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bar

Sorry to ask so elementary a question.  I have search the FAQ and the messages, so here goes...

For guitar (classical), how does one indicate a bar for a given period of time, say at the seventh fret? Also (I haven't searched for this), how does one indicate a preferred fingering?

thanks1
jonathan

Re: bar

Reply #1 –
There are a couple of ways, all more or less unsatisfactory.
It's easy to see why plucked instruments have often used tablature.

The trick is to indicate how many strings are barred, and at what fret. The usual practice is to use a capital letter B (or C) to indicate a bar, a Roman numeral to indicate the fret, and either a fraction or a circled number to indicate the number of strings. You'll see 1/2BIII, 3/6BIII, or 3BIII for a bar on three strings at the third fret - for barring four or five strings they might use 4/6BIII or 5/6BIII. The /6 seems a bit redundant, and I leave it out myself. Pretty cumbersome for something you use so often.

Another option is to use a bracket, like [ but longer, on the staff to indicate how many notes are barred. It's tidier but less specific. You can get that symbol in Boxmarks from the Scriptorium, or there are some in the Math or Symbol fonts that come with Windows.

Right-hand fingers are p,i,m,a, for thumb, index, middle, ring fingers. If you use the pinky, it's either c or x. The left hand fingers are 1,2,3,4 - confusing for pianists who use 1 for the thumb. If in some bizarre situation you actually use your left thumb, I've seen T for it.

Strings are usually circled numbers, which you will also need a special font for. The old system was Roman numerals, which violinists still use, but those are usually used only for fret positions. An even older system, which I use, is dots in various patterns, one for the first string, two for the second, three in a triangle for the third, four in a box shape for the fourth, and whatever.

It's still not completely standardised. Look at some printed music and decide which conventions suit you and are easy to use in Noteworthy with a minimum of fonts. Good luck!

Re: bar

Reply #2 –
Don't forget that the "FretQwik" font for placing guitar tablatures (into NWC or elsewhere) is not available on the Scriptorium. The capability includes placement of a bar, with numeral indicating location.

Re: bar

Reply #3 –
John-

I appreciate your response.  I was looking for information on doing all of the things you've mentioned in NWC specifically.  ie. what commands will allow me to insert i,a,m,p below the notes and 1,2,3,4 above them along with bar information.  I see reference to fonts in both your note and roberts.  Do these come with NWC or are they a separate download?

thanks1
jonathan

Re: bar

Reply #4 –
Fonts: Have a look at the Scriptorium "helpful files" section. The Scriptorium can be found by going to the NWC main page, then to the user links. (I am not putting a direct link to the Scriptorium here, in case it changes its URL at some future time).

Re: bar

Reply #5 –
Robert - you can always put a link to the Scriptorium using the !scripto tag. (see "Hints" for details) :)

Re: bar

Reply #6 –
You can insert fingerings and whatnot as "text". Just press x and the box will pop up. Read the help menus and play around with it a bit. You can adjust the available fonts, or add up to six ones of your own choice (user fonts), from the "Page setup" icon - the little open book.

Notice all the text options to justify left right or centre, preserve width, and so on. Experiment and figure them out. You can produce very professional-looking printed scores if you use text additions well.

Another question I didn't answer is how to indicate how long a bar is to last. It's usually done with a line of dots or dashes above the staff, and a square bracket ending it, the same style you might use for an 8va passage in piano music. If you use the Windows font "Symbol" as one of your user fonts, these characters  é` ` ` ` ` ` `    ù will be a fairly good brackets and dashes set. Try it as a bold arial user font in a fairly large size .... go ahead and paste it somewhere to see what I mean. Fretquik, Boxmarks, or Bach are all good fonts to have and may do some jobs best, but there are some useful symbols in the fonts you probably have already.

There are some excellent guitar scores at the Scriptorium - check out some of Fred Nachbaur's.

Noteworthy is a very flexible program, but to get the most out of it, like any program, you do have to play around a little and learn some of the options.
 

Re: bar

Reply #7 –
"bold arial font" is wrong. I meant Symbol, as a bold font.

You can get the best-looking scores by using several different user fonts and the existing ones: one for fingerings, a contrasting one for strings, one for bar indications and so on.  (Bar is sometimes spelled "barre", the Spanish and/or French version, which can't be confused with "bar" meaning "measure" or "bar line".)