Skip to main content
Topic: Beaming with Stems Up and Down (Read 6218 times) previous topic - next topic

Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Help!

Is there a way to create beams on the same note
going up and down using quarter notes and up?
Or beaming with two notes on the same stem but one going up
and the other down? I am currently using NWC 1.5.

Thanks for any solutions.

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #1
I don't understand the first question.

You can control beam direction using the stem direction tools.
For example, to put two stems on a quarter note, place the
first note, look at the stem direction, push the stem direction
tool for the other direction, then press Ctrl-Enter.

For two notes with stems going in different directions, do
the same thing, except move the cursor to where you want
the note to be.

You can combine rests with notes in a chord this way too.
The trick is that the rest has a "virtual" stem. The note
you chord it with must be longer than the rest. What you
do is push stem up, place quarter rest, push stem down, place
half note where you want it, push the stem tool to turn it
off.

Whole notes have virtual stems as well.

WARNING - You should make sure the stem tools are off (not
pushed down) when you are finished, or NoteWorthy will not do default stem direction
anymore.

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #2
Thanks Blair for your input. Clarification on thefirst question.

Is there a way to create beams on the same note on a measure
that may have more than one note on a stem to indicate that
there are more than one instrument playing that stem? It might
also be a single note on that stem that more than one instrument
might play. In other words, beaming in both directions at the
same measure for the same note.

Hope that clarifies that first question.

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #3
You cannot beam quarter notes at any time. You can add a single beam to 8th notes and smaller. You cannot add both a beam up and a beam down on the same notes in a staff.

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #4
I'm not sure if this echoes the original question. But if you position 2 or more notes that occupy different positions vertically on the stave, but are part of a chord. You can select, before operating the chord member (CTRL-ENTER)addition, select stem direction. Is it possible, if one section of a series of say, 3 or 4 'quaver based' chords is stem up and the other section is stem down, to beam both the up stem parts and the down stem parts of the same chords? Does that make sense ? it did when I wrote it !

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #5
I too would like to be able to beam chorded notes of opposite stem direction, but NoteWorthy will only allow beaming in one direction at a time. It looks funny to have a mixture of beamed and flagged notes, so I end up having to either use no beams or set all the stems to the same direction. It would be better if we could beam the notes on both stem directions.

Would this be considered a bug?

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #6
I would like to echo the concern about beaming notes in both stem directions. It's very strange to see the notes beamed only one way. Possible issue to address.

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #7
While we are beaming in two directions, how about beaming
across two different staves. Piano arpeggios that require
both hands are often written this way. It saves a lot of
messy rests.

Implementing this in NWC will not be trivial. You would have
to multiple-select the two staves, which would cause beamed
note entry to span the staves. Non-beamed notes would not
be allowed. This would be nice, but there are a lot of more
basic missing features that should be done first (eg. hairpins,
trills, ripple ups, etc.)

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #8
I'll further echo the request to be able to beam notes of a chord in opposite stem directions. I do a lot of part writing for voice,
and whenever 2 parts share a stave it's important to give each part a consistent stem direction. The inconsistency in beaming looks very
confusing to the singer.

 

Re: Beaming with Stems Up and Down

Reply #9
Beaming chords in opposite directions for two voices on a staff:
Yes, we want it. But how to do it? It might work like this:
Write the first set of notes, force their stems up, and beam them.
Chord in the next set of notes with stems forced down.
Select that set and beam them.
The rule would be that if some notes were already beamed, and other notes with stems in the opposite direction were beamed, then only those notes get beamed in the opposite direction.
Would this simple rule be sufficient, or are other cases I have not thought of?