A beam over same-pitch or near-unison repeated notes should be flat, not wedge-shaped

When all notes under a beam are the same pitch (or very close), the beam should be drawn flat/level rather than tilted, since there is no melodic contour to justify a slope, and a spuriously sloped beam over identical pitches reads as a visual error ('wedge').

A beamed group of four identical-pitch eighth notes renders with a visible non-zero slope purely as an artifact of the slope-search cost function rather than reflecting any pitch change.

Gould, Behind Bars, ch. Beaming — flat beams for same-pitch groups; Ross, Art of Music Engraving — explicit 'wedge' avoidance guidance for repeated-note beam groups.

This rule is about where marks land on the page, so it can only be judged after engraving. Collision and spacing faults live here.