NoteWorthy Composer Forum

I have made the whole staff not visible in it's property menu.

!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-6|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-5|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-4|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-5|Visibility:Never
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole|Pos:-6|Visibility:Never
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

In handbell music, there are generally far more "chords" (and "rest-chords") than "notes".  While globalmod can change the color of isolated notes, it cannot possibly change the color of individiual notes within chords (and rest-chords).  The only attributes that NWC stores on a per-note basis within a chord are: accidental, pos (staff line), notehead, and tie. 

Another problem with globalmod is that it will mark all C's (for example), even though some may be sharped or flatted (which are different bells).

In handbells, we don't care about the staff position, we just care about the final pitch.  A person with the "C#/Db" bell will want any B##, C#, or Db highlighted, even though these are all different positions in the staff (and yes, with key changes you may have to play that bell for two different staff positions).

My scripts all use the new getNoteMidiPitch interface, to ensure they give all notes for a particular bell, and no others.

Chords could ONLY be handled by layering - NWC in incapable of colouring individual notes within a chord.

I beg to differ - the POS's are different (C, C#, Cb, Cnat, Cbb and Cx)

the new getNoteMidiPitch interface is not in the current release version of the starter kit, only the beta version.

The original problem was for children, how complex is that music likely to be?

Hi Lawrie - I've watched you do battle with others on this forum, and now it's my turn I guess.  :-)

I believe this is exactly what I explained in both my previous posts.

My point here was that globalmod ignores the key signature, and ignores recurring accidentals within a bar.  If you use globalmod to mark all where pos==-6, you can get upwards of 5 different bells marked (Cbb [Bb], Cb [B ], C, C#, Cx [D]).  If you specify the particular C (e.g. pos==#-6), you'll get only the C sharps that are explicitly marked.  So you should have argued that one could "force accidentals" before the globalmod, and then "audit accidentals" afterward.  In between, up to 3 different globalmod commands would be needed, and all of this must be done on each staff (I typically need 4 staffs, 2 layered for each of treble/bass clefs, for handbells).

This is why I was not offering my scripts yet, just gauging interest.  I actually have versions of my scripts that work without the new beta release, which I'd coded up before convincing Eric to add base support for this.
Just this morning I watched my sons (ages 13 and 9) and 5 other children play "Cradle Songs" at church - this song featured running eighth notes, multiple key changes, accidentals galore, and upwards of 8 bells playing simultaneously in chords. 

On the other hand, surely if the key signature specifies a certain sharp or flat then you would define the appropriate GlobalMod command to suit?  Notes with accidentals would remain black and be easy to spot.

One thing I am curious about - we only have 7 highlight colours to choose from - is this enough?  After all, we have 12 tones and those in multiple octaves.  I confess I've never had anything to do with music for handbells so I am talking through my hat a bit here.

Handbell music appears to be quite complex.

In any case, developing User Tools requires data. Several "before" and "after" scores would need to be produced for testing. A tool (or nwctxt utility) would need to know what bells were at each station that it was producing a "part score" for. This would argue for close cooperation between someone intimately familiar with bell choirs and someone who can script NoteWort

With only a 2 colour requirement how this would work is much clearer - thanks for the extra info.  It certainly means a lot of scores to prepare though - I imagine most players usually prepare their own copies with a highlighter or the like.

From the sound of things you have quite a number of tools you've produced for yourself - care to share?  I try to encourage others to contribute their user tools as it helps to expand the usefulness of NWC for all of us.