Consequences of score density

[1piano4joe]

Hi all,

I almost always see a binary 16 bar piece take up an entire page. Most pieces I have learned have  4 bars per line and 4 lines per page. The notes and bars are spaced further apart with this density.

Well, now I have come across the same piece where the score is around a 3rd of a page and the notes and bars are much closer together. 8 measures per line and only 2 lines!

I have two questions:

1. Can this affect the readability of the piece? I feel like I can't help but see the next measure peripherally. I read somewhere I'm supposed to be reading a measure ahead of the measure I'm playing. I don't do this. I can't do this. But in this format I seem to see two measures at a time as one long one. Does this density help prepare one for what's coming next?

2. Would greater density affect the learning time of a piece? If so, why? Maybe it would shorten the learning time but I can't figure out why this might be.

Just curious, Joe.

P.S. Maybe fewer wrong notes or fewer hesitations, might explain a shorter learning time. Or maybe if I learn longer sections there would be fewer to join? I just don't know.

[j_tour]

That's a killer question. 

I can just give my opinion, but I'm used to writing transcriptions in pencil, where I always write in bar lines at four per line.  Yeah, it can get cramped writing in pencil with sixteenth notes and above, but that's just habit, how I organize it.

HOWEVER, yeah, I see all kinds of configurations in printed scores.  It kind of annoys me, especially when measure numbers are not printed in the text, because I have to count, if I want to complain about a piece here and so forth.

1. Can this affect the readability of the piece? I feel like I can't help but see the next measure peripherally. I read somewhere I'm supposed to be reading a measure ahead of the measure I'm playing. I don't do this. I can't do this. But in this format I seem to see two measures at a time as one long one. Does this density help prepare one for what's coming next?

Well, no, I can't make a general rule.  It just depends on the piece, and how dense the writing is.

As well as the quality of the engraving, as well.

I prefer more regular engravings, and it does make it easier for me to sight read, but if the notes are all crammed together, you know, that's not any good.

It's more the quality of the engraving:  the one that really chaps my ass, so to speak, is when people engrave insane numbers of ledger lines instead of just 8va or 8vb.  And, of course, there's later Scriabin with useless, non-sensical double-sharps and all that.

The bar lines per staff doesn't even ping my radar as far as annoying goes.

It does annoy me particularly in various Bach dance suites, where the tempi are very slow, which can be challenging to figure out the time just from reading, so the additional processing doesn't help and actually detracts from my efficiency, but those kind of pieces are annoying to read anyway, especially if I haven't heard a recording in a long time, if ever.

2. Would greater density affect the learning time of a piece? If so, why? Maybe it would shorten the learning time but I can't figure out why this might be

That I couldn't say.  I doubt it.  But that's just my perspective, namely someone who sight reads a lot.  It's really six of one, half dozen of the other.

No, I don't think that makes a difference, a propos learning time.