Hello,
Since to lengthen the stem of a note takes long time. Is there any rule that we make it like the song score sheet?. I had in mind like this ( see attached). All notes in soprano staff will be stem up, and all the notes in the Alto will be stem down. So we do not need to lenghthen notes to make it even,, otherwise it will be like the the layered Tenor and Bass staves, the value of the note looks different then the original.
Thank you,
Frank
Hi Frank,
I assume you mean like the attached - that's perfectly fine IMHO.
Thank you Lawrie for your quick response, Since I already keyed in as per songbook, is there any short cut to turn the stem up or down at once?.
Thank you
Sure, position your cursor at the start of the staff ( press <Home> ) then hold down the <Shift> key and press <End> (<Shift+End> ), this will highlight, or select, the entire staff.
Next, while the whole staff is still selected, press <Shift+Up/DownArrow>. This will change the stem to all up or all down, depending on which arrow you choose.
Important point to note, if there are any RestChords in the selection they will not be changed and you will need to recreate them manually.
Normally, if you have split stems for the two parts, the dynamics "follow the stems". That means that the Soprano part, which will be stems up, has dynamics etc above the staff (occaisionally lyrics too) and the Alto part (stems down) will have dynamics etc below the staff. NB this is definitely not a hard and fast rule, it's just something that is commonly done.
Also remember, for correct playback each staff needs its own dynamics and dynamic variances.
Actually this is not true. In the latest version of NWC, the Shift+Up/Down keys will flip RestChords. However, the direction for the RestChord will be that of the rest, not the note stem. That is, pressing Shift+Up will put the rest on the top and the note on the bottom, with the stem pointing down. (And vice versa for Shift+Down).
Ohh, thanks for the correction Mike - this is GOOD news :D