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Topic: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering (Read 3675 times) previous topic - next topic

Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

I have run into multiple problems trying to put fingering numbers onto a piano score. The root problem is that I cannot insert text between beamed notes. I am then forced to start at the beginning of the beamed notes and insert the right number of spaces. Problem two is that the position on the screen does not reflect the position on the printed score. So I have to flip back and forth between Print Preview and the note entry view. Unfortunately Print Preview does not remember what page I was on, so I have to page through it every time. Problem three is when the beamed note section is long (ie. 6 beamed notes) the Insert Text field is not long enough to reach to the end, making it almost impossible to achieve what I want. After all this, the result is unstable - a change elsewhere in the score can throw all the positions off. They even change when switching to another printer.

So here is a wish (or wishes) that should not be too difficult: Please allow insert text (or anything else, like dynamics) between beamed notes. Also, when inserting text it would be nice if it would start right above the next note, skipping over leading accidentals.

While I am complaining, I should be able to select a group of notes and ask them all to become (for example) eighth notes. This does not work. I makes it harder to fix the mess from importing triplets.

This is such a good program; I don't usually run into compounding problems like this. I hope some fixes will come soon. I'm off to the wish list (https://noteworthycomposer.com/composer/wishlist.htm)..)

By the way, using the lyric line for fingering won't work because you can't place the numbers, it can't handle chords, and it won't work with long sequences of beamed notes.

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #1 –
I wouldn't ask for Insert Text to be changed so that it starts over the note instead of over the accidental. I can't think of any situation offhand where it might matter,
but I'm sure that it works best as is.

Mainly, as long as you're wishing, why not wish for what you really want instead of wishing for a tweak to a different
feature so you can continue to use it as a workaround for the real thing? In this case, I'd wish for the ability to
assign "finger number" attributes to notes, similar to the way that accents, staccato marks, etc., are associated with them. (You could even define your own note markings and have them associated with notes.) The only hangup is with notating fingerings of chords - you would have to be able to specify a "stack" of numbers - unless we also wished for, and got, the ability to select individual notes of a chord,
which I believe has already been asked for.

- seb

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #2 –
The "finger number" property of a note (or chord) would be great, but this is a tough feature to implement. You would have to be able to specify where the number (or number list) would go relative the the note (above, below, and how far).

Much easier (and hopefully sooner) is to fix the insert text between beamed notes bug (mis-feature). The insert text over notehead feature change should not hurt anybody, so, without a full support of fingering, why not?

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #3 –
Blair, you wrote: "While I am complaining, I should be able to select a group of notes and ask them all to become (for example) eighth notes. This does not work"
Oh yes it does. Select a half, a quarter, a 32nd, and press 4: you'll got 3 eighths. If one of them is dotted, it will remain, so press '.' twice (or 3 times, depending on your double dot settings) and it will be removed.
By the way, I see this as a bug, when using '+' and '-' : I expect tht when selecting half+quarter and pressing '+', they become quarter+eighth. But they change to 2 quarters.

"It makes it harder to fix the mess from importing triplets", you said. Time to go to http://www.pcug.org.au/~apurdam/noteworthy.html#macros !

Hints about finger placement: use a NON proportional font, and that is common enough to be on any printer. This will less move on the printed result. You may also use Alt+0160 instead of space, with certain fonts it is larger.

hth, MAD

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #4 –
Thanks for the tips. The monospace font is a good idea as it is probably more predictable for the layout software. I really should look at Andrew's macros.

About selecting groups of notes with different time values I find that the Note Value commands (eg. 1, 2, 3) are disabled, and do not work, which I think is a bug. I am using 1.55a. But I did not know about the plus and minus keys, and they do what I wanted to do: setting all the selected notes to the same value (which YOU think is a bug!)

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #5 –
Wow, cool! Learn something new every day... never knew about the +/- thing! I also found that the direct assignment (1, 2, 3, etc.) doesn't work with a selection of notes of different lengths... but +/- does. So simply follow the + or - with the desired "hot key" and away you go. I'd hesitate to call either of these properties "bugs," rather it's "just the way it works." Once you figure it out, it's quite predictable and useful.

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #6 –
Well, for the next release it would be nice if direct assignment of multiple length notes worked, and the + and - behaved as Marsu expected. Along the same lines, I have a piece of music which I want to convert from 4/4 time to 2/4 time. It would be nice to have a command (eg. * and /) that would double or half the value of all selected notes.
 

Re: Problems with Notating Piano Fingering

Reply #7 –
I have to mention that I found a turnaround for the '+'/'-' behaviour. I use a macro that select the item to the right, press '+', go once to the right (so deselect). I affect this to Alt+Shift+NumpadPlus, and then I use it repeatedly (even through bars and other items, since it just "beeps" but go through anyway.
Use Alt+Shift+NumpadMinus for the '-' procedure.
hth,
        Marsu