Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Can you combine rests? (Read 4491 times) previous topic - next topic

Can you combine rests?

I have an arrangement that has a lot of rests in a few
parts, and it looks ugly to have like 3 lines of whole
rests. Is there any way to combine the rests so it is one
measure with a # on top of it?
Thanks.
Joe

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #1 –
This is only possible by making the bar a repeat bar and adding a number on top. The facility you mention has been much requested. Add it to the wishlist. The more requests for it, the sooner we will see it incorporated in NWC. It is possible. Passport Encore uses it.
Gord.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #2 –
insert
decorated bar line
local repeat open
ok
select whole note
insert rest
insert
decorated bar line
local repeat close
set number 2 to 200
ok

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #3 –
Multi bar rests are my most wished for feature.
There is nothing worse than an arrangement with heaps of empty bars.
I've tried all the work arounds and they are either ugly - an obvious work-around - or they upset the bar numbering.
Multi bar rests are standard notation and should be implemented.
It seems that not enough people add this feature to the wish list - I guess they dont print out parts.
I really like NWC and promote it among all my musical contacts - but the lack of this feature above all else defeats my efforts to encourage musicians to use the software.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #4 –
My most wished-for feature, too, though closely followed by
grace notes for cues: I use NoteWorthy mostly for making four-
or five-part transcriptions, which I always hand over as score
plus parts.

An earlier thread pointed out that you also need to be able
to chunk (say) twelve bars' rest into four plus twelve if
you want to use section letters for navigation.

Eric - spring into action!

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #5 –
Yes, chunking multi-bar rests would be a good feature. However, when you start looking at how it would actually be implemented it gets rather complicated and there is plenty of scope to get it wrong. I suggest that following areas need thinking about:

1 Chunking is not needed for scores. It is only required for indviidual parts. Therefore sometimes the rests should be chunked and sometimes unchunked. How should the change from unchunked to chunked and vice versa be controlled?

2 Should areas for chunking be identified automatically or by the user? If rests have to chunked manually when swapping between displaying a score and displaying an individual part, this offers little benefit over the current situation - except that perhaps the bar numbering could be sorted out.

3 If rests get chunked automatically - for example when printing or displaying an indivdual part - controls need to be included to allow the chunks to be split up to allow rehearsal marks to be added at strategic points.

4 Special treatment is required for individual parts with more than one staff - for example piano parts - where there may be multi-bar rests in left or right hand only or both. Only the sections where both hands are resting need to be chunked.

5 It would be nice to have a (variable?) lower limit on the number of bars to chunk - I sometimes prefer to see two bars full of rests than one two-bar rest.

How does Passport Encore handle these items?

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #6 –
Would it be sufficient to have as a Staff Property "Suppress Line if Empty"? By "line" I mean a line in the printout. If this was set, any line that contained nothing but rests would not be printed. Any notation (rehearsal mark) would prevent the line from being suppressed. Display would not be affected. Of course, you still have to enter all the rests by hand. Piano parts could be handled if both piano staves are marked - suppress both, not one, only if both are empty.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #7 –
Just deleting "empty" lines would be a disaster! The rest bars which are removed need to be counted and then replaced with a bar containing one rest and an appropriate number.

I need the numbers so that when I'm sitting cuddling my tuba going one hundred and twenty seven - two - three - four, I know when I've forgotten to come in.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #8 –
I was assuming there were multiple staves, and the goal was to reduce wasted printed space. You know when to come back in by looking at the other staves.

It sounds you have only your tuba music. We need another solution for that. Is there some standard notation for multiple rests? Does the trick with local repeats suggested above work?

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #9 –
There are two issues when a particular player or instrument has a long silence period:

1 - The individual player would rather see an abbreviated notation for the silent period, typically in the form of a multi-measure rest.

2 - The conductor does not want to see a staff for an instrument that is not playing, so it should drop out.

We understand both of these needs, but at the moment, neither are natively supported in NWC. You can build a fake multi-measure rest for an individual part, and you can construct complex score views using the Preview Copy feature, but these are just work arounds. If and when we natively support the rest, we will let you know here at this web site.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #10 –
First of all, I must praise this software. It is so simple to use and the printouts are lovely! But I would also like to add to the wish list the ability to have multibar rests. My primary use for this is to take marching band and/or concert band parts that have been Xeroxed too many times or have been copied by hand and are thus illegible, and "rewriting" them so they're legible again. I don't use the MIDI function, yet. :)

I thought of a semi-workaround in the mean time... I place a whole rest on the staff and then use Insert Text to place a number above it. Granted, it's not the most beautiful solution and it doesn't preserve the measure numbering correctly, but it seems to get the message across to the players.

Re: Can you combine rests?

Reply #11 –
In Encore 3 and ( I assume ) above, just select the empty bars you want to chunk together, choose the "Measures" menu,choose "Compressed rests" and there you are!
Or have I missed a point somewhere?
Obviously, this only works on individual parts, not really in scores...........