Grade 6 theory Q.

Give the meaning of..

A crochet with 2 lines through it.

Thank you

Play semiquavers.

Well, my knowledge of cello/violin is very basic, but in piano it would mean instead of playing the crochet as a single note you would play it as 4 semiquavers. I can't understand why on earth they don't just write it as 4 semiquavers. It would make it so much easier to understand. Doubtless the excuse will be either it uses too much ink, or takes up too much space on the page.

Agreed. It's a crotchet's worth of semiquavers.

This notation does not usually appear in isolation - there is usually lines, sometimes whole pages, of the stuff. Writing it this way makes it a lot easier to read.

Also, when paper/printing costs were much higher it saved space