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Topic: divisi parts - stems up/stems down (Read 3683 times) previous topic - next topic

divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Hi folks,

More questions on entering a piano reduction of a choral work...

1) When trying to use Control/Enter to add second notes vertically, to render the different voices separately on the same staff, more often than not when I hit C/Enter it overrides the stem up command and links it stem down to the lower note.  On occasion it puts the lower note stem up.  Reclicking on the note/stem/slur/dot hotkeys has no effect.  I've found the only solution works fairly is to move the cursor several spaces to the right, then back to the left, then centered where I want to enter a note, reclick the hotkeys, and hit C/Enter.

Anyone know why this is happening, and how to avoid it?  It's really slowing me up.

2) When entering divisi parts, is there a way to enter a tenor note over a base rest?  All I get is a beep.  It seems like the rest sign isn't functioning like a note, holding a place for a superscript note to be entered.

3) I get the same beep when I try to enter 3 quarter notes in tenor over an existing dotted half note in base.  It seems as tho the program can calibrate shorter notes as placeholders for larger notes (you can superscript a half note over a run of 8th notes), but larger notes are not programed to set placeholders for the various permutations of shorter notes. Is this understanding correct?  Is there any way to get around it?

Thanks.
ross

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #1 –
I can answer on question No.2.
You should put first the rest on a staff with stem up and then the any note with stem down underneath the rest. Don't worry, the rest should jump, when this operation is performed for higher tones You can't perform this reciprocally (backwards).

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #2 –
I think I may understand the problem with #1.

You need to set the stem direction a) of the first note (down, say) and then b) again before you [CNTRL] [Enter] the second note (up say).

If you don't set the stem direction for both chord members, NWC will flip the unset stem to match the set one.

Stephen

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #3 –
"NWC will flip the unset stem to match the set one"

If they both have the same duration, and the originally placed note does not have a stem direction set already, then this will happen.

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #4 –
An oddity:

The stem-up hotkey turns the stem up on a highlighted note, then it stays up each successive time the hotkey is clicked.

The stem-down hotkey seems to work as a toggle switch, first stem down, then stem up, then stem down, etc. each time the hotkey is clicked.

Is this a programming glitch, or just something peculiar to my copy?

Thanks.
Ross

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #5 –
I would suspect that it is neither case.

"Is this a programming glitch"

I just tried it, and it works as expected.

or just something peculiar to my copy?

Very unlikely, almost impossible, since I assume your copy is working.

What exactly are you doing? In other words, just what kind of note are you highlighting?

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #6 –
...and what do you mean by "hotkey", Ross? The icon? or the key combination Shift+Up,Shift+Down? or something else?
(...)
Oh, I just understood what you mean.

The stem up/stem down do work in a similar way.
When activated (the icon is white), they force the stem to be up (resp. down) if you select "stem up" (resp. down).
If you click it again (unselect it, the icon turns gray again), then the note gets a stem in the "standard" way, which means down if the note is on the 3rd line or higher, and a stem up if lower.

So I suppose you had selected a note which was lower than the 3rd line. This behaviour is normal: for this note, if you don't force the stem to be down, it has to be up, so the stem down icon acts as a switch. But if you do the same with a note on the 3rd line or higher, then the stem up icon will act as a switch.

When it comes to beamed notes, there is no "default" any more; by this I mean there will always be a "stem down" or "stem up" icon selected. The rule for the initial stem direction seems to be determined by the average value of all the notes touched by the beaming, which is usually correct.

Hope this explains what seemed peculiar to you :)
 

Re: divisi parts - stems up/stems down

Reply #7 –
This confused me for awhile. Part of my problem was that I didn't realize that rests and whole notes have a "stem direction" too.