- Cultivate
a legible hand
- Work in
pencil first - ink it in later
- Incorporate
every note in the original score
- Make
sure that the correct duration of each note is retained...
- ...and
that all notes grouped on to a single stem have the same length
- Write
the double-bass part an octave lower than written in the
original
- If there
is a single line of music on one stave, your stems and beams will need
to face in whatever direction is clearest
- Transcribe
the shortest value notes first to leave room for everything else
- A blank
stave between systems can aid clarity
- A chord
(with one stem) can sometimes be spread out into both staves with advantage,
as can a whole melodic or accompanimental line
- Double
stops that have separate stems in the original can be converted into
single-stem two-part writing in your reduction unless the texture
is contrapuntal - if that's the case, retain the layout of the original
score
- Include
dynamics, bowing and phrasing
- Shared
stems = shared rests and
separate parts = separate rests
- Change
a clef rather
than indulge in the use of lots of ledger lines, unless you particularly
want to preserve the melodic shape
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- Do not
introduce extra notes into your reduction
- Avoid
empty bars if you are able - pitch permitting - to spread one
or two parts out on to both staves, change clef if necessary. It looks
neater than bars above or below with nothing happening in them
- Don't
leave out the brace
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