This one has always aggrivated me eer since I started using NWC.Sometimes it appears to count the beats in both the up and down stem directions for measures wiith chords and sometimes it doesn't appear to. When it doesn't we have mismatched measures and possibly out of synch music and or lyris. Was hoping one of our virtuosos could explain the logic to me. A measure of star dust is appended to show what I mean.
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Bar
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:Half,Dotted|Pos2:0
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:#-2|Opts:Stem=Down
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Thank you in advance for any light you cn shed.
Keith
That's interesting and I can't explain the logic. In the meanwhile, you may need a workaround? Use layered staffs. In the top staff:
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Half,Dotted|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
and in the bottom staff
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:#-2|Opts:Stem=Down
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Keith,
What you have to do when you use chords on a staff is to treat each chord as a unit and count that unit. do not think of it as stem up counts and stem down counts - as you suspect - that does not always work.
In your example,using stem up countng and stem down counting, stem up gets you 4 beats, stem down gets you 4 beats - seems ok. But - you need to use unit counting (the smallest value for each unit). In the first group (unit) the smallest timing is two beats, the second unit has two beats and the last unit has one beat - a total of 5 beats - no good for a 4 beat measure.
What you need to do is to correct this so that all of the units add up to the time sig. In this case, you need to make the quarter note play only 1 beat after the single half note note sounds. So you need to make the half note add up to one beat rather than the two beats it naturally does. To do this, you need to make it a chord with a rest such that the lowest unit value is 1 beat.
Like this :
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Bar
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:Half,Dotted|Pos2:0
|RestChord|Dur:4th|Opts:Stem=Up,ArticulationsOnStem|Dur2:Half|Pos2:#-2
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
In music publishing, this is not displayed like this and so might not end up as you would like to see it.
The other way of balencing chorded measures without doing this is to use layering.
If you have all stem up measures in one layer and stem down measures in a second layer, then you won't need to do all this, but you may need to adjust the horizontal position of a note slightly when the notes are in close proximity (pitch wise)
So in your case
Put all the stem up notes in one staff
Put the stem down notes in a second staff
Put your cursor on the first staff. Go to the properties of the staff , the visual tab (ALT and Enter, then select the visual tab)
Check the "Layer with next staff" box.
You will see that the lower staff now overlays the upper one. (If it doesn't check the view menu to check that you have "Allow layering" selected)
But you will have clashing notes (A/B chord assuming treble clef)
Go to the view menu and uncheck "Allow layering" (quickest way to unlayer)
Highlight the A in the second staff and go to the properties for that note.
Enter 1 in the Extra note spacng box - click ok
Go to the view menu and check "View Layering"
This should now look as you would expect it to.
I didn't know that, Richard. Thank you. Building on your clip, the rest can be effectively hidden, without hiding the half note, by entering it high above the staff, spilling past the top of the page you will be printing.
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Bar
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:Half,Dotted|Pos2:0
|RestChord|Dur:4th|Opts:Stem=Up,ArticulationsOnStem,VertOffset=99|Dur2:Half|Pos2:#-2
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
IOW, for Chords (or RestChords) with 2 durations, the shorter duration determines the onset of the next note. The stem directions are irrelevant.
The above does not apply to grace notes. They inhabit their own special universe.
Thank you all for your contributions. I have used the layering work around any number of times I have come across thisw problem. Rich thank you very much for the the tutorial on how to actually figure it out. Will give it a try and report back on how it works. David and Rick G, thank you also for your prompt and very useful information and work arounds.
Keith
Rich, worked like a charm. I have run across this a lot in Sacred Music. And have always used the layered staff work around. Is nice to understand what is actually going on and be able to do it right without a lot of extra work.
Thank You
Keith
Why not notate it like this? The time values come out right, and there is no need for layering.
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:0^|Opts:Stem=Up|Dur2:Half|Pos2:-1
|Chord|Dur:4th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Up|Dur2:Half|Pos2:#-2
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End