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Grace Notes & Printout

Notes G F E D descending are grace notes going with the last note C (quarter note). I entered the grace notes properly, I think. The print as little "grace-looking" notes. BUT - in printing, the upper score of the piano part seems to think those are actual 16th notes followed by a quarter note and it skews the upper part so that nothing prints above the bass note C. It just leaves a blank space. In other words, the printing of that bar is a mess. Can someone help me? And shouldn't there be parentheses around the grace notes somehow?

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #1 –
Carolyn, are you allowing time for the grace notes? If so, don't! NWC automatically 'steals' time from the next full note, so if you are allowing time, then the measures will be unequal and cause horrendous print errors. You can tidy up the appearance of the grace notes by assigning them a short note length e.g. 1/8 or 1/16 then beaming them together (it sounds as though you already have them set as 1/16). It doesn't affect the actual playing length of the grace notes.
HTH, Peter.

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #2 –
Thanks for a quick reply, Peter. Yes, I have the notes set as 16th notes and beamed, so they look right. I am not allowing time for them, as far as I know, but how do I know??? And yes, the printing is horrendous and totally skewed. That's the problem. This, by the way, is intended only for a "hard copy" for performance. Playback via the computer is not significant here. So, the next question is how I can tell if NWC is reading the grace notes as "time" rather than grace notes? Thanks.

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #3 –
Hi Carolyn,

I input the grace notes and quarter note into blank score and checked out the printing using both an ancient dot matrix printer and a brand-new HP Lasetjet 5N...

The print output from both of these printers looks fine to me. Could it be your printer driver? Can you try another printer driver? (You can use print preview to gauge results without having to actually print.)

Perhaps I didn't interpret your description of the notes correctly. I input the following:

Staff-1: Treble clef, quarter-note-C, the four grace notes (16th and beamed) then three more quarter-note-C's.
Staff-2: Bass clef, four quarter-note-C's.

All of the quarter notes line up. Space is left inbetween the first and second quarter notes in the bass clef to allow room for the grace notes to print in the treble clef.

Please let me know what the score should've looked like, if this does not illustrate your problem correctly, and you do not think it is a printer driver issue.

Good luck,
Sue

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #4 –
Carolyn, you wrote "I am not allowing time for them, as far as I know, but how do I know???"
If you set notes as grace notes, then you do not have to count their duration on any other staff.
One thing to check, even if your score is not for playback purpose: play it. If the notes (your C after grace notes) is not (dis-)played at the same time as the note of the other staff, then there is a problem in your notation.
"So, the next question is how I can tell if NWC is reading the grace notes as "time" rather than grace notes?"
What I can tell you is that NWC does not count the duration of grace notes.
So if you have --not counting the grace notes-- the same umber of beats in your measures vertically, then everything should be alright. To check this, you may remove the grace notes just to verify bars align properly. Use Ctrl-Z to get them back, and correct the problem if any.

You may also send your NWC score to us :-) (even through mail-list, since it now accepts messages greater than 10k (up to 100).

HTH, MAD

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #5 –
Hello, again, Carolyn. By 'allowing time' I mean adding up the apparent length of the grace notes and putting a rest or note in the other staves to balance them. But this is incorrect, since the grace notes as I mentioned above actually steal time from their associated full note. If you're not doing this, then I wonder if there is an unbalanced measure somewhere else in your score - like Sue I did a test using your note selection without any problems, nor have I had any problems with grace notes on other occasions. If you still can't find a fault, perhaps you would like to e-mail me the NWC file as an attachment, and I'll be happy to have a look at it.

Peter.

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #6 –
Peter, I guess we were writing an answer just at the same time ;-)

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #7 –
Dominique, Oui!

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #8 –
Is there a "NWC for Dummies" book out there? If so, I am in need of it. Thanks to everyone who responded. It was operator error. I apologize!!! The grace note passage was the final bar of the piece, in 2/4, on the first beat of the bar, with a quarter rest as the final beat. So guess what! I had inadvertently forgotten to put in the quarter rest in the grace note bar, so apparently NWC read the bar in "real" time rather than reading the grace notes as grace notes. Still not sure why the totally garbled printout, but the important point is that everything is now fine (of course!) and NWC is as wonderful as ever. Thanks to all for responding. I have given myself 20 lashes with a quaver!
I will return soon with another minor problem that may be a Wish List item. By the way, I was copying the piece in question for someone else -- she was absolutely delighted to see her music "in print." NWC is good!

Re: Grace Notes & Printout

Reply #9 –
Have you tried Barry Graham's excellent Noteworthy Manual.

You can download a copy from the Scriptorium.

Richard