two notes at once...how do I....

Topic: two notes at once...how do I.... (Read 9360 times) previous topic - next topic

two notes at once...how do I....

2005-10-23 09:03 pm

What do I need to do in order to put two notes at once as shown below..
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/thesloc/twonotes.jpg

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #1 – 2005-10-23 10:59 pm

If you are using the simple entry method with the computer keyboard, do the following...

1. enter one of the two notes you need

2. move the cursor to the staff position of the other note and to the immediate right of the note you want it chorded with

3. press ctrl-enter

4. to remove any notes in the chord after you build it, just position the cursor immediately to the right of that note (on same line or space) and press ctrl-backspace

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #2 – 2005-10-24 04:02 am

Thanks for the help.

I have a different question now, How do I add a rest on top of a note?

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #3 – 2005-10-24 04:55 am

Same way, just place the rest first.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #4 – 2005-10-24 05:47 am

Yes. But keep in mind that even a rest has a stem direction. So, if you hear a beep when you try to enter the note with Ctrl-Enter, try again - but this time, take care of stem directions. The topic has been discussed before.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #5 – 2005-10-24 12:59 pm

Also bear in mind that the rest has to be of a shorter duration than the note
john

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #6 – 2005-10-24 08:36 pm

In NWC2, the rest can also be the same duration as the note, but this might not work in NWC1.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #7 – 2005-10-25 12:41 am

Hey guys, thanks for all your help.

I'm a total newbie to this program, and I can't figure out how to put the rest on a different line now, and I also circled the places where I don't know how to put the notes as they are...
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/thesloc/sthg2.jpg

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #8 – 2005-10-25 03:04 am

Also guys, how do I add this strange symbol beneath the notes?
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/thesloc/8vb.jpg

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #9 – 2005-10-25 04:12 am

G'day Edouard,
there are a couple of concepts that you might benefit from if we cover them first.

1) Like notes, rests can have a stem direction. This can be done after the note or rest is placed by highlighting it and pressing <shift-up> for stem up or <shift-dn> for stem down. You can of course use the mouse instead by going to the note/rest's properties or to the toolbar (black notehead with red stem with arrowhead - one up and one down).

It can also be done by setting the stem direction prior to placing the note or rest - just press the key combination or the requirted toolbar button.

2) NWC can "layer" staves. This means that you can write multiple staves independantly, set the "layer with next staff" option in the staff properties and then enable layering in |file|page setup|contents| or the |view| menu.

The 2 (or more) staves will then be superimposed. This is a very good technique when simple chording does not quite give you what you want.

In the event that you get noteheads overlapping, you can also add extra note spacing (property of the note).

3) Pretty much any object on the staff can be positioned vertically by highlighting (selecting) the object and pressing <shift-up> or <shift-dn>. This is very important when locating rests if you need to layer staves.

Examples of objects that cannot be vertically positioned in this way are: time signatures, key signatures, clefs and barlines. There are probably others but these are the ones I can think of just now.

For your first circled part:
Set stem direction down, set duration, press <space> to place the rest, set stem direction up for the note, arrow to the D line, set duration and press <ctrl-enter> to place the note.

For the second circled part:
Set stem direction down, set duration for the first "C", arrow to the "C" space and press <enter>, set duration to 4th and press <enter>, set stem direction up, set duration to 8th, arrow to the "D" line and press <ctrl-Enter>, arrow to the "E" space, press </> to set a tied note (you could click the toolbar button instead) and press <enter>.

The third circle is probably some kind of artifact, I cannot see any reason for such a thickening or extra line.

The Fourth circle is similar to the first:
Set duration to 8th, set stem direction down, press <space>, srrow to the "C" space, press <enter>, arrow to "E", <enter>, set flat attribute (toolbar buttion or press <8>), <enter>. Now move the cursor back to be immediately to the right of the space but still on the "E" space, set stem direction to up and duration to 4th and press <ctrl-enter>, move the cursor to be immediately to the right of the 8th "E" but on the "A" line and press <ctrl-enter>... voila.

Lawrie

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #10 – 2005-10-25 04:33 am

Hi again Edouard,
for you next posting RE the 8vb marking. This means to play the music an octave lower than written.

Now I stand to be corrected on this, but I don't recall any way that NWC can place this directive internally therefore you need to do 2 things:

First, make the sound an octave lower - the easiest way to do this would be to place a clef at the start of the 8vb section with it's properties set to be:
a) octave shift | octave down and
b) visibility | never

Next, we need to add text for the the symbol...

Place the cursor in an appropriate position, press <x> to enable the text dialogue, enter the expression E.G. 8vb and enough - - 's to reach the end of the 8vb section, I would probably use "staff italic" for the font then set "expression placement" to be "left justified" and "at next note/bar".

You can of course make this much neater by installing a user font and using more specific characters but I won't try to cover that for the moment.

Finally we need to return the sound to the correct octave. Place a clef at the end of the 8vb section with it's properties set to be:
a) octave shift | none and
b) visibility | never

Lawrie

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #11 – 2005-10-25 09:52 pm

Thank you so much for your help!
I am almost done with the composition, however, I stumbled on another problem, this time instead of 8vb, it's 15mb,any help as to how to do this, will be greatly appreciated.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/thesloc/15mv.jpg

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #12 – 2005-10-25 11:17 pm

G'day again Edouard,
15mb means to play 2 octaves below whats written...

As NWC will only allow you to use a clef to do a single octave shift the technique in my last reply won't do the job.

This one will require a "hidden, sounding" staff.

The easiest way to do this is to complete the "visible" staff with all the markings etc. including the 15mb.

Then create a new (to be hidden) staff with the same instrument and midi channel attributes as the original (or visible) staff and copy the "visible" staff to it.

Now mute the visible staff: | staff | mute staff | or just click the mute button on the toolbar (slashed circle over a speaker symbol)

Next, go to the part of the "hidden" staff that must be 15mb and select the affected notes. Using <ctrl-shift-dn> move the notes down 2 octaves (press <dn> 15 times while holding <ctrl-shift>)

Finally, go to | File | page setup | Contents TAB and remove the "X" from the staff to be hidden.

Now, when you play back, the hidden staff will make the sound and the visible staff will give the appearance you require.

Lawrie

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #13 – 2005-10-25 11:39 pm

Oops, correction needed...

Next, go to the part of the "hidden" staff that must be 15mb and select the affected notes. Using <ctrl-shift-dn> move the notes down 2 octaves [press <dn> 15 times while holding <ctrl-shift>]

Should be press <dn> 14 times, not 15

Lawrie

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #14 – 2005-10-26 12:25 am

8vb is more correctly written as 8va bassa; 15mb is more correctly written as 15ma bassa.
The need for the latter is extremely rare, so rare that some notationists consider it completely incorrect.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #15 – 2005-10-26 02:47 am

Hi and thanks again. I'm almost done with the compilation, but I made a mistake, and now I want to delete some of the "----" marks, as I've put too many, I can't find a way to delete some, thanks for help again.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #16 – 2005-10-26 06:57 am

Edouard, you're asking good questions. It's great to see you really giving the program a workout. You won't be sorry.

To shorten the dashed line, open the text entry by highlighting it and pressing Control-E. Delete the unwanted characters as you would in any word processor, then press Enter.

When you need a dotted or dashed line, try making it fairly short, like so:

15ma - - - - - - - - - - - -
and left justified.

Then add a right justified dashed line: - - - - - - - - - - - -
placed at the target note that ends your phrase.

They should be long enough to overlap a bit, so you get one continuous dashed line that will always end at the right spot. If they don't match perfectly, add a space to the second entry.

Laurie, you are certainly going the extra mile with your great explanations. Well done and thank you on behalf of all of us!

David

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #17 – 2005-10-26 10:14 am

Hi Edouard,
glad to see David has stepped into the breach...

G'day David, thankyou for your kind words. Just doin' what ma mamma taught me.

Lawrie

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #18 – 2005-10-27 05:21 am

Thanks for all your help guys. Anyways, when I try to highlight the "---" it won't let me, i think that's what aroused my original question. Anyways, thanks 4 all the help.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #19 – 2005-10-27 07:44 am

Text entries that are not set to "preserve width" are edited or modified by selecting the symbol that is the text entry. It looks like a small diamond, and is right beside the visible text. If you can't find it, go to Tools/Options/[abbr=American spelling, unfortunately]Color[/abbr] and use a darker colour for the "Hidden Notation."

Just highlight the diamond, and press Control-E to edit the text.

If you have preserved width text to edit or modify, there is no anchor. Highlight the entire block of text and press Control-E to edit it.

Re: two notes at once...how do I....

Reply #20 – 2005-10-29 03:21 am

Hey, guys, thanks a lot.

Here's the final compilation, in midi format.

http://s64.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3TLD5A46ASMTY375Z2N03CR4DW

Does this seem familiar?