Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: repeat signs (Read 5514 times) previous topic - next topic

repeat signs

how do you put in repeat signs?

Re: repeat signs

Reply #1 –
A repeat is a kind of "(decorated) bar line."

You can use the menu: Insert, decorated bar line. Or, you can simply hit the "b" key, and the necessary dialog box will pop up. From the dialog box, you can choose the kind of bar line you want.

Probably you want the Master Repeat Open, followed later by the Master Repeat Close. There are other possibilities.

Oddly, the NWC Help file does not show an index item for "repeat." But you can find the heap by searching in Help for "repeat."

Re: repeat signs

Reply #2 –
By the way, I've rarely if ever seen a use of the "Local Repeat Open" or "Local Repeat Close" on sheet music.  Not only do I see almost exclusively Master Repeat, but Local Repeat looks downright ugly. :-)  So, what's it intended to be used for?

Re: repeat signs

Reply #3 –
Many NWC users are more interested in MIDI output than in sheet music. The local repeat is a handy-dandy way to play a passage N times, where you choose N. Certain kinds of music (esp. background music to games) is quite repetitive. If there's an application in sheet music, I haven't seen it.

Re: repeat signs

Reply #4 –
And you can always make the Local Repeat bar lines invisible.

Re: repeat signs

Reply #5 –
Besides being able to specify the number of repeats (useful for multi-verse songs, among other things) there are some subtle rules of nesting which I never can keep straight.  There are some repeat examples included with the download, I think.  At least they are included when you buy the program.  Anyway, you can nest local repeats inside of master repeats.  If you try that with just master repeats the outer one is ignored.

Note that, as in most printed music, if a close-repeat doesn't have a matching open NWC acts as if there is one a beginning of the piece.  Also, you are correct in that local-repeat doesn't occur in sheet (or any other) music, it is strictly an NWC convention, to allow things that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

Re: repeat signs

Reply #6 –
Thanks, all, for your answers.

I should have gone out on a limb and baldly said "never in sheet music", but I erred on the side of caution.

Guess I'd be happier with it if NWC did one or both of the following:

(A) moved Master Repeat Open/Close above Local Repeat Open/Close in the menu, so I didn't have to scroll past the oddball ones every time I wanted a repeat sign

(2) renamed "Local Repeat" something funky like "Noteworthy House Special Repeat".

Re: repeat signs

Reply #7 –
Suggestion 2 is a good idea! Many NWC users are not fully familiar with musical notation (including myself). If local repeat isn't in the music encyclopedia, why baffle users?

Re: repeat signs

Reply #8 –
...so I didn't have to scroll past the oddball ones...
Just hit the M key.  When you want a Master Repeat Close, hit M twice.

Re: repeat signs

Reply #9 –
Just for clarification: The local repeat has its origins in the old fashioned method of writing music with pen(cil) and paper. No composer that I'm aware of ever bothered to thicken the second stroke of the double bar line when adding a repeat sign. Many years ago one would find the simpler looking "local repeat" in published scores for things such as marches in which the standard form of music used repeated strains. The practice of using the simple double bar fell out of use in the early 20th century. The "master repeat" was easier for musicians to see on the printed page, and was not confused with the simple "double bar" that does still appear quite often in commercially printed sheet music.
 

Re: repeat signs

Reply #10 –
I don't care how they function on playback unless I'm using playback to help proofread my work.

I do like having the choice between the two styles of repeat signs.