Re: How to make some staff lines thicker than others?

[David Raleigh Arnold]

Laura Conrad wrote:

> 
> I'm discussing a project with a friend.  He would like to make some
> pedagogical material on reading different clefs.  His idea is that if
> he had a Grand Staff with 11 lines (the four for the bass and treble
> clefs, plus the one for Middle C in between them), and if he could
> make any set of 5 of them darker, then he could show how the same
> notes print in treble clef, bass clef, and various C, G, and F clefs.
> 
> I have found in the documentation how to modify the number of lines on
> the staff, and the thickness of ledger lines.  There is obviously a
> way to make all the staff lines a different color, e.g., red.  But is
> there a way to make some staff lines a different color (or thickness,
> or shade of grey) from others?
> 
> Or should one fiddle with having several staves only one staff space
> away from each other?

How strange that you got no answer, given the history of staff lines.

Petrucci was a typesetter rather than an engraver, wasn't he?  There
was no such thing as itaglio music engraving in his day, was there?
Notes were first printed by the lands in woodcut, for sure.

It appears that there is no interest in reproducing the earliest woodcut
styles of music printing.  The earliest musical staves, as you may know,
consisted in a red line for the "c" and additional black lines, with red
and black notes in solid colors.  The "g" and "f" clefs were not yet
invented.  Did printers reverse the line color because one prints the
darker colors over the lighter?

I think that you have asked for a desirable feature.  I often suggest
to beginners that they darken or redden the center line of the stave
when they are first trying to memorize the notes.  I am somewhat
surprised that this never came up before.  daveA

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