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Topic: Grace notes (Read 2670 times) previous topic - next topic

Grace notes

Hello. I obviously need help using grace notes. Below I will give what I need using "g" to stand for grace note and N for a regular note:

________g_______________________
________N_______________________ Note all 3 notes
________g_______________________ need to chord members and
________________________________ if it helps, the notes
________________________________ should be eighth notes.

Can someone help me please?

James

Re: Grace notes

Reply #1 –
This isn't directly possible using NWC. The reason is that grace notes always come before an real (actual) note, "stealing time" from the following real note. As a result, a grace note does not occupy time in the usual sense; it's therefore a very different entity than real notes, and can't be chorded with them.

There is a thing called "cue notes", which are simply real notes in a smaller font size. They're generally used to help cue an instrumentalist (piano, etc.) to a vocal or other solo line. NWC doesn't support this at this time, but it's a functionality which could be very useful, so I'd suggest a jog over to the wish list.

You might be able to achieve the result you're looking for by using layered staves, with one of the layers containing grace notes and hidden rests. You'd have to experiment with the timing to make the grace note co-incide physically with the real notes on the other layer, so is likely to be quite fiddly.

Another possibility might be to insert grace notes as text, using the NWCV15.ttf font as a user font.

Re: Grace notes

Reply #2 –
Thanks for all of your help. There has just got to be a way to do this though. Is there any other program you know that CAN do this?

James

Re: Grace notes

Reply #3 –
Not a legitimate questions to ask in this forum.  You could search the web for other notation processors if you want to know what they'll do.  This forum should remain devoted to NWC and not discuss its competitors.

Having suggested you search the web, I suspect your search will be non-productive, because what you're trying to do is unusual and I believe incorrect, musically.
 

Re: Grace notes

Reply #4 –
Another possibility might be to insert grace notes as text, using the NWCV15.ttf font as a user font.
This is what I do, although with a different font.
And while Delta Dave is correct about everything here, I have run across certain examples in [abbr=highly involved stuff, I might add]theory texts[/abbr] that do this, but never in a real piece of music.  So, if you need to do this for educational purposes (as I have done), text items would be your best solution.