lot about music just by learning how to read it and realizing how its built. It really opens a lot of doors.

OK, so you want three notes to fit into the space where two notes normally go, in which case yes you use a triplet version of that note. If the triplet begins on the first beat of the bar (measure) then it occupies the whole first beat, presuming you are writing quavers (8th notes) so that you have the 2nd, 3rd and 4th beats still to write for.
Does that help?

Afro

Again Afroraven answers the question no one knows how to answer. Good Job! :D I wis hI could read sheet music its just hard to apply it to guitar.Maybe sheet music was invtended for piano?

I had a tough time applying sheet music to guitar, still do. TBH, modern guitar stuff with mega fast and technical solos is pretty pointless for guitar, it just gets so complex trying to read Vai's crazy shit by notation you just end up throwing the guitar on the floor and crying like a little girl (at least I do...ahem)
But notation is really important for chords, and if you want to make a career out of guitar you will have to to do a lot of sessions. As a session player, you walk into the studio and are expected to sightread a load of chord notation and play it perfectly - no TAB in sight. That's something I'm still WAY off from being any good at!

Afro

Yeah, it is much more useful for piano because there is only one way to play each note. On a guitar however, there are multiple ways of playing a note, which is why tab is more useful because it tells you which fret to play on which string.

Understanding rhythm is still vitally important though, and when you buy tab books you are told how long each note is by little note heads above the line of tab. If you only play 8th notes (quavers in UK) in a solo or rhythm part then you run the risk of being boring. Same goes for using 16th notes (semi-quavers) exclusively. Having a good understanding of rhythm, and mixing different note lengths and using triplets and dotted notes really helps to improve your compositions and improvisations.

I cried too Afro.

it's not a triplet. It's twice as fast as a triplet becuase he wants to fit 3 notes in HALF of a beat.

I teach guitar and started taking lessons in like grade 6. And the way i was taught was by first learning sheet music. This is a great way of learning because you start by learning the hard stuff and then move to other easier stuff..

Another one of my theories is that it is better for beginners to start off on acousstic guitars because then when they go to electric it is a bit easier

Shit you're right - I don't know why I missed that first time round! It is still triplets, but in semiquavers (16ths) instead of quavers. There again, this post is so old he's probs finished it by now.

Afro

Exactly... finally someone who understands

It's a 16th triplet...

I've determined that its not hard to determine the octave if you listen to the song, and the fret and string is determining whether you want a warmer tone or a cleaner more robotic tone aside from that I just try to find the position that has the least movement of the hand

Thanks for the help guys, I did figure it to be a Triplet of 16ths a while ago. I just havent been on in a while to post about it. I was still getting used to the music writing program as well. Its tricky because it has a playback feature. Whatever you write it will playback for you. But it plays the notes with a Classical feel rather than a Jazz feel. It just makes it sound really weird to hear a Jazz tune played Classical style. So that is what was really messin me up the whole time.

Yeah, sorry about posting a wrong answer, I misread the original post.

And I know what you mean about the Classical and Jazz feel. Jazz notes are kind of swung, while Classical is always even.

Yeah thats exactly right, its weird to hear it like that. I wonder if computers will ever learn to swing?? Haha.

I still havent got that sheet music quite right though, Im not sure what the problem is or what im doing wrong. Maybe someone can write it out quick so I can compare mine. Its only the first 8 meausures im trying to write out. The song is only 8 meausures over and over.
The song is fairly easy, I dont know why im having such a hard time with it. I can play it perfectly, but writing it out has been nothing but a pain in the ass????
Anyways if ya feel obliged here is the song

http://media.putfile.com/Teo-53

There's probably some way of adding a swing. If not, you could add your own swing by changing the note lengths (two 8th notes are a dotted 8th note followed by a 16th note)

Yeah I thought of trying that. But that would just make the playback feature play it "right", which really I dont care about too much, but also doing so will make the sheet music a lot more confusing than it has to be.