Splitting Measures |
Composer enables you to insert a barline into the middle of a measure, thus splitting the measure either into two parts divided by a dotted barline, or into two smaller measures. Some reasons that you might want to split a measure are:
The barline can be inserted at any beat within the measure such that the newly created smaller measures do not necessarily have equal lengths. If the barline is inserted at a minor beat in the measure, Composer arranges the beams for the second of two smaller measures according to the same pattern as in the original measure. For example, if you split a 4:4 measure into 5:8 and 3:8 measures, the last two eighth notes of the second 3:8 measure will remain beamed together, and the first of the three eighth notes in the 3:8 measure will not be beamed. To split a measure by inserting a barline in the middle of the measure:
-- OR -- Type the vertical line character "|", which suggests the shape of a barline. This is the upper-case for the backward slash "\" character on many keyboards.
-- OR -- Type "ib" for Insert Barline.
As you move the cursor around on the score, a dark red barline of the type you have selected will indicate where the new barline will be inserted if you click the mouse:
Composer will add a new double barline where you clicked the mouse, and will indicate the meters (time signatures) of the newly created left and right measure, as illustrated using the above example:
In this example, if you want to convert the 1/8 measure into an upbeat measure, and delete the 7/8 measure, then follow the instructions in Creating Upbeat Measures. |