On my sheets you will not find any ties. I avoid them because the sheets would have too many of them.

They confound the reader, because he sees many more notes than he actually has to play.

This is the intro of Rihanna's Unfaithful. In the right hand you hear 15 notes.

But you see 22 of them on the sheet:

I prefer this notation:

I use rests instead. I know that it isn't totally correct to do so.

Because the rests aren't supposed to be played, it is the note before the rest that has to be longer.

But I don't have an alternative. This would be weird:

Maybe modern music needs something like this: How to save a life, The Fray

In fact, the classical music notation is not adapted to write down the modern rhythmic patterns.

Also other symbols aren't used on my sheets.

If you want to know how the music has to be played (tempo, dynamics...), just listen to the original.

Or ask your own mind.

I'm sure it's musical enough (since you're reading this page) to help you figure out the problem.