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Topic: Trills, Turns, Etc. (Read 2895 times) previous topic - next topic

Trills, Turns, Etc.

Can someone please give me instructions on how to perform these on Noteworthy Composer? It makes no sense. I like to use them should the occasion arise.

Thanks,

~Jeff

Re: Trills, Turns, Etc.

Reply #1 –
NWC has no native support for these ornaments.  You have to "roll your own."

1. If you want the _look_ of one of these ornaments, insert the necessary symbols as text items in the Boxmarks font (available from the helpful files page of the NWC Scriptorium.

2. If you want the _sound_ of one of these ornaments, write out all the little notes constituting the ornament (cut & paste can help with things like long trills).

If you want both, make one staff for the look and mute it, and another for the sound and hide it.

Re: Trills, Turns, Etc.

Reply #2 –
Or you can write the notes in, either as short notes or as grace notes, and then hide them by highlighting those pitches and making them invisible using the "properties" box. This saves having two staves, if you want a score for listening and for printing.

Re: Trills, Turns, Etc.

Reply #3 –
I didn't mention these possibilities because of their drawbacks:

1. If you use grace notes, you have no control over the speed of the ornament.  Depending on the tempo, the default grace note duration may be too fast (making a trill, for example, sound obviously computerized) or much too slow.  OTOH this method is just fine for tempos in the middle range where these problems don't arise.

2. If you use hidden short regular notes, then the printout is bound to be wrong.  To make all the notes fit, you have to shorten the main note by the cumulative duration of the short notes that make up the ornament.  When these are hidden, the visible notes left behind will be too short to fill the measure.

Re: Trills, Turns, Etc.

Reply #4 –
Agreed. You have to prepare a score that's intended either mostly for listening or mostly for printing, and if you want both, you need to use hidden staves. This is generally true of Noteworthy - not a big drawback for me - and especially so if you want to use ornament signs.