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Staff creation

I am having trouble creating a new staff for piano. I started with one treble staff and one clef staff. I entered my notes and then created a new staff and added a treble and then another staff with a clef.

I am new at this so I hope I am discribing this correctly.

So basicly what I have now is 4 lines of notes 2 for right hand and 2 for left hand. When I select play it plays all of the lines at the same time. Instead of left and right hand together. I beleive it is playing 2 grand staffs together.

I have tried arranging things so I have upper and lower staffs in the propeties. I have even tried to make all the staffs orchestra.

I am trying to evaluate this software to see if I can use this to transpose piano sheet music to alto sax.

Anyone have any ideas what I am doign wrong?

Thank you for your help.

Re: Staff creation

Reply #1 –
   Hi, SNTurner.

   You say

   "I am having trouble creating a new staff for piano. I started with one treble staff and one clef staff. I entered my notes and then created a new staff and added a treble and then another staff with a clef.

   "So basicly what I have now is 4 lines of notes 2 for right hand and 2 for left and. When I select play it plays all of the lines at the same time. Instead of left and right hand together. I beleive it is playing 2 grand staffs together."

   Yes, you're right: it is.  I believe your problem stems from not realising that what Noteworthy shows in the Screen Editor view, when you're setting things up and entering notes, is NOT what you expect to see when you look a printed sheet of music (the Print view). 

   In Screen Editor view the music on a staff is displayed from left to right, and then on and on and on, to the right ... as far as it goes, all on one line.  You just keep adding notes, and the staff keeps extending, the Window you're looking through moving along to the right to keep up..  A second staff is just that, a second independent staff also stretching from left to ... right.

   Similarly, a third staff is another independent staff, a fourth a fourth one, and so on.

   If, then, you have four staves, Noteworthy assumes they are all quite separate, rather like the four voices - soprano, alto, tenor, bass - of a choral score, and so Noteworthy plays them all together.

   However, in Print View Noteworthy wraps the (set of) staves round to give you the view you expect - system after system placed down the page.

   In your particular, piano-score case, you may only need two staves - one right-hand, and with a treble clef, and the other left-hand, with a bass clef - and you simply keep adding notes until you reach the end of the piece!

   Sometimes, though, you may find it more convenient to split each hand into two separate staves with two separate sets of (related) notes - this is useful for making sure notes are stem-up or stem-down, as appropriate, and then layering the two together - and then of course you will have what you have inadvertently done already, which is make four staves which Noteworthy plays together.

   OK?  If you're still having trouble, have a look at the Files in the Noteworthy Scriptorium, to see how it's done, and to use as examples.

   Good luck, and welcome to the Noteworthy community.  Once you have figured out how to make it sing, you'll find Noteworthy very quick, easy, and effective.

   MusicJohn, 24/Jan/09

Re: Staff creation

Reply #2 –
From your description, it sounds as though you have created a system (a "system" is a set of simultaneously-sounding staves - in your case, your left and right hand piano parts) - entered notes until you reached the right-hand edge of the screen - and then tried to continue the music on the same screen by creating a new system below the first one, the way you would see it on a printed page of music. NWC doesn't operate that way. It creates a single system which continues expanding to the right as you add notes, moving the music you've already written off the screen to the left. This single system is divided up at printing time so that you get multiple systems on each page, but you don't see it that way as you enter the notes.

When you added two new staves below the first two on your score, NWC thought you were expanding the existing system by two staves instead of creating a new system, so it played it that way. That's the way it is designed to operate.

It's possible to view the music the way it will look on the printed page by hitting the Print Preview button (or by selecting Print Preview from the "File" menu). But you enter it as a single long system. Your screen is a window onto a moment in time in the music, not a window onto a printed score.

Hope this helps....

Bill

Re: Staff creation

Reply #3 –
Thank You. That was it. I just needed to keep entering notes on the same staff.

Thanks agian. So far I really like this software. Now to see how it transposes piano to alto sax.
 

Re: Staff creation

Reply #4 –
The transposition is really easy. 
  • Click to the right hand (treble clef) staff to make it the active staff.
 
  • Make sure it has a key signature at the beginning, even if that is C major.
  • Then press Alt-T(ools), T(ranspose), and for how many semitones, chose 9.
  • For a quick visual check, you should end up with a key signature that has three more sharps than you started with (or three less flats).

If you want to transpose the left hand part too, change the clef to treble first.  There is a new user tool for that, but I will give you the old fashioned method, it's quite easy. 
  • Replace the bass clef with a treble clef.  The key signature will move up the staff, but the notes will stay put.
  • Next, highlight the entire staff, and holding down the  Control and Shift keys, press the down arrow 12 times.  You now you have a treble clef version of the left hand part.
  • Then just transpose it the way you did the right hand part. 
  • To transpose for bari sax instead, it's 21 semitones, but you have to do it in two steps, 12 and then 9.
  • Soprano sax is 2 semitones, and tenor sax is 14 (again, 12 + 2)

When you use the transpose feaure, you will be asked if you want to update the staff transposition.  If you say yes, the playback will remain at the original pitch.   This is useful if you are transposing a piano part for alto sax.  If you want transpose the music for some other reason, such as putting it in the right key for your singer's range, then you don't update the staff transposition.  The playback will change pitch along with the notes on the 'page.'