RHY.5:5.4 - One attack can conceal two different instructions

Consider two constructed instructions over two equal beats. A begins a tone at the first beat and sustains it until the end of the second. B begins at the same time, stops at the end of the first beat, and rests for the second. The attack-only syllable string is ta in both cases. It answers the onset question but cannot tell a player whether to sustain or stop.

One available extension is Cha’s convention: ta–ah carries a tone through the next beat, while ta (ta) marks a rest there. State this convention before using the parentheses: other Takadimi uses employ parentheses for muted, unarticulated positions without the same rest-only meaning. Cha also proposes voiced rest cues, ending the relevant syllable in sh; these are rehearsal cues, not attacks to add to the instrumental phrase.

Alternatively, retain a two-beat guide with separate duration instructions: start, continue to the end for A; start, stop after one beat and remain silent for B. Both constructions return the required sustain/stop distinction. The second can reuse a familiar gesture and duration notation instead of introducing new syllables.

For the stated task either augmented representation suffices. The bare ta does not. A later test of unprompted performance must distinguish the chosen teaching support from the capability expected without it.