Accents are used to stress one tone more than another. There are 3 ways of accenting a tone: dynamic accents, which are by far the most common; tonic accents, which are notes of higher pitch; and agogic accents, which accent tones by making their duration longer than others. Only dynamic accents require extra notational marks, so those are the types of accents that are covered on this page.
Note:
All accents, when occurring in conjunction with slurs, should be placed between the slurs and the notes, except for articulations at the beginning and ending of a phrase.
Ex.D
Placement: Vertically aligned with the noteheads.
Size: Stacattissimo marks should be approx. 1 space long.
Shape: Horizontal line.
Placement: Vertically aligned with the notehead, whether on the note or stem-side of the note.
Tenuto marks are always placed within a space if they fall within the staff.
Vertically, tenuto marks should be at least an interval of a third above or below the notehead and at most a fourth above or below. If a mark falls on the stem side, it can be 1/2 space from the stem.
Size: Tenuto marks are slightly thicker than staff lines, and the same length as the width of a notehead. They are not as long as a ledger line.
Shape: A sideways "V" shape, pointing to the right.
Placement:
Vertically aligned with the notehead.
It is best to keep marcato marks outside of the staff line. This can result in distances between the note and the accent that are as much as a 7th apart.
If the marcato mark has to be placed within the staff, it should be placed in a space.
The center of the marcato mark should always be an interval of a fourth away from the center of the notehead.
When there is a tie or slur in the phrase, the marcato mark should be placed further from the notehead to preserve clarity.
If the marcato mark is on the stem side, it should be approx. 1/2 space from the end of the stem.
If there is a dot with the marcato mark, and the accents are on the stem side, then the dot should be vertically aligned with the notehead, not with the stem.
It is sometimes appropriate to place all marcato marks in a passage on the same side of the staff, regardless of if their stems are up or down, for the sake of easier reading by musicians.
Shape: V-shaped, with one side heavier. When the mark is above the note, the right side is heavier; when it is below, the left side is heavier.
Placement: Usually on the notehead side, but when conditions prevent that, it can be placed on the stem side.
Vertically aligned with the notehead.
It can be placed within the staff more easily than the marcato mark, but when it falls within the staff, it should be placed so the space in the middle is easily seen, and not bisected by staff lines.
If there is a dot with the sforzando mark, it should be placed right below the open end of the sforzando mark. When a dot and a sforzando mark are placed on the stem side, they should be vertically aligned with the stem.
Size: 1 space wide, 1 space high.