Splitting a Track into Right- and Left-Hand Staves

In a MIDI file, the notes for a keyboard instrument are often kept in one track, combining the notes of both the left and right hands. When Composer first transcribes the keyboard track, it will display the notes for both hands in a single staff, such as the following:

At your request, Composer will split the notes into left- and right-hand staves. Composer makes intelligent guesses about the distribution of notes between the two hands, based on an analysis of hand positions, finger positions, and hand motions. If Composer makes an error in determining which hand a particular note is assigned to, you can easily reassign it to the other hand.

To split notes in a keyboard track into left- and right-hand staves:

The remaining steps of this procedure will replace the original track that you are splitting. If you want to preserve a copy of the original track, then use the Clone Track command in the Track menu to make a copy of the track.

1.      If the track controls are visible, then click depress the Track Selection button to select a track.

If the track controls are not visible, you can make them visible by choosing the Show Track Controls option from the View menu.

2.      Choose the Split Hands command from the Track menu.

-- OR --

Type "qsplh" for Quick Split Hands.

     Composer will present you with the Split Hands dialog box.      

3.      In the Split Hands dialog box, confirm the track you selected in step #1, or select a track.

4.      Also, in the Split Hands dialog box, you wish to click the Transcription Options button.

The transcription options will apply to the two newly created right- and left-hand tracks, and determine whether:

     Standard versus jazz (swing) rhythm notation will be used.

     Single voices or split (upper and lower) voices will be detected and notated.

     Overlaps of notes will be removed to reduce the number of ties in the score.

     Rests smaller than a specified size (quarter, eighth, or sixteenth) will be removed.

     Grace notes, trills and tremelos will be detected and notated.

For details about these options, see Transcription Options.

5.      Click the OK button to confirm the Split Hands command.

     Composer will replace the single selected staff with two staves, one for the left hand and one for the right hand. It will also add a brace along each pair on the left side of the right- and left-hand staves. For the above example, the result will look like this:

You might notice that the first measure distributes the notes between the left- and right- hands differently than as scored by Bach. Of course, Bach is right, and Composer is wrong. You can quickly correct such mistakes.

To correct the placement of one or more notes between the right- and left-hand staves:

1.      Select one or more notes: Click a note with the mouse. Or click and drag the mouse cursor across multiple notes. Or click one note with the mouse, and to select additional separate notes, hold down the SHIFT key while clicking them.

2.      While holding down the SHIFT key, hit the key to move the selected note(s) from the left-hand staff to the right-hand staff above, or the key to move the note(s) down to the next staff.

Here is what the same example looks like after the three notes in the left hand of the first measure are selected and then moved to the right-hand staff with SHIFT+:

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