Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Dotted half note time signature (Read 6495 times) previous topic - next topic

Dotted half note time signature

How can I use a dotted half note time signature in NWC2?

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #1 –
I do not understand your question. If you want a dotted half note as the value of the beat, you could use a time signature such as 6/4 for example:

Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Key|Signature:F#
|TimeSig|Signature:6/4
|Tempo|Base:Half Dotted|Tempo:55|Pos:7
|Note|Dur:Half,Dotted|Pos:0
|Note|Dur:Half,Dotted|Pos:1
|Bar
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:1
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:0
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:-1
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:-2
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:-3
|Note|Dur:4th,Slur|Pos:-2
|Bar
|Note|Dur:Whole,Dotted,Accent|Pos:-2
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #2 –
Some composers are starting to use odd time signatures such as 3 and a half beats to a bar.  Well, maybe not starting.  I think Grainger was guilty of it when notating folk music. 

I think the solution is to use a time signature such as 7 over 8 so NWC can count the beats in the signature, but make it hidden, and replace it with two text entries, one over the other, of 3 1/2 on top and 4 on the bottom.

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #3 –
It all seems unnecessarily complex. Most would want to streamline the written page for ease of reading in real time.

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #4 –
Worhing from David's idea, something like this should work for you.
Code: [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Text|Text:"   ½"|Font:StaffBold|Pos:2
|TimeSig|Signature:3/4
|TimeSig|Signature:7/8|Visibility:Never
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:Half,DblDotted|Pos2:0
|Note|Dur:4th,Dotted|Pos:-3|Opts:Stem=Down
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Given the rarity, I think NWC2 handles this pretty well.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #5 –
Again, can someone tell me why you would want such an encumberance? If I ran across this in a score, I certainly would not know what to do with it.

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #6 –
G'day Fitz!
Quote from: fitzclan –
Again, can someone tell me why you would want such an encumberance? If I ran across this in a score, I certainly would not know what to do with it.

Me too!

That said, my son (the one who gave up music to be a drummer) gets all excited 'bout weird time signatures like 17/32 and 23/16 and other strangenesses.  Why can't he just go back to the piano...  Still the drum kit's not at home anymore and that's a big plus!  :)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #7 –
When I wrote 3 1/2 I think I may have been in error - the Grainger band score probably had 2 1/2.  If I recall, he used other oddities like 1 over 8 or 1 over 4, too.

I think these odd time signatures were an attempt to capture folk music as it was sung in taverns in rural England, where people didn't necessarily have musical training, and where their sense of time and rhythm may have been a wee bit skewed by the occasional pint.

With apologies to Ertugrul, this reminds me of the jazz drummer who was hired to play a concert in Turkey - he asked when the rehearsal would be, but the conductor said, "Don't worry about it.  Just give me 17 to the bar, with a backbeat on 7 and 13."

Nowadays, we would probably use the more common time signatures, which I think of as really just having a hesitation beat in what would otherwise be a normal dance step.   

I didn't like the appearance of the real time signature in Rick's example, so I played with it.  I'm not sure I  have achieved a consistent result, since it seems to change in Print Preview if I add notes to the staff.   :

!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Text|Text:"3   "|Font:PageText|Pos:3|Placement:AsStaffSignature
|Text|Text:"4"|Font:PageText|Pos:-2|Wide:Y|Placement:AsStaffSignature
|Text|Text:"        1/2"|Font:StaffBold|Pos:3|Justify:Center|Placement:AsStaffSignature
|Note|Dur:4th|Pos:-5z|Opts:Stem=Up,StemLength=0,Muted|Visibility:Always
|TimeSig|Signature:7/8|Visibility:Never
|Chord|Dur:Half|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:Half,DblDotted|Pos2:0
|Note|Dur:4th,Dotted|Pos:-3|Opts:Stem=Down
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
 

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #8 –
I'd use the ½ character. Much nicer appearance

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #9 –
That's fine, but it has to be big enough to be read "on the fly" by an instrumentalist who is sightreading the part, sitting perhaps a meter from the stand, with failing eyesight.


The only time I've seen it live was under those circumstances, and the publisher made the height of the 1/2 equal to the height of the 3, with the 4 centered below the entire 4 characthers of the 3 1/2.

It's finicky trying to get it to look right in NWC, if your preferred font doesn't have 1/2 as one freestanding glyph.

Re: Dotted half note time signature

Reply #10 –
Quote from: David Palmquist –
... the publisher made the height of the 1/2 equal to the height of the 3, with the 4 centered below the entire 4 characthers of the 3 1/2.

It's finicky trying to get it to look right in NWC ...

If you must have it look absolutely right, use a font editor to change Zero (or some other unused meter #) in the system font to ½ and put the TimeSig in as 30/4, followed by an invisible 7/8
Registered user since 1996