NoteWorthy Composer Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) Answers to the following
questions are based on the latest version of NoteWorthy Composer. In
addition to this page, you may find the User Tips & Tricks
page and the Forum helpful. The NoteWorthy
Composer Help file also includes a list of "Answers to Common Questions."
List of FAQ Titles

One of the best places to go first is the Help file's Getting
Started section. This area will guide you in setting up for play back, creating new
songs, and working in the score editor. You may also want to review the Keyboard
Reference section for a list of quick keys to make notating even
faster. Top
Use File: Save As and select Save as type to
be Type 1 MIDI File or Type 0 MIDI File to create a MIDI file (*.mid)
from the current active score. Top
When you open a new song file from a Blank template, there is one staff
on the screen. To enter more staves use Staff: New Staff or the quick key Ctrl+A. The
Staff menu is where you add, move and delete staves. Top
For chord entry (notes vertically aligned and played at the same time):
- Enter the first note of the chord.
- Position the insertion point to the right of the note and at the pitch
for the second note in the chord.
- Press Ctrl+Enter to place the second note in a chord with the first note.
- Repeat steps 2 & 3 to add more notes to the chord.
You can remove a chord member by positioning the insertion point to the
right of the note to be removed and pressing Ctrl+Backspace. For more information on
chords, search the NWC Help file for Chord Member Command. Top
- Select the clef, press Alt+Enter to access the
clef dialog box, and change it as necessary.
- Press Home, then Shift+End, which selects the whole staff (you can also
try this procedure on smaller selections, where appropriate by left clicking the mouse and
dragging across the notes).
- Press Shift+Ctrl+Up/Down Arrow until the notes are at the proper position
for the new clef
- Press F9 to update the key signature. Top
- Use Tools: Force Accidentals to assign an accidental to each note.
- Select the key signature, and change it using Alt+Enter. If no key
exists, then use Insert: Key Signature (or K) to enter a key signature at
the beginning of the staff.
- Select Tools: Audit Accidentals to update notes to the key.
- If necessary to change the enharmonic spelling of notes, select Tools:
Transpose Staff and specify an interval of "0". Top
You will see the option to Preserve Width in dialog boxes under
Expression Placement. One example is Insert: Text. If you select Preserve Width, the text
will take up its own width on the staff and notes will start after the text. If you do not
select Preserve Width, the text will not take any width on the staff. In this case, text
placed at the top of the staff will allow notes to be entered under the text. If you do
not Preserve Width, the symbol or text you are entering will appear with a diamond beside
it. Since the item has no width of its own, the diamond gives you something to select for
editing or deleting. The diamond will not appear in your prints. Top
You must select a proper sequence of notes for the commands to become
active. For example to beam notes, you must have at least two flagged (ex: eighth) notes
selected (highlighted). Once selected, the beam icon will become available as well as the
ability to use the quick key Ctrl+B. Clicking the beam icon will beam the selected notes. Top
There is an easy way to edit symbols like the clef, key signature, and
text. First, select (highlight) the item, then press Alt+Enter. The dialog box for that
item will appear for quick editing. Top
Use the computer keyboard as much as possible. Most commands and actions
have a keyboard shortcut. For example, standard bar lines can be entered by pressing the
Tab key. Search on Keyboard Guide in NoteWorthy Composer's help file for a
listing of all the keyboard shortcuts. Top
Click on the staff you want to add more space around. Press F2 to bring
up the Staff Properties dialog box. Under the Visual tab, use the Vertical Size -- Upper
and/or Lower settings. Increasing the Upper setting provides more space above the staff.
Increasing the Lower setting gives more space below the staff. Do this for any staves you
need more space around. Top
Multi-measure rests are not currently supported in NoteWorthy
Composer. However, the following tips provide a good solution:
If your primary need is for printing, enter a whole measure rest. Then,
with the insertion point to the left of the rest, select Insert: Text. In the Expression
box, type |---- "a number for the number of measures to hold the rest" ----|.
Set Display Font to Bold. Under Expression Placement, do not check Preserve Width and do
set the Staff Position for 6. Click OK. This will place a | ---- x ----| over the whole
measure rest, which now looks a lot like a multi-measure rest. If you do not like the
vertical placement of the number, select the diamond beside the number, and press
Alt+Enter to edit the Staff Position.
If you also need the multi-measure rest to play back, use Insert: Bar
Line (Decorated), to insert a Local Repeat Open and a Local Repeat Close around the rest.
When inserting the Local Repeat Close, enter the number of times to repeat the rest
(measure).
You could also use both methods above and create a Print Group and a
Play Group. Top
If you want to use Tools: Audit Bar Lines to check your bar alignment
and have a pick up note, you need to isolate the pick up note before doing the audit. You
can isolate the note by placing a double bar line or section close (Insert: Bar Line
Decorated) after the note instead of a single bar line. Then run the audit. When the audit
is complete, replace the double bar line with a regular bar line. Top
To connect your staves in an orchestral fashion or with a brace (as for
piano), go to Staff Properties (F2) for each staff. Under the Visual tab, for Style,
select Orchestral for each staff or Upper Grand Staff for the top staff and Lower Grand
Staff for the bottom staff (for the brace). Top
If you have a few notes or an entire section of notes that you do not
want lyrics assigned to, use an _ (underscore) in the Lyric Editor (Ctrl+L) for each note
you want to skip. For example, entering _ _ _ in for Lyrics will skip 3 notes. You can
also select the notes that you do not want to have lyrics, press Alt+Enter, and under the
Notes tab, set Lyric Syllable to Never.
Top
For any selected note(s), Ctrl+Shift+(up/down arrow keys) will move the
note(s) up and down on a staff.
You cannot move just one note in a chord. However, you can place your
insertion point to the right of the chord member and press Ctrl+Backspace to remove the
chord member. Top
The command File: Page Setup, Options tab allows you to toggle the
setting "Increase note spacing for larger note durations." To adjust the spacing
around one note, select it, press Alt+Enter, edit Extra Note Spacing. Top
For example, if you will be entering more notes that are accented
(Notes: Accent) than are not accented, use Persistent Note Tools (Tools
menu) to keep the Accent icon on. To do this, click the Persistent Note Tools icon. Top
- You can change the templates provided in NoteWorthy Composer and
save them as new templates:
-Open the rhythm that you want to change
-Change the template as you want
-File: Save As
-Save file under Template, Rhythm as whatever name you want
-Now you have a new template the way you want it
-When you enter Ctrl+N, you template will be there
- You can create a template from new:
-Create your song file
-File: Save As
-Save under Template, Rhythm or Custom
Top
Have them download or send them a copy of NoteWorthy
Player. It is freeware and will play back *.nwc files. Top
No, but you can use NoteWorthy Player
for loop play of your *.nwc files. It is freeware. Top
An example may provide the best explanation. The file mpcex.nwc (1K) includes a .nwc file with multi-point
controllers for volume. When you play back the song, you can hear the volume fade in one
area due to a multi-point controller and change instantaneously in another. Select the
{mpc} symbol in the .nwc file and press Alt+Enter to see how the multi-point controller
was set. Top
Pressing F5 or Tools: Play will start play back. However, you can set
where you want play to begin each time. Select Tools: Options and click on the MIDI tab.
Under Play Options, you can select play to start from the beginning, from the current
measure, from the insertion point or from several other choices. Top
When this occurs, the quick fix is to hit the Stop button twice. The
second Stop command will cause Note Off events to be sent for all notes on every MIDI
channel for every selected device.
As for the cause, there are several possibilities:
The most likely cause for this situation is from note ties across bar
lines, where both notes do not have the same accidental assigned to them. For example, you
might be selecting to tie a note outward, and then changing the key signature or clef
before the recipient of the note tie is encountered. This will cause stuck notes, as the
"Note Off" pitch will not coincide with the original "Note On" pitch.
For example, if you have a B-Flat note, including its accidental, tied outward into a bar
line, then you need to make sure that the note on the other side of the bar line at that
staff position is also a B-Flat note, either via the key signature or by its accidental.
Any accidental that you assign to the recipient of a note tie will be suppressed when the
note is displayed.
The second cause is mostly a consequence of internal data getting
confused. NoteWorthy Composer can be very sophisticated in how it handles note
ties: for example you can tie a note going into a special ending, and NoteWorthy
Composer will figure out that the note should be tied to the next note in all of the
special endings automatically. If you do not resolve the note tie on one of the special
endings, then the tied note will be "stuck".
It is also possible that the score needs to be audited. Sometimes, after
cutting and pasting notes, or adding notes with the tie outward attribute set, the
internal data gets out of synch with the visual score. In this case, one note may
understand that it is tied to the next note with its pitch, but the next note does not yet
understand that it is the recipient of a note tie. Use the Audit Staff and/or Audit Score
command to resolve this situation.
Lastly, if you play a score which includes the Sustain Pedal markings,
and Stop the play back while the pedal is down, the "pedal down" effect remains
for that MIDI channel even after you start play back again. This can cause stuck notes
when play is selected again. If this is the cause, the easiest solution is to hit the Stop
button twice. Top
If you only want one staff to play back, make the staff active and press
Shift+F5 to play the active staff. If you want some staves to play and some not to play,
use Tools: Mute List for quick access to setting the staves to mute or not mute. Top
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