Skip to main content
Topic: Note names (Read 3905 times) previous topic - next topic

Note names

First I'd like to say that NoteWorthy is great!  Thanks to everyone involved.

Note names.  Is it only N America that uses "whole note" etc?  Or, rather, is it only in the British Isles that the terms semibreve, minim, crotchet and quaver (and down to hemi-demi-semiquaver) are used?

Re: Note names

Reply #1
En la France, on n'utilise pas des termes barbares.

Re: Note names

Reply #2
-
We follow a different nomenclature (closer to the N. American) but it's hard to write here (TR).

Email can be sent if the interest is high enough.
_

Re: Note names

Reply #3
Australia generally uses the Brisith system (semibreve etc), but there's enough interaction with America (visiting conductors, method books etc) that after a very short time you also learn "whole notes" and all the rest.

The term that always throws me is when someone talks about "measures" instead of "bars".  And it's always prounounced with the first vowel rhyming with "tree" rather than the Australian pronunciation, where it rhymes with "bed"!

Re: Note names

Reply #4
And it's always prounounced with the first vowel rhyming with "tree"...
Never say always.  Most people I know say it your way (rhymes with "bed"), but I have heard many other people pronounce it with the first vowel rhyming with "tray", which annoys most people I know.
Come to think of it, I can't remember ever hearing it as "ee"...

Re: Note names

Reply #5
When translated into English literally, Japanese terms are exactly same as American ones.

Re: Note names

Reply #6
Of course, it also depends on how one pronounces "tree" and "bed" and "tray".  Certainly "tray" uses an entirely different vowel in Australian English and in U.S. English.  Probably still different in Southern British English, Yorkshire English, Somerset English, etc.  So, to an Australian, a USian may use the vowel from (Australian) "tree" in "measure", but they may also use the vowel from (Australian) "tree" in "bed".

 

Re: Note names

Reply #7
Whew! Thank goodness that's out of the way.

Let's hope they don't start discussing key signature names .........