Designating a melody

[Paul Kinney]

I'm working on a handbell quintet. The melody is shared by two ringers who share a staff, then the second verse by another two ringers who share a staff. In each case while one of the pair is playing the melody the other might be playing accompaniment notes.

Please suggest ways I can indicate this is a melody note and that is not.

Thanks,
Paul Kinney
Redford Aldersgate UMC
Redford, Michigan

[MARY YERKS]

Could you use s square shaped note head for the melody?

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[Michele Sharik]

Different note heads, maybe? 

-Mè

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 8, 2026, at 16:26, MARY YERKS <mkyb...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Marta Sullivan]

Stem up and stem down or Bold/italicize notes for one of the melody lines. 

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 3:15 PM 'Paul Kinney' via Handbell-l <handb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

[long...@aol.com]

I've used small arrows at the left of each note to help designate the melody note, especially in a chordal progression, but it would work for your small.ensemble layout as well.

 

Kath Wissinger

[THOMAS SIMPSON]

Write the word: Melody. 

FTS

On Jul 8, 2026, at 10:55 PM, Marta Sullivan <martasu...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[J.-C. Coolen]

Use a tenuto mark on each melody note?

jc

[Paul Kinney]

I asked about how I might designate a melody sometimes shared between two people on one staff. Thank you to those who offered suggestions.

Mary Yerks and Michele Sharik suggested an alternate notehead.

I'm reluctant to use a square one because that has come to mean an alternate type of bell such as Whitechapel or P&F. While that might sound pretty cool I'm reluctant to notate it that way so as not to scare away performers who don't have access to those types of bells.

Another notehead shape, including a larger notehead size is possible, though would be more work than other options (even in Dorico that makes a lot of other tasks easier).

Marta Sullivan suggested using stem direction. In ensemble ringing that is already used to indicate which ringer plays which note. Marta also suggested "bold/italicized" -- but I have no idea what that might mean.

This is a sample what I came up with. If you get digest mode you may have to go to the conversation website to see it. P3 means the third position from the treble end (ensemble ringing numbers them in the opposite direction than choir ringing) and P4 is the fourth. In this piece they share the middle staff and the melody.



Comments appreciated.

Paul Kinney
Redford Aldersgate UMC

Redford, MI

[Linda Lamb]

Paul, are the colors going to show in your printed music?  Or are they layers (in Finale-speak, no idea how to do that in Dorico)?  Therefore not going to print out in four colors as shown in your example.

I was going to suggest putting the melody in red (everything else black) like From the Top does with chime notes.  I'm assuming this is an original melody and not something people should recognize as the melody because they know the tune already?

I don't follow the melody as shown by the "Melody P3-4" but maybe that's just me being obtuse.

LindaL 

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[Paul Kinney]

Linda, all those colors in my sample score are display only, they'll print as black.

Your idea to print the melody in red might work. I don't know how to print in other than black -- yet. Dorico probably has a way.

Paul Kinney