Rhythms
This page addresses the fundamentals of rhythms in slippery chicken, such as naming conventions and how various rhythm modifiers are represented. This manual, including the tutorials and other pages, will use the American terms for rhythms. Details on the differences between British and American note value terminology can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value.
Documentation on rthm-seq-palettes
and rthm-seq-maps
can be found on
a separate page.
+ Durations
Numeric representation
Rhythmic durations in slippery chicken can be represented
either numerically or through the use of alphabetic rhythm-naming
conventions similar to those of Common Music and Common Music
Notation. The numeric representations for rhythmic durations are
determined by their relationship to a whole note, which is defined to
be 1
. Correspondingly, a half note is
2
(two divisions of a whole), a quarter note
is 4
(four divisions of a whole), an eighth note
is 8
, a sixteenth note is 16
, a
thirty-second note is 32
, and so forth.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) 1) (2 4 8 16 32 32)))))
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Alphabetic representation
Alphabetic representations exist for the most frequently used
rhythmic durations. These are w
= whole, h
= half, q
= quarter, e
= eighth,
and s
= sixteenth.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) w) (h q e s s)))))
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+ Rests
Rhythmic values in parentheses represent rests of the given duration. As with all note durations, these can be represented as numbers or letters.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) h (q) e (16) 16)))))
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slippery chicken does not automatically consolidate rests. Thus, two or more consecutive rests in the code will appear as the same number and type of consecutive rests in the printable output.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) (s) (s) e s (s) (s) (s) (e) (e) q)))))
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+ Dots
Dotted values are indicated by placing a period after the rhythmic
value. When using the alphabetic rhythm representations, the period
can be placed immediately after the letter. Thus, a dotted eighth is
indicated as e.
, a dotted quarter as q.
etc. When using numbers to represent rhythmic durations, the period
must be preceded by a backslash to prevent Lisp from reading the dot
as a decimal point. Thus, a dotted eighth is indicated
as 8\.
, a dotted quarter as 4\.
etc. Any
number of successive dots can be added simultaneously
(e.g. e..
for a double-dotted eighth).
Dots function the same way for rests as for notes.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) e. s (e..) 32 (8\.) 16 8\.. 32)))))
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+ Ties
Ties from one rhythm to the next rhythm are indicated by
placing a plus sign immediately between two rhythmic values with no
space between them, such as q+e
or
4+8
. Ties from one rhythm to the previous
rhythm are indicated by placing a plus sign immediately before a
free-standing rhythmic value, e.g., for placing ties over bar lines.
When using the alphabetic representations, the plus sign for a tie to
a previous rhythm can be placed immediately before the letter, such
as +e
or +q
etc. When using numbers to
represent rhythmic durations, the plus sign for a tie to a previous
rhythm must be preceded by a backslash to prevent Lisp from reading
it as a "positive" sign. Thus, a free-standing eighth tied to the
previous rhythm is indicated as \+8
, a free-standing
quarter tied to the previous rhythm as \+4
etc.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) q+e e 4+8 8) ; ties from rhythm to the next (+q +e e 4 \+8 8))))) ; ties to the previous
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+ Tuplets
Tuplet rhythmic durations can also be represented either numerically
or using the alphabetic naming conventions. As with straight rhythms,
numeric representations for tuplet durations are determined by their
relationship to a whole note (1
). Thus, since there are
12 triplet eighths in a whole note, a triplet eighth can be indicated
by 12
. A septuplet sixteenth is 1/28th of a whole note,
and can therefore be indicated as 28
; a septuplet eighth
as 14
etc.
The alphabetic nomenclature for triplets and quintuplets consists of
placing a t
(for triplet) or an f
(for
quintuplet, or "five"-tuplet) before the rhythm value. Thus, a
triplet eighth can be notated te
or t8
, a
quintuplet sixteenth as fs
or f16
, etc.
It is important to emphasize that tuplet durations in slippery chicken must be entered as their actual durations, and not the duration of their note-type as it would appear in a score. This is because slippery chicken processes tuplet durations separately from tuplet brackets and numbers, rather than using brackets as a flag to scale their enclosed durations. Tuplet durations can be entered without specifying tuplet brackets and numbers. (This is particularly important when creating nested tuplets.)
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) - 12 12 - (12) - 20 20 (10) 20 -)))))
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:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) - te t8 - (te) - fs fs (f8) f16 -)))))
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This not only allows for tuplets to be printed in a score without any brackets and numbers, but also makes it possible for partial-beat tuplets to be placed anywhere in a measure, so long as the sum of all rhythmic durations in that measure produces a complete measure. This can lead to confusion, so caution is advised if employing this characteristic of the software intentionally.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) te e ts s ts s ts ts)))))
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Should a tuplet bracket and number be desired in the printed score,
such as a "3" in a bracket above a triplet figure, curly brackets
{}
must be used. The first number after the opening
curly bracket is the number of the tuplet; 3
indicates a
triplet, 5
a quintuplet, 7
a septuplet
etc. There must be white space before and after each curly bracket of
a tuplet, otherwise slippery chicken will exit with an error
message.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) { 3 te te (te) } { 5 - fs fs (f8) f16 - } )))))
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Tuplet brackets can also be placed on partial-beat tuplets, with the same caution as urged above.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) s { 3 te ts } e { 3 t32 t32 } s { 3 ts ts })))))
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Dots, ties, and rests are indicated the same way for tuplets as for straight rhythmic values, for both alphabetic and numeric forms.
Nested tuplets
Nested tuplets can also be created using slippery chicken. As mentioned above, it is particularly important to remember that the actual durations of the rhythms must be entered, and that they are not automatically scaled by enclosing tuplet brackets.
For example, to create triplet sixteenths within a triplet eighth,
one can start by calculating the duration of the triplet eighth,
which is 12
(1/12 of a whole note). When one triplet
eighth is divided into three equal parts, i.e., a triplet within a
triplet, each of the resulting sixteenths have a duration of 1/3 of
1/12, or 1/36, and are thus indicated by 36
:
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((2 4) { 3 12 12 12 } { 3 12 12 { 3 36 36 36 } } )))))
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+ Beams
By default, slippery chicken produces scores with no
beams. However, the user can specify where beams are to be placed in
the typeset output by inserting -
(minus/hyphen) signs
among the rhythm items of the given rhtm-seq
. Beams are
specified by placing a hyphen before the first rhythm of the group of
rhythms that are to be beamed together to begin the beam and a second
hyphen after the last rhythm of the group to end the beam.
Beams can be placed to span over rests that occur between two notes in the same beat, but cannot be made to extend over rests that begin or end a beat. "Stemlets" over rests are not yet available.
:rthm-seq-palette '((1 ((((4 4) - e e - - s s s s - e - s s - (s) - s (s) s -)))))
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+ Repeat rhythms shorthand
The sequential repetition of a given rhythm can be notated using
the repeater shorthand with the multiplication symbol
x
. The following example produces a bar with 16
consecutive sixteenth-notes:
(make-rthm-seq-bar '((4 4) s x 16))