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Topic: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc. (Read 7742 times) previous topic - next topic

Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Hi. I would love to look this up, but I don't know what to call it.

I have some music that explains the "Swing" instruction by picturing a pair of eighth notes' being equal to a quarter and an eighth. There are also other such notations that seem to say things like a quarter note equals a quarter note. What the heck is this notation called, so I can Google it, and (just for kicks) can I enter these (other than with a tempo entry) in NWC?

Thanks in advance,
   - Chuck

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #1 –
LilyPond calls them "Rhythm marks / play style indication", but LilyPond is famous for creating phases out of thin air. Some examples attached.

MusicDingsSerif.ttf defines a couple possibly useful glyphs (also attached).
Registered user since 1996

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Chuck Mullen –
Hi. I would love to look this up, but I don't know what to call it.

I have some music that explains the "Swing" instruction by picturing a pair of eighth notes' being equal to a quarter and an eighth. There are also other such notations that seem to say things like a quarter note equals a quarter note. What the heck is this notation called, so I can Google it, and (just for kicks) can I enter these (other than with a tempo entry) in NWC?

Thanks in advance,
   - Chuck

In Wikipedia, it's a "Swung Note".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swung_note

<Image Link>
You're thinking of this, on the upper left of the start of a staff.

source here.

But yeah I would just call it "Swing Notation".  In my old High School Jazz Ensemble sheet music, it would have the equivalents on the top to let the young student figure out that the 'four beats' are now broken into four clusters of triplets instead of the regular quad notes.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #3 –
I think Chuck is looking for a name for the general case of (note or notes) = (some indicator), where note or notes is written as actual small notes and some indicator can be notes, numbers, or (occasionally) words or other symbols. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a name for the general case. It's usually called a "tempo indicator" when its followed by a metronome setting or by a note of a different value (e.g., quarter note = dotted quarter); it's usually called a "style indicator" when it shows swung time, strict time, reel time, or some similar command. But AFAIK those names have not been standardized. As for doing them in NWC, the only ones available natively are the tempo indicators that include metronome settings. The others all need to be faked.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #4 –
My font suites have all the elements necessary to insert them as text items.

See the Scripto:
http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html#Fonts
OR your install CD if you purchased NWC2.0 or later on CD - install the "Pardypack"
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #5 –
I'm not seeing any font that allows me to input [quarter note]=[half note]. I see the quarter note and half note symbols in several fonts, but these fonts seem to lack an "=" symbol.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #6 –
Quote from: schnautza –
I'm not seeing any font that allows me to input [quarter note]=[half note]. I see the quarter note and half note symbols in several fonts, but these fonts seem to lack an "=" symbol.
My PardyPack font suites all have notes AND the = symbol in them in the *text fonts (SwingText, MusikTextSans, MiusikTextSerif), HOWEVER, there is now a MUCH better way:
Install Mike Shawaluk's "TempoEquation" user object:
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=9984.0
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #7 –
I usually simply make them (they're called "metric modulations" by music engravers).  Use the NWC2STDA font to create the necessary notes, separate them by several spaces, and center them over the barline. Use any font for the equals sign, also over the barline. You may have to adjust the font size with the "per cent" option, and experiment to get the right number of spaces.

Re: Quarter note equals quarter note, etc.

Reply #8 –
Quote from: schnautza –
I'm not seeing any font that allows me to input [quarter note]=[half note]. I see the quarter note and half note symbols in several fonts, but these fonts seem to lack an "=" symbol.
In addition to Mike's TempoEquation.ms object, the XText.hmm object is designed to combine arbitrary text snippets from various fonts as a single object. The example file XTextExamples.nwctxt in that posting has a few examples of tempo equations.

H.M.