What does the 8va------- mean

Hi Andrew, could you please tell me what the 8va-------- means? I see it in lots of music but I have no idea what it means

thanks

When you see 8va above the RH, it means play everything under the - - - - - - - - line ONE octave higher than it is written.

If you see the same thing but UNDER the notes it means play one octave LOWER than written! ^_^ hope that helps!

Ahhhh it all makes sense now , thanks

You can also see the 16va-----------------
I have only seen that on one sheet so its rare I guess, but thats ofcourse 2 octaves instead of 1!

Thomandy wrote:You can also see the 16va-----------------
I have only seen that on one sheet so its rare I guess, but thats ofcourse 2 octaves instead of 1!

actually Thomas, you would never see 16va, it's more like 15ma. ^_^ try counting these notes. say you're on C...so C D E F G A B C (that's 8, now let's keep going) D E F G A B C (see how to keep going you can't double count C, which means your next octave has 7 notes, and 8+7=15 Hope that helps!

Admin Andrew wrote:

Thomandy wrote:You can also see the 16va-----------------
I have only seen that on one sheet so its rare I guess, but thats ofcourse 2 octaves instead of 1!

actually Thomas, you would never see 16va, it's more like 15ma. ^_^ try counting these notes. say you're on C...so C D E F G A B C (that's 8, now let's keep going) D E F G A B C (see how to keep going you can't double count C, which means your next octave has 7 notes, and 8+7=15 Hope that helps!

Well, I have seen 16va------------. But I have also seen many other sheets that does not follow the rules!
There are many sheets with lots of errors, both in rulebending, and in wrong notes! Its like typos. Its important to
trust your ear sometimes until you can dubblecheck it with recordings or other sheets (Im not telling you this Andrew hehe cause I know you know, but in general context)

I have had teachings showing it as 8va and 16va, but not 15va (until now that is!). I guess technically 15va is correct and perhaps it's a matter of choice of the author how it is written in the sheet. Infact, just a quick search of wikipedia brings this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth

It goes on to explain that the correct term is 15ma and that 16va and 16vb is alternative notation considered by many to be improper!

So now we know and can be smarty pants about correct notation!

I feel so clever now......

well, at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that you're playing the right notes, right?

Sorry Thomas, if i sounded anal in my comment. I just wanted to make sure you knew everything ^_^

JohnA wrote:I have had teachings showing it as 8va and 16va, but not 15va (until now that is!). I guess technically 15va is correct and perhaps it's a matter of choice of the author how it is written in the sheet. Infact, just a quick search of wikipedia brings this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth

It goes on to explain that the correct term is 15ma and that 16va and 16vb is alternative notation considered by many to be improper!

So now we know and can be smarty pants about correct notation!

I feel so clever now......

Ah, great for clearing that up Then we know we can run into different things like both 15ma and 16va/16vb

Admin Andrew wrote: well, at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that you're playing the right notes, right?

Sorry Thomas, if i sounded anal in my comment. I just wanted to make sure you knew everything ^_^

Im not easly offended But yeah, you are right. That is the most important thing