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Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

This assumes you have opened a complete or conductor's score with NoteWorthy Composer and would like to print each part separately for members of an ensemble. The https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2290 or other specialized fonts should be installed on your computer. If any staff is layered, see the note at the bottom.

Three problems need to be addressed in creating a set of parts.

  • All tempo markings, tempo variances, and (if any) rehearsal letters must be visible on all parts.
  • Parts having multi measure rests may need to have these displayed differently.  It may be helpful to provide cued notes before a player's entrance as well.
  • Printing the parts is not straightforward:  a special procedure must be used.

First be sure each staff is properly labeled as this label will appear on each part. For each staff, press F2 and select the "General" tab. If the "Name" field is not the name of that part, type over it (may have a default name of "Staff" or "Staff-3" for example) and click "OK".

If all staves are labeled, choose "File", "Page Setup", and "Options". Under "Staff Options", choose "First System" or, if you would like the name of the part to appear on all pages, "Top Systems".  Choose a "Measure Options" other than "None".   By convention, the first full measure is measure number 1. If the piece starts with a pickup, change "Measure Start" to zero.

While you are on the "Page Setup" window, select "Fonts" and change user fonts as required to the special fonts to be used such as "Boxmarks" or Boxmark2 and give it a size of about 3/4ths that of the staff size (found in the "Options" tab in this window). For example, if the staff size is 26, choose 20 for the size of the font. Click OK.  This font is used to create multi measure rests and rehearsal letters.

Save the file at this point and also save it under a different (temporary) name.

Tempo markings and rehearsal letters only need to be entered once on a special staff to be layered with individual parts.  Start with rehearsal markings positioned before the bar where the marking is to occur. Set it's Alignment/placement to "at next note/bar" with "left" justification and the perserve width box NOT checked. (Jeff Adlon).  To create this staff:

  • Cntl/A to create the staff and label it "tempo" (F2 and "General" tab as above).
  • On this staff place a clef and appropriate key and time signature: do not add tempo markings or variances yet.
  • Fill the staff with whole rests (after pressing "1", rock between space bar and tab).  Any new time signature, key signature, decorated bar line or ending, or flow directions  must be reproduced.  Continue to the end of the piece.
  • Make everything on the staff invisible by entering Home, Shift/End, Cntrl/E, and select Visibility.  Then choose Never.
  • Add all tempos and tempo variances on this staff. If a tempo change occurs in the middle of a measure, replace the whole rest with a number of shorter rests and hide them before inserting the tempo change.
  • To add a rehearsal letter, press X, enter an uppercase rehearsal letter under "Text Expression" and choose the user font where you set up "Boxmarks" (Boxmark2). On the "Expression Placement" tab, be sure "Staff Position" is 7 or more.

Unless you are creating a part requiring more than one staff (e.g., piano, harp, or three horn parts on two staves), on each staff press F2 and choose Visual; then under "Style" select "Standard" and click OK. When there is only one staff printed, a bracket or brace on the left end of each line will not be necessary.   Unless a staff is a bottom (L.H. on piano, e.g.) it should also be flagged as "Layer with next staff" on the above tab.

This next section is modified.  Multi measure rests are now part of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5.2.

Wherever there are multiple consecutive whole rest measures with no decorated bar lines, key changes,  time signature changes, or rehearsal letters, you can create a multi measure rest as follows: 1) Position the cursor in front of the first whole rest. 2) Hold down both "Shift" and "Ctrl" and count the number of times you press the right arrow. 3) When you reach the last whole rest measure, hold down "Shift" and press the right arrow for the last time and count it as well. 4) Delete these rests, then press the open bracket key "[" and enter the number of measures you counted earlier.

At this point you should have the multi measure rest highlighted, that is, only the rests and single bar lines between them. Enter "Ctrl/E", choose "Visibility" and change "Show on Printed Page" to "Never". Then click "OK".

Go back to the middle measure of the rests, it will appear gray on your screen. If there is an odd number of measures, find a point in front of the middle rest; for an even number, use the middle bar line instead. Select menu option "Insert" "Text" (or press the "x" key) and enter (without quotes) "[nn]" as the "Expression" where "nn" is the count of the measures. Under "Display Font", choose the user font you assigned to Boxmarks earlier. Be sure "Preserve Width" is checked. Click OK. Because even hidden items take up some space (thanks to Chris Hall for this information), this will keep your multi measure rest centered.


Repeat this procedure for all multi measure rests for all parts.

Printing Cues (Warren Porter).  Near the end of a long rest, it might be helpful to show a player what another part is doing.  NoteWorthy was not designed to print cues, but this workaround may be adequate: 1) Set up another user font (File, Page Setup, Fonts), select NWCV15 (it is already installed), and give it a size of about 1.75 times larger than "Staff Size" (shown on "Options" tab). 2)   Replace the whole rest in the measure where you the cues with rests of the same duration as the cued notes.  3)  Using a chart of the NWCV15 font, insert as a text expression the symbol for the cued note in front of each rest.  "Expression Placement" (Staff Position) will determine where the note appears--adjust until it is correct.  On that tab, also choose "Preserve Width" for your cued notes.  4)  To also show a real whole rest (customary when giving cues), insert the symbol for it in front of a cue in about the middle of that measure, but don't specify "Preserve Width".  The file cuedemo.nwc (1K) shows an example.  Note another user font was also set up for NWCV15 to display the cued clef at less than full size (treble on the viola part). In NWC2, use the font NWC2STDA.

To print each part: 1) Choose "File", "Page Setup" and "Contents". 2) Under "Visible Parts", uncheck everything except the part you are about to print and the "tempo" staff.  Also choose "Allow layering", then click OK. 3) Select "File", "Print Preview" and inspect the potential print out for overlapping symbols and correct if necessary (changing "Expression Placement" may be all that's needed).  4) Choose "File" "Print" as described in Noteworthy documentation. 5) Repeat revealing a different part until all parts are printed.

Note: Occasionally, the "Print Preview" will show an unclosed measure at the end of a line along with an empty measure starting the next line.    In order to keep the measure numbers correct, choose the last bar line before the rest (Ctrl/E) and under "Bar Line" select "Force System Break".   Adding the correct measure number where that part returns as a text comment might also be helpful in this case.

Use the preview window to make any final adustments before printing the part. Look for such things as rehearsal letter that are hanging off on the right side of the page. Move the rehearsal marking to after the bar it was placed before (see above) and fiddle with the justification until you are satified with how it looks. Also look at the part and read it through. If the part spans multiple (usually more than three) pages, examine the page breaks. Try to place page turns during rests. This is especially important for wind players who in many cases may be sitting one player to a stand as well as string players trying to hold their fiddles and bows and turn the page with only two hands. Use the "force system break" in the edit bar line dialog to force a page break.

The temporary file you created earlier may be deleted unless there may be a need to print parts for this piece again.

Special Instructions for Layered Staves

If a part is on layered staves, all of these staves should be visible when you print the part instead of just one. Multi measure rests can be created only when ALL staves are resting. Hide the multi measure rests on all parts, but the "[nn]" text only needs to be inserted on one of them.

If one part on a layered staff comes in a measure or more before the second part or staff enters, the last few rests for the second part should remain visible. If the rest on the second staff is too close to the notes on the first staff, the rest can be moved by selecting it, entering Ctrl/E, and changing "Vertical Offset" "Staff Position" as appropriate.

Special Instructions for Multi-Staff Parts (e.g. piano)

When printing a multi-staff part, the tempo markings and rehearsal letters must appear on the top staff.  When you have selected "Page Setup" and left only the multi-staff part and "tempo" visible, select the "tempo" staff and press Cntl/Shift/Page Up to move it to underneath the top staff where it will be correctly displayed when layering is chosen ("Page Setup" "Contents").  When you have finished printing this part, you will need to return "tempo" to the bottom: 1) On "Page Setup" uncheck "Allow Layering" and make what is now the bottom staff visible. 2) Select the "tempo" staff and Cntl/Shift/Page Down it to the bottom. 3) On "Page Setup" hide what had been the bottom staff, reselect "Allow Layering" and reveal the next part you want to print as described earlier. **Edit 2/22/2012** Set the visibility of all MMRs to "Always", else ordinary whole measure rests will be displayed.  Note the tempo staff remains on top (note strikeout).

Authored by Warren Porter, Jeff Adlon, and Chris Hall.
Since 1998

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #1
Although each part will have a measure number at the start of each system, there may be a need to place measure numbers at other places as well such as the beginning or end of a phrase or where a number of parts start after a long rest.  To do this, place on the bar line of either the individual part or the "tempo track" either the measure number with an ordinary font or the measure number while holding the shift key enclosed in [] and selecting the user font assigned to boxmarks.  Measure "[47]" would appear as "{$&}" when typed but would be "47" with a box around it when displayed or printed on USA keyboards.
Since 1998

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #2
Thank you very much.  That is a lot of information to assimilate, but I'm ready to give it a try.

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #3
Warren gives a very good description of the process. 

A couple of suggestions:

Quote
Start with rehearsal markings positioned before the bar where the marking is to occur. Set it's Alignment/placement to "at next note/bar" with "left" justification and the perserve width box NOT checked. (Jeff Adlon).
 

This will sometimes place your rehearsal letter at the end of a line.  I'd put the text entry at the beginning of a bar instead of the end, so if the line wraps, the rehearsal letter appears where it belongs.

There is now a user tool for multibar rests that works well.  I edited it to use UserFont3, which I usually dedicate to SwingDings, and that places the number of bars above the MBR line.   If you don't want to use the user tool, download my template MBR file from the helpful files area of the Scriptorium.  My file has MBRs of 2 to 17 measures, as well as comp marks, single bar repeat and double bar repeat signs.  Simply keep that file open as you work, and copy what you need over the rests in your own score.

I like Warren's suggestion for cue notes.  If you want to hear them, too, create a new staff that will be layered.  At the cue bar, insert rests up to the cues, then notate the cue notes normally without beaming the shorter notes.  Highlight those notes, override their stem lengths to Zero, and make them headless.  Then enter your cue notes once again as text, each one placed before your headless note and set to At Next Note.  

(More later if I get time to come back to this topic)





Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #4
Thanks David for looking at this.  Placing small notes as text worked when I wrote it, but if someone has to play those cues (instead of just following them), those notes may be difficult to read.  More recently, I have experimented a bit with using grace notes for cues.  Since grace notes take no "time", each one has to be followed by a hidden rest of the same duration.

For eighth notes and shorter, hidden rests will break up the beam if you had one. Beamed notes can be followed by a hidden rest equal to the total duration of that batch.

The hidden rests will indeed fill up the measure so if you want to show a real whole rest, add it as text using  NWC2STDA in a user font.
Since 1998

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #5
Hi Warren

I think the text cue notes can be enlarged just by changing the user font size.  I haven't tried, so I could be mistaken.

Thank you for the suggestion regarding beaming the grace notes. 


Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #6
If you want to hear ... cues ... create a new staff that will be layered.  At the cue bar, insert rests up to the cues, then notate the cue notes normally without beaming the shorter notes.  Highlight those notes, override their stem lengths to Zero, and make them headless.  Then enter your cue notes once again as text, each one placed before your headless note and set to At Next Note.
That would come in handy if you are not transcribing the whole score, e.g., you are doing only the string parts while someone else is taking care of the brass and you need to give a trumpet cue.  When you have the whole score in NWC the cued part would be in there already.
Since 1998

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #7
Hi Warren,

For some reason I didn't see your reply until just now.  Sorry.  

In my experience as a band member, I think cues have always been used two ways - the first is to indicate some other instrumental part that you have to play if the other part isn't covered.  These are small notes placed over rests or over sustained notes, and could be just one note or many notes over several bars.  In this message I'll refer to these as substitution cues.  

The second way is a true cue - it tells you what someone else is playing, to help you know when to come in at the end of rest.  

I don't often look at conductors' scores, but I think they sometimes will show substitution cues on the line of the alternate instrument.  For instance, bari sax or bass clarinet can sub for bassoon, a much rarer instrument.  If the composer/arranger wants the bari sax to play a bassoon passage in the absence of a bassoon, I think I've seen conductors' scores with cues written in a smaller font on the bari sax line.   I don't think I would expect to see a true cue notated on the bari sax line of the score.


Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #8
With the introduction of NWC 2.5, this process is much simpler.

The Tempo staff should now be placed at the top and set to layer with the next staff.  The staff label should be left blank while the staff label for all other instruments should reflect what will be displayed or printed.  No other part needs to be layered to print it unless those parts would normally be layered and printed together.

While Multi Measure Rests are now part of 2.5, they should not be used in the tempo staff.  Create a few whole measure rests and hide them, copy them to the clipboard, and paste them back until it has as many measures as other parts.  When you go back to add time signatures, decorated bar lines, rehearsal letters, tempos, tempo variances, or anything else that needs to appear on all parts, these would be visible.

If the conductor's score will also be printed, you can collapse long multi measure rests so they won't appear until needed.  Before and after the MMR, press "]" to create, then cancel the collapsible section.

**Edited changes**
Multi Measure Rests may be used in the Tempo staff if the visibility is set to "Never" and all boxes are unchecked.

Peter Edwards suggested a tempo staff with zero lines but not layered when printing parts that can collapse.  Please check an earlier thread.
Since 1998

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #9
Nice presentation, Warren.  One comment - the cues look fine with unbeamed notes, but often cues will be eighths or shorter.  If you want to beam them, you have to fiddle with the position of the hidden rests, because NWC won't beam non-adjacent notes.

So my wish for the next enhancement is for the ability to beam across rests.

Re: Printing Parts For Ensemble Members

Reply #10
... NWC won't beam non-adjacent notes...
It does now.
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.751,Single)
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Rest|Dur:8th|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Rest|Dur:8th|Visibility:Never
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Rest|Dur:8th
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End