One annoyance with music theory

[weaktwos]

While I enjoy synonyms in the english language, I'm am not currently finding joy in different ways to express music notation.

For example, the dotted quarter note is equivalent to a tied quarter and eighth note.

is equal to

Why exactly would one be better than the other?

Sure, sure. There's a few ways to represent mulitplication, etc. But is there some nuance I am missing? I suppose if you're changing pitch, a slur would be a better representation than a dotted quarter, but otherwise, I don't get it.

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Usually a quarter note slurred to an eighth note is used when the note is carried over from one measure to the next, since each measure must have an equal count of beats. If it's on the same note in the same measure, the dotted quarter should be used unless there is some weirdness afoot. (The British also do their notation differently, but we like to ignore them. At least everyone but my choirmaster does. :))

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Ah, while the music theory explanation doesn't mention this, the notation examples of slurs and ties are crossing into the next measure.

Good to know. Thanks. :-)

[brittadotcom.livejournal.com]

Not only across the bar lines, but across beats, depending on the musical style. Jazz/pop/rock will usually use dotted rhythms, but if the syncopation is held over a beat, for classical & choral I've seen a lot of the tied notation, so it's clear where the beat is. I've seen measures that have the dotted quarter on beat 1, then the eighth-pickup tied to beat 3, etc. Of course since I've sightread jazz so many years just fine, the tied notation throws me sometimes... ;)