I guess if you're coming from a bass instrument background, or guitar, and are already used to playing things up or down an octave as written, the 3 staffs might seem normal. Coming from a piano background where I read music fairly crappily, I'm used to the bass staff being somewhat primarily the left hand and the treble staff to be the right hand. That paradigm seems to work just fine for Stick as well. I hate having to transpose an octave, although it's not that big a deal when you get used to it.

The Grand staff covers piano just fine, which has a wider range than Sticks do. The last thing I need is to keep track of a 3rd staff, but if you think from a bass perspective, the bass range covers two staffs already and then you have all that melody stuff to account for, and suddenly we need a third staff.

I'm still fumbling my way through to figuring out things, but the Grand Staff seems to work just fine for me on Stick. Sheet music for piano players often has fingering instructions or info printed as well, and Stick could do the same. But I'd fall in the camp that thinks the Grand Staff--if we have to read music--works just fine for Stick, no matter what the tuning.

I'd also like to not be thought of as the red-headed stepchild of music (especially since I am one in real life!). We don't need a special staff to rock it out! We're a two-handed instrument with a wide range and can hang with any notation that piano players do!

Your mileage and opinions will vary depending often on your background and where you're coming from, I'm sure. Great topic!

You know, I think I have to mess with it a bit... lol I am a bit conflicted about this haha

...two line-systems...
...usualy, bass key for left hand, violin key -8 for right hand...
...in other words LH scores like cello, RH like guitar...

Yeah, I got that. But I hate the ledger lines, they are a nightmare for reading. The bass side of my stick has two more strings than a Cello, so that means a pretty huge range where it crosses over into treble territory... you know, before and after middle 'C' kind of thing... hence the post.

Don't you worry though, I will get it working...

Calypsocool,

I enjoyed the clarity of your notation, and I'm going to adopt that. I'll add whatever Stafftab notation to it that I can.

But, to be splitting hairs, the brace, if I was taught right, indicates that two hands are to play the indicated staves. To indicate that one hand is to play those two staves you need a bracket.

You could bracket the bottom two staves, and then put a brace on all three, if your notation software lets you do that.

R

...yes they are bad for fast reading,
but using different keys can avoid them...

...treble and bass key combined with -8 (and rarely +8) are the solution, IMHO...

...using three systems for score (like organ) make reading uncomfortable either...
...but it depends as well what one is accustomed to...

Nope, omitting a key 'cause it "looks nasty" doesn't work for me, I work all 12 keys...
"Treble and bass key combined with -8 (and rarely +8)" Yep, might be the thing...

...sorry, just replace the word "key" by the word "clef"...

lol All good, hahaha!

Actually, a clef change isn't a bad idea at all. Good suggestion, man! Thanks!

...yes, indeed, it's a good idea, and it's much older than using ledger lines...
...pianists, harpists, cellists do it for centuries...and it's fine for us either...