Time Value for Chord Symbols

[rrayner]

Hi Sherry -- I'm not making much progress on this point. I've attached two files: 1) Song1 - I've hidden the rests; included slashes as Free Text, spaced and increased their size, which looks okay at normal size. But if I zoom in or out, there is no relative expansion/contraction of the text, and 2) Song4 - I've created a drum staff, but I cannot get control of the noteheads. When I create a New File, I clicked the Staff icon at the beginning of the part; set it to be a 5-line Drum Instrument with a diamond notehead. I get nothing but x. If I do a Shift H, I get a (horizontal) display of the available noteheads, but when I select any of them, I don't get a change of the selected note(s). I'm particularly interested in seeing what the half notes and whole notes look like, but I can't see them. Am I not holding my mouth right?

Ralph

Looking at this description after the fact, I realized that I'm working with variable noteheads on a 5-line staff. i.e., triangle, x, etc., and that I was trying to change a notehead, and it was locked to the pitch I had selected. So, bottom line, I guess I still don't know how to implement your suggestion.

[Sherry C]

Hi Ralph,

Sorry for the confusion here. The five-line drum staff is "pseudo-pitch", and does have "pseudo sharps/flats" as part of the drum instruments' delineation. In other words, the E is one drum instrument, the Eb (or D#, however you want to call it) is another. So on the five line staff, the notehead shape is different depending on whether it's an "accidental" or "natural." The bottom line is, that you can't change the notehead shapes for the five line staff (and it's written up as an improvement to give better feedback about that.)

What I had intended to suggest is that you just use the standard "x" notehead shape, pick a pitch where it shows up as "x" and use that as your rhythm indicator. For example, on a five-line drum staff with a treble clef, the A (next to bottom space) is a "x", and is nice and visible. Perhaps that could be used for your rhythm notation?

ttfn,
Sherry

[rrayner]

Thanks, Sherry. Didn't have my thinking cap on very tightly on this one.

One additional problem with using a drum staff, and this is a problem with drums also, is that there is no differentiation in the note heads for "white" notes. A whole note is okay, because there is no stem, but a half note is a problem. A 4/4 measure with quarter/half/quarter shows as three x's with stems. The only differentiation on the half note is that there is a larger space between the half note (beats 2 & 3) and the final quarter note.

Back in the "old days", when we used pen and paper, the quarter notes in this example would be an x, and the half note would be a diamond with a stem and a whole note would be a stemless diamond.

Ah, there are always exceptions, aren't there? Bottom line, I'll work it out. Thanks.

Ralph

[Sherry C]

Howdy Ralph,

Perhaps this is where you could use the "sharp" convention for the pseudo-pitches to your advantage.

Using the example of placing the rhythm indicating drum notes on "A", the "naturals" would be the "x" notehead, and sharps would be the "triangle" notehead. It's not a diamond, but at least it's different than the "x." Might that work for a workaround? I just tested it, and it works mechanically, I'm mostly asking if it works for real musicians

ttfn,
Sherry

[rrayner]

I'll consider this, Sherry. I'm using the spaces for E3 for Ride Cymbal and A3 for Bass Drum, in what is more or less the standard for written drum parts. If I raise the pitches, they become a triangle, but on the line above. Probably, this will be better than leaving it as it is (x-one beat; x-two beats; x-one beat), which is a visual conundrum. Hmm, I suppose I could use four quarter notes in this example, and tie beats two and three together. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ralph

[Sherry C]

Hi Ralph,

Originally Posted by rrayner

If I raise the pitches, they become a triangle, but on the line above.

Try using the "Enharmonic spelling" feature to get the triangles back on the correct lines (click-select the note, hold the "E" key, and press the Up or Down arrow key).

ttfn,
Sherry

[rrayner]

Originally Posted by Sherry C

Hi Ralph,



Try using the "Enharmonic spelling" feature to get the triangles back on the correct lines (click-select the note, hold the "E" key, and press the Up or Down arrow key).

ttfn,
Sherry

That was interesting. I got a solid triangle in the E4 space when I went down. Thanks again, Sherry.

Ralph