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Topic: Too many beats in the measure (Read 4160 times) previous topic - next topic

Too many beats in the measure

I have a music sheet for "Love Me Tender" that I am attempting to enter into NWC. When I input the first two measures, they look like the attachment with this post. The top staff has four beats per measure and I'm not sure how many beats the bottom staff (for guitar) has. The measure lengths look right on the music sheet I have and the notes are correct. Would someone please tell me what's going on here.

The music sheet also has a third staff, tablature for guitar, which I did not enter (just as an aside, does NWC allow tablature?). I have the NWC 2.5 User's Guide (very nice document by the way) but I cannot find answers to my problems.

I can scan the music sheet as a jpg or pdf if that will help. All replies will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

Al

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #1 –
You will need to use "restchords" to achieve the effect you want.

This is where you place a rest first and then place one or more notes in a chord with the rest. You can then alter the chord such that the rest will not show.

Without seeing the original score, it is not easy to say what should be a rest chord but to give you the idea, see the attachment.
Rich.

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #2 –
Perhaps this:
Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.51,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Tempo|Tempo:100|Pos:12
|Key|Signature:C|Tonic:C
|TimeSig|Signature:4/4
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-6|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:-2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Spacer|Width:50
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam|Dur2:4th|Pos2:1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:0
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Spacer|Width:50
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam|Dur2:4th|Pos2:1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Bar
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:#-10|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Spacer|Width:50
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam|Dur2:4th|Pos2:-1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-10|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:Half|Pos2:2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Bar
|Rest|Dur:Whole
|Bar|Style:Double
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-6|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:-2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|RestChord|Dur:8th|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:4th|Pos2:1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:0
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|RestChord|Dur:8th|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:4th|Pos2:1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Bar
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:#-10|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:4th|Pos2:2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|RestChord|Dur:8th|Opts:Stem=Down|Dur2:4th|Pos2:-1
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-10|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First|Dur2:Half|Pos2:2
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:-5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Registered user since 1996

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #3 –
Thank you for your replies.

Rich, what you did certainly fixed the song. The timing lines up and the song sounds right. However, conceptually I don't know what you did. I am having a hard time picturing a chord composed of a note and a rest. For example, I can play A-B-C-D or I can play A-B-REST-D but I don't know how to play A-B- C plus REST - D. If I ignore the REST, the C sounds the same as it did with the rest.

I am not asking you to solve this for me, I realize it's my problem and I will work on it. However thank you for the two fixed measures. I will somehow figure out what you did and apply it to the rest of the song.

I thought music was supposed to be fun and easy. I bought a Yamaha keyboard and a guitar, and so far I can't play either of them equally well. When does the fun part begin?

Al

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #4 –
Just to help a bit more....

If you play a quarter note, but after it has been sounding for half of it's duration, you want  another quarter note to sound, there are two main ways of doing this.

One is to use layering (which you will progress onto and is extremely essential for all sorts of things), and the other is to use a rest chord.
All this means is that you chord a note with a smaller value rest. This means that the smaller time value of the rest is what is used by NoteWorthy to balence the time values in the measure. So if you chord a quarter note with and eighth rest, then the time value of the combination is an eighth. So that if you put another quarter note after this combination, it will play after half the rest chorded note has sounded.
This does not mean that only half of the quarter note sounds, the full value of the quarter note will sound.

To put in a rest chord, you must enter the rest first. The note must be of equal or larger value than the rest.  You put the note in the same way as any chord member - ie Control and enter (like you already have done with a chord in the sample you gave).

Note that a rest has a stem direction even though you can't see it, so you need to set the stem direction for the rest before placing it (or set it after placing it but before entering the notes)

If you want to hide the rest, go to the properties of the rest chord (select and then ALT and Enter) and then select the rest chord tab and the remove the tick from "Show rest"

Quote from: Al –
I can play A-B-C-D or I can play A-B-REST-D but I don't know how to play A-B- C plus REST - D.

Yes you do !  If you are playing quarter A  , then quarter B, then Quarter C but before the c stops sounding, you use another finger to sound a quarter D , and then release the C when half of the D has sounded.

The restchord is just NoteWorthy's way of achieving this.  Some music actually shows the rests too.

Hope this helps.
Rich.

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #5 –
It helps a lot Rich, thank you.

Al

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #6 –
Al,
I suspect that the fun starts when you've worked REALLY hard at mastering something.
Proficiency (which may look soooo easy to others) does not come without a lot of patient, hard work,
except, of course, to the absolute genius.

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Al –
...conceptually I don't know what you did. ...  I will somehow figure out what you did and apply it to the rest of the song.
...I thought music was supposed to be fun and easy. I bought a Yamaha keyboard and a guitar, and so far I can't play either of them equally well. When does the fun part begin?
The concept is just that NWC counts the beats in a bar with chords by only counting the shorter notes (or rests) in each chord.  The invisible rests added by Rich allow NWC to ignore the longer notes that were causing the problem.  There's a fairly comprehensive discussion of how to make chords in the Help section (press F1, and look for "Chord Member Command")

As to when the fun starts, it's when you start making music that sounds good to you.  Taking a few lessons from a real music teacher will help you get there. Don't use online tutorials, they can't see what's wrong with your playing.  With a competent teacher, you will learn how to play your instruments well, and learn about music too.  He or she will identify and correct problems you have - sometimes it's just a matter of posture or hand postion; if they're wrong you could end up in pain.

Mastering your instruments will take time, but you'll get a lot of pleasure along the way.

Re: Too many beats in the measure

Reply #8 –
Old joke -

Lost Concertgoer: Excuse me, can you please tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?
Street musician: Practice, man. Practice.

(Couldn't resist. Seems to fit this topic.)

Bill