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Topic: Putting flats and sharps in chord names (Read 8935 times) previous topic - next topic

Putting flats and sharps in chord names

I am putting chord names on a song, and I need to use a flat and sharp in some of the chords.  They do it in the Caverns example, but I have no clue how.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #1 –
These are just text entries.   The author used the letter f in the NWC2STDA bold font for the flat.  Here are the flats and sharps in that font.

d = sharp
e = natural
f = flat
g = double sharp
h = double flat

An interesting technique used by the author is to break a chord spelling into its components - for instance B flat diminished is three text entries.  That provides a little flexibility, but seems to me to be kind of painstaking unless you need to use three fonts to spell the chord.

There are other fonts that will allow you to use just one entry for each chord - Lawrie's
SwingChord font likely does it, although I haven't checked. 

I prefer to use the lyric editor to spell chords and I normally just use an ordinary sans-serif font and some ansi characters, but I'm not trying to create professional quality output.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #2 –
If you want to do this using only fonts that are commonly available on a typical NWC2 users machine, it is worth studying Caverns to see how it is done.

It is much easier to use a single font designed for chords. Depending on the typeface you prefer, use SwingChord, MusikChordSerif, or MusikChordSans which are contained in Lawrie Pardy's SwingDings, MusikDingsSerif or MusikDingsSans font suites available <here>

I put chords on their own staff, layered with the top staff. I use measures like this:
Quote
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
# for 4/4, 2/2, Common, Ala Breve
|Rest|Dur:Half|Opts:VertOffset=2000|Visibility:Never
|Rest|Dur:Half|Opts:VertOffset=2000|Visibility:Never
|Bar

# for 3/4
|Rest|Dur:Half,Dotted|Opts:VertOffset=2000|Visibility:Never
|Bar

# for 6/8
|Rest|Dur:4th,Dotted|Opts:VertOffset=2000|Visibility:Never
|Rest|Dur:4th,Dotted|Opts:VertOffset=2000|Visibility:Never
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Avoid using Whole Measure Rests as these center themselves in the bar. Adjust the durations and copy more rests into a measure if necessary so that there is a rest at each place that the chord changes and the bar lines align.

For the text entries, Center, At Next Note/Bar works best for me. Sometimes I pad the left or right with spaces to avoid collisions with other items. 

To the extent possible, chords are aligned to the same vertical position on each line of music, but this position varies from line to line. Putting them on their own staff makes it easy to select a line of them and adjust the position of all of them at once.

If you have any Special Endings, chords usually go below them.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #3 –
Ok, I have no clue what you guys are talking about.  How do you pick the font that you type those letters in.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #4 –
The program writes the notes and various staff elements by using a particular font.  Special symbols such as rehearsal letters, two bar repeat signs, and so on may not be available as part of the Noteworthy program, but various users over the years have designed special fonts that you can use for them, and Noteworthy is flexible enough to allow you to use them easily.

Select Page Setup from the File menu, and you will see a number of tabs, one of which is Fonts.

If you choose that, and you will see which font is installed to use for page titles, page text entries, lyrics, etc.  In NWC2, at the top you will see the "staff metrics" font which is used for the notes, staff, clefs, etc. 

You can change the staff metrics font by using the Change button.  You can change any of the other fonts with the Modify button at the bottom of the window.  You can use any font that your system has in your Windows Fonts folder (that's the location in Windows XP Pro, it may be in System in other Windows versions).

Toward the bottom of the Fonts tab, you will see six User Fonts.  These are used for special tasks such as adding rehearsal letters, special symbols such as glissandi, trills, etc.  Use Modify to change them to what you need. 

The font settings stay with the file, not the program, so each time you open a new song file, you will be able to use fonts that suit your purposes - sometimes you may want a "legit" font and sometimes you might want a jazzy one.  A new file will always have the defaults, so you might like to create a new file as a template if you figure you'll be using the same setup over and over again. 

Lawrie Purdy designed a number of specialty fonts with special symbols - Rick's message on this page tells you where to get them.  Another useful font is Boxmark2, also available in the Scriptorium.

Lawrie's zip file explains how to instal the fonts, if I recall correctly.


Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #5 –
Well, I didn't do that, but I figured out that I could just change the font to maestro, and you can type that kind of stuff.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #6 –
Masetro doesn't give you letters, so you end up still having to mix multiple text entries.

With one of my chord fonts, it's all there in one font and designed to work together.

For an example of how it could look, here are some sample pages of my different font suites working together - you don't need to use the whole suite if you don't want, mix 'n match works too...

http://zoundz.pardyline.com.au/SupportFiles/Fonts/SwingDings-SampleChart.pdf
http://zoundz.pardyline.com.au/SupportFiles/Fonts/MusikDingsSerif-SampleChart.pdf
http://zoundz.pardyline.com.au/SupportFiles/Fonts/MusikDingsSans-SampleChart.pdf

The chord font(s) were produced in order to fix the exact problem you're having...

If you like 'em, you can get 'em via the Scripto:
http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html#Fonts
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #7 –
Thanks, I like it, but everything looks like it is written sloppy.  Oh well

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #8 –
Is there any way to type something like 16th 16th = Triplet: 8th 16th or xx=Triplet: ex in your swingdings fonts.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #9 –
Quote from: PIRAHNAPLANT –
Thanks, I like it, but everything looks like it is written sloppy.  Oh well

Which sample did you check?

The SwingDings font is supposed to appear handwritten.  MusikDingsSans and MusikDingsSerif are not.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #10 –
Quote from: PIRAHNAPLANT –
Is there any way to type something like 16th 16th = Triplet: 8th 16th or xx=Triplet: ex in your swingdings fonts.

Not for 16th's - it's there for 8th's in the title fonts of each suite - SwingDings, MusikDingsSans and MusikDingsSerif...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #11 –
Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Key|Signature:F#
|TimeSig|Signature:Common
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:7|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First,NoLegerLines,Muted
|Note|Dur:16th,Grace|Pos:7|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End,NoLegerLines,Muted
|Text|Text:" ="|Font:StaffBold|Pos:9|Justify:Center
|Note|Dur:8th,Triplet=First,Grace|Pos:7|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First,XNoteSpace=1,NoLegerLines,Muted
|Note|Dur:16th,Triplet=End,Grace|Pos:7|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End,NoLegerLines,Muted
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
But you need to play around a bit to get it not to affect notes in other staves/layers.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #12 –
How do you copy that code stuff into NoteWorthy, I don't get it.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #14 –
I still don't get what you do with the stuff in the box.

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #15 –
To put it bluntly:
Step 1. Copy text from box (Ctrl-C)
Step 2. Copy text into NoteWorthy (Ctrl-V)

To copy it from NWC into browser:
Step 1. Copy text from NoteWorthy (Ctrl-C)
Step 2. Copy text into compose window (Ctrl-V)

 

Re: Putting flats and sharps in chord names

Reply #16 –
Oh, I see, thats way easier than I thought it was.