Brackets in music notation - Leavitt Volume 3

[toddw82]

Hi, I'm working through William Leavitt's Modern Method Volume 3. The piece "Solo In Bb" (page 5) has certain notes in half-brackets. See attached picture. What do they mean?

Thanks!

[JonR]

I haven't seen this before, but I did some searching. Vertical square brackets like that are sometimes used on chords, as an alternative (but somewhat outdated) symbol for "arpeggio".
Scroll down this page, just over half way down:
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musicalsymbols.htm

That suggests you play the top note of these two very slightly after the bottom one - that makes sense as it would help the melody (top line) stand out from the accompanying line.

[toddw82]

Thanks! Very helpful.