musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...

, a cue note is or cue notes are indications informing players, "of important passages being played by other instruments, such as an entrance after a long period of

rest REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...

."McGrain, Mark (1990). ''Music Notation'', p.183. Hal Leonard. . A cue may also function as a guideline for another instrument for

musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of Emotion, emotions and Musical technique, instrumental techn ...

or if there are many bars rest to help the performer find where to come in. "Cue notes may be given as guidance only, to assist a performer's entrance after numerous measures of rest.... heir size, and all elements associated with themis somewhat smaller than normal note size, but still large enough to be legible (65-75% of normal note size)."Gerou, Tom & Lusk, Linda (1996). ''Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'', p.119. Alfred Music Publishing. . The cued instrument is indicated with text and the cue notes are smaller than the rest. The stems of cue notes all go in the same direction and cue notes are

transposed In linear algebra, the transpose of a matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal; that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other notations). The tra ...

into the key of the part entering. In orchestral and wind ensemble music, cues may appear in the part of an instrument expected to cover the part if the original instrument is absent or not represented. For example, in the absence of a tenor tuba, important passages or solos may be covered by a trombone or horn, and these passages may be written in their parts as cues in expectation of such a possibility.

References

Musical notation {{music-theory-stub