Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Spoken words (Read 2726 times) previous topic - next topic

Spoken words

How can I include rhythmically spoken words, and/or claps or snaps in rhythm? What I need is a way to enter an "x" with a stem. Is this possible?

Re: Spoken words

Reply #1 –
Sort of possible, depending on how good it needs to look. You can create the appearance of a rhythm marker using Insert Text, using a Times Roman "|" with a large (18pt) font and a separate bold Arial "x" (10pt). Have fun trying to get them to line up. Then you need to deal with holding the place in the song. You can insert an equivalent rest, place it below the staff, and white it out (by hand). Or you can use a hidden track (visual work on one mute staff, the real playback on another hidden staff).

Here is a small example:
http://music.acmecity.com/recording/273/RhythmMarker.nwc

This would work better if the rhythm marker was a single symbol in a special font.
 

Re: Spoken words

Reply #2 –
I use spoken word in many of my pieces and have done so for many years and with many different music software programs and it is always a compromise. Performance practise is such that what works best is to use the center line of your staff notate out the rhythm and insert text about it using the word 'Spoken' or 'whisper' or even more detail. All of the singers I have ever worked with have understood this immediately. When you need to return to sung words insert the word 'sung' or 'sing' and they will do so.
The great thing about this solution is that it is common practise and noteworthycomposer can handle it (meaning it looks correct).