Please help me! Proofread my sheet music for a tattoo. "Nothing Else Matters"

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by mistertomlinson

I'm getting ready to go talk to the tattoo artist now. I can still make corrections if needed, so please let me know if anything needs revising.

Instead of 3/4 or 6/8, as others have argued for, in actual fact the time signature should be 12/16.

Other than that it's good to go.

Provide us with a photograph of the finished product, when it's finally tattooed on your forehead.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Inyo

Instead of 3/4 or 6/8, as others have argued for, in actual fact the time signature should be 12/16.

Why?

Originally Posted by Inyo

Other than than it's good to go.

Provide us with a photograph of the finished product, when it's finally tattooed on your forehead.

Ah-ha!

If it's going on his head, maybe he should make it 24/32, to look extra clever ...

I also want to see a photo of the finished result, ideally with the OP in a hospital bed, blood everywhere, giving a thumbs up and grinning insanely.

(Extra points if James Hetfield can be seated at his bedside, also with thumbs up - or maybe just frowning while trying to play the tattoo... )

[Dru Edwards]

I just read this thread for the first time. What great responses to help out the OP. One of my old band mates got a tattoo with John Lennon's Imagine around his upper arm (bicep). It looked great as I'm sure Nothing Else Matters will too.

Makes me want to get Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" or "Hallowed be thy Name" on my arm.

[Guitar Slim II]

Originally Posted by mistertomlinson

Edit: I did actually look up mordants and I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. The way I understood it, you play a note, then a note higher, then back to the first note in quick succession. Whereas, in this song, the 3 notes descend.

Agree with everything you say, of course...except for this.

Look at your own notation, it goes C (BCB) A. The mordent is just the (BCB) part, and it goes up a step and back. It is an ascending mordent, one step up and back. The on difference is, a mordent is kind of "front loaded" -- the first two notes are a little faster than the last one.

My ears tell me it's played as more of a triplet on the recording. Like this actually:



Why was this one nixed? It makes more sense to me than most of the other crazy rhythms I've seen bounced around here.

[Guitar Slim II]

Seriously, why was this one not considered? It seems just right to me...

[Guitar Slim II]

Okay, so this is cool. Here is THIS:



Directly dumped from Finale as a piano MIDI.



The notation is the same as the "FINALLLLLLL"

except for that 16th-note triplet in bar 4.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Sounds nice on piano!
Here it is on guitar using JonPR's notation: (Tempo= ca. 50, 2 beats per measure in 6/8 time)

[Guitar Slim II]

Originally Posted by AndreF

Sounds nice on piano!
Here it is on guitar using JonPR's notation: (Tempo= ca. 50, 2 beats per measure in 6/8 time)

Nicely played Andre, but just playing it on guitar doesn't confirm the accuracy of the notation in measure 4. You ARE playing it like the record, but I'm pretty sure you are not playing the rhythm as written.

The point of exporting it as a MIDI directly from Final is that it's completely unbiased and unedited. It's a computer playing back exactly what's been written.

So here it is again, this time on "guitar" -- the "acoustic guitar" patch in Finale. Properly transposed to the correct octave. Once again, listen to the playback of the 16th note triplet in measure 4. Close to "nailed it" I think...

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Guitar Slim II

Seriously, why was this one not considered? It seems just right to me...

Except it's not equal triplets. The first of those middle three is longer than the other two.
I mean, that sounds good (as do all the other alternatives), and looks neat, but it's not how it's played.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Guitar Slim II

Nicely played Andre, but just playing it on guitar doesn't confirm the accuracy of the notation in measure 4. You ARE playing it like the record, but I'm pretty sure you are not playing the rhythm as written.

Neither. Not the same as my notation, and not the same as the record

Originally Posted by Guitar Slim II

The point of exporting it as a MIDI directly from Final is that it's completely unbiased and unedited. It's a computer playing back exactly what's been written.

So here it is again, this time on "guitar" -- the "acoustic guitar" patch in Finale. Properly transposed to the correct octave. Once again, listen to the playback of the 16th note triplet in measure 4. Close to "nailed it" I think...

Close but no cigar . I think the 16th and two 32nds for the middle 3 notes (as in my last post, simplifying the OP's last choice) is as close as you can get without getting too fussy for a tattoo.

I'll post a soundclip of my Sibelius notation tomorrow, for comparison. (It's bedtime here in the UK...)

[vindibona1]

I like JonPR's version the best for play authenticity.

Remember... Tattoos are forever.

[rick-slo]

May the tattoo artist be as meticulous as the posters in this thread.

[Guitar Slim II]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Except it's not equal triplets. The first of those middle three is longer than the other two.
I mean, that sounds good (as do all the other alternatives), and looks neat, but it's not how it's played.

I'm about to use a bad word here, just because I SWORE I was not going to get into the transcription itself, and I was NOT get into one of these debates.

But to me, as someone who has been reading and transcribing music for 50 years, this is nothing more than a simple ornament. The vagueness in the rhythm probably comes from sloppy technique, or the players style, that's all. Either way, it's far too subtle to try and notate -- as six pages of this thread have proven.

Also, he's not doing a pull-off/hamer-on there either. He's just sliding his one finger back and forth between the B and the C, which makes the rhythm doubly hard to pinpoint.

I'll say it again (last time, I promise): It's a simple ornament, folks, and the best way to write it is as an ornament. The 16th-note triplet comes closest to the essence of the music, IMO, and should be no more difficult to tattoo than the other alternatives.

Trying to notate a players' subtle digressions, whether from style or slop, is beyond what music notation can practically do. That's how you end up writing dotted 32nd notes in what should be a very simple score. So even if you figure out a way to massage Sibeleus or Finale -- by using unreadable stuff like dotted 32nds -- to indicate where James rushes this note here or delays that note there, it's still a poor way to score it. It's not just that it's nigh impossible to read. But it also doesn't convey the most important idea: that it's an ornment.

Enough. I'm going to try and say nothing else except respond to direct questions from the OP...and to offer congrats when the deed is done.

Great work everybody, had a blast...

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

May the tattoo artist be as meticulous as the posters in this thread.

Amen to that, especially for the OP’s sake!

Interesting thread, on many levels.

[mistertomlinson]

Originally Posted by Guitar Slim II

Also, he's not doing a pull-off/hamer-on there either. He's just sliding his one finger back and forth between the B and the C, which makes the rhythm doubly hard to pinpoint.

He's definitely doing a hammer on and pull off. I just looked up a quick live video. This is the intro, but in the studio version, the intro is almost note for note the same as the outro. (the rhythm he uses while playing it in the video is different and actually exactly how some of these transcriptions have it written, coincidently)

Originally Posted by JonPR

Except it's not equal triplets. The first of those middle three is longer than the other two.
I mean, that sounds good (as do all the other alternatives), and looks neat, but it's not how it's played.

THIS! The last three notes are played in quick succession. 1 2 3! The note before is longer. I'm compulsive enough that I'd prefer to have it notated this way, but I'm not knowledgable enough to do it myself (although I'm pretty sure it's just as simple as changing note values and a monkey could do it). PLEASE post that sound clip tomorrow. I think this is the last revision I need to make. But I'm pretty sure I'll be using that first example you posted above.



I'll definitely post pictures when I get it. I'll probably wait for it to heal first so it looks good.

Long story: the artist wants to basically use what I have drawn and transfer THAT to my arm for the tattoo and stylize it as he goes. I just assumed he would REDRAW the entire thing using the examples I gave him, but he was reluctant to do this (maybe because he doesn't actually read/write music). I don't know that I'm excited about this idea, so I've been trying to figure out how to stylize and draw the tattoo myself. Drawing these little lines in a calligraphic style with a thin sharpie or even a pen is almost impossible. I actually tried using a flex tip fountain pen that I specifically bought for calligraphy, but the pen, as well as my technique is still insufficient.

I'm gonna give photoshop a try and a friend of mine has a touchscreen Chromebook and stylus that you can get some pretty nice pen strokes out of. Hopefully I work something out.

Edit: I'm actually eying some of these graphic tablets that you use with Photoshop. I can get a cheap one for $20. A mid quality one for $80... Hmmmmm