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Old 02-11-2014, 09:24 PM
rrayner rrayner is offline
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Default Repeat Measure Symbol

As I was writing for my own purposes, i.e., notating in Composer and listening to/playing along with on my Clavinova, it didn't matter to me what the drum part looked like, as long as it sounded right on my Clavinova.

Currently, I have an opportunity to write for live musicians, and the GM drum notation is at times very awkward to look at, much less decipher it at tempo. I have culled standard drum notation concepts and made my own template for "live drummers". I can now have a "real" drum staff, which contains all the proper GM notes, and a "print" drum staff, which will look good for the drummer.

The one thing that is lacking, to my way of thinking, is a symbol to indicate that this measure is a duplicate of the previous measure.

The first image below, Drum Part.jpg is a snapshot of an outrageously simple drum part from my playing days. However, measures 2-4 show the symbol that is on my wish list.

The second image below, Drum Part2.jpg is a snapshot of a Notation score that I am currently working on. All four measures are the same (except for the stem direction, which is of no consequence for my plea). I would love to be able to put the symbol from the first example into measures 2-4 of the second example.

And while I am wishing -- if this symbol were implemented in a future release, it would be nice to have the kind of trick that Mark built into collapsing measures containing rests, i.e., show the requested repeat symbol with a number over the measures indicating how many duplicate rhythm measures there are in this section. For example, in an eight-measure section, the first measure is the rhythm pattern, and measures 2 through 8 are covered by one measure with the repeat symbol in it and the number 7 over it, indicating play the previous measure 7 times.

Sounds pretty complicated to work into the code, but I can hope.

Ralph Rayner
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Drum Part.jpg (66.9 KB, 15 views)
File Type: jpg Drum Part2.jpg (16.6 KB, 13 views)

Last edited by rrayner; 02-12-2014 at 04:07 AM. Reason: Fixed Part2
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  #2  
Old 02-12-2014, 12:53 PM
dj dj is offline
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Default Re: Repeat Measure Symbol

Hi, Ralph:

Not totally satisfactory, but, as you are using separate "print" and "performed" drum notation staves, you could make up a repeat bar symbol using free text, with a period, a backslash and another period and place it in the "print" staff where needed.

You'd need three different free text elements, in order to position them separately.

Empty the bar where the repeat symbol will be placed and then hide the rests in the bar. Whole note rests can't be hidden so you have to divide them into smaller rests first.

Attached is a quick screen shot of an example.

Hope that helps.

David
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Repeat bar symbol example.jpg (67.1 KB, 10 views)
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  #3  
Old 02-12-2014, 01:30 PM
rrayner rrayner is offline
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Default Re: Repeat Measure Symbol

Thanks for the suggestion, David. Your approach is certainly no more onerous than my slashes for chord symbols.

Quote:
Whole note rests can't be hidden so you have to divide them into smaller rests first.
I have been able to hide whole rests. As a matter of fact, for hiding multiple measures of rests, I first selected the measures as a region; then issued the qcrr command (which I didn't even know existed -- I just intuitively tried it , and it worked) to convert the region to rests; then typed h to hide all of the whole rests at one time.

I will use your ./. -- thanks, again.

Ralph
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Old 02-12-2014, 01:39 PM
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Sherry C Sherry C is offline
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Default Re: Repeat Measure Symbol

Hi guys,

I've done the "David method" using a percentage (%) symbol. Not quite perfect, but it works

ttfn,
Sherry
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  #5  
Old 02-12-2014, 02:17 PM
rrayner rrayner is offline
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Default Re: Repeat Measure Symbol

I have expanded a little on David's suggestion (I like the % also, but not as much). I hid the rest and created the three Free Text objects for the period, slash, period, individually (for precise positioning); selected them as a group by swiping across all three; entered Ctrl+ six times to get the correct proportional size and made the characters bold; positioned each object relative to the other two; again, swiped all three as a group and made the final adjustments within the measure. Below is my future usage of the Repeat Symbol (until something better comes along ).

I have also included my Repeat Symbol.not file that I will use for copy/paste operations. I have created both a treble clef and bass clef version, so I won't have to change the clef in my target after pasting. I will probably be using the bass clef version most of the time.

Ralph

P. S. Where I have long sections of repeat measures, I will probably put the measure number over every fourth measure to make it easier for the drummer to follow.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Drum Part3.jpg (13.8 KB, 10 views)
Attached Files
File Type: not Repeat Symbol.not (2.8 KB, 3 views)

Last edited by rrayner; 02-14-2014 at 01:20 PM. Reason: Modified the appearance of the symbol a little bit in the file
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