I've noticed that while I'm copying scores from American sheet music into NWC format I'll often get a series of four consecutive 8th notes all beamed together. But when I use the NWC automatic beam command it usually splits them up into two sets of two. Is this a standard rule everywhere or just a convenient American way to save space inside a measure by squeezing beamed notes closer together?
My piano teacher always said that you beam according to the beat. So in 4/4, you should get eight pairs ... unless you feel it in 2. Then you'd get four of them together. Seems like a good rule of thumb to me. But I don't have any official source to back that up!
NoteWorthy will not automatically beam across a major beat. The time signature controls what a major beat is.
So we have this:
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.751,Single)
|TimeSig|Signature:2/2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Bar
|TimeSig|Signature:4/4
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Rest|Dur:Half
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
This is a conservative approach. Some scores use this approach, some do not.
According to Elaine Gould's "Behind Bars", p.153, the current practice should be:
So ... both ways are correct. NWC does it always according to the first item; I often add an invisible 2/2 after a 4/4 to get the "half-bar pattern", because I like it more.
A "beat" is
not the denominator of the time signature - rather, it is the "musically felt beat". Gould gives the following (obviously non-exhaustive) examples:
H.M.
Thank you gentlemen, you've provided a lot of information. Just so I understand, are you saying by adding an invisible 2/2 signature after the 4/4 the NWC automatic beam command would give me one group of four 8th notes? Ans if so, how do I make said time signature invisible?
Paste this:
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.751,Single)
|TimeSig|Signature:2/2|Visibility:Never
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Like everything else in NWC!
Highlight it, then "properties", "visibility", "never".
... and, you can make
everything in NWC invisible by
- highlighting it (keyboard: put cursor to the left of it, then press Shift-rightarrow)
- opening its properties (keyboard: press Alt-Enter)
- select tab "Visibility" (keyboard: press Ctrl-Tab until you see bold "Visibility")
- select "Never" under "Show on printed" (keyboard: press downarrow until "Never" is highlighted, then press Enter)
- close properties (keyboard: press Enter once more)
Pressing Alt-Enter is standard in windows to open any properties - you can do that for files, images, whatever ... NWC uses many Windows standards.
H.M.