NoteWorthy Composer (and music software in general)

Cerddwr · Post by **Cerddwr** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 11:16 pm

Hello all,
I am, shall we say, a newbie to this whole music thing (the making of, not the enjoying of

and I have been looking for a way to learn music notation as well as how to play this infernal whistle (it probably stops being infernal once I learn to play it huh?)
To that end, I bought a copy of NoteWorthy Composer, which is affordable music software that lets me put the notes down from the sheet music, then play it at a slow tempo so I can learn. It has also helped me start hearing the grace notes, because I can listen to an un-embellished version with Composer, then listen to an embellished version on a CD. First of all, I am interested in hearing if anyone else has gone this route?
Also, I am now running into a bit of a problem. First is that my sound card doesn't have a D Penny Whistle in it's repertoire of instruments. I have tried a flute, a piccolo and even (gasp!) a recorder. None really sounds like a whistle (well duh, there NOT whistles) and I am starting to understand enough that the different sound is actually a problem. So, my question, once I finally get around to it, is can anyone recommend a sound card that has a passable whistle, or can Midi instraments be downloaded and added to the soundcard?
And second, I have been using a woodblock to mimic a metronome, and it works well, but I would like to get a little more realistic accompanyment, so a drum that approximates a Bodhran would be nice. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance. Now back to torturing the cat

She actually swats at my hands when I mess up going from B to high D too many times!

Regards,
Gordon

John Allison · Post by **John Allison** » Tue Mar 12, 2002 12:55 am

Everything I get ahold of goes into Noteworthy Composer. From there I can take it to midi, abc, gif, pdf, and other formats.

I too like the idea of playing songs at a slower speed to start with and then working my way up to real time! I also like the Mitch Miller style of following the current notes as they play.

As to the hideous sounding instruments (the midi ones...not mine), I usually stick with the accordian version. On some fancier sound cards (not mine of course) you can use different patches to add your own instruments, but then, I still haven't heard of a tinwhistle patch.

srt19170 · Post by **srt19170** » Tue Mar 12, 2002 7:37 am

Note that the (high D) tin whistle plays an octave above the notation. I find that if you take that into account, the piccolo sounds pretty good.

If you want to listen/play along with sheet music, I recommend ABCMUS. It plays ABC notation music with a wealth of options. Most notably, it will add chords and can "swing" music in jig, reel, etc., rhythm, both features that I find very helpful when learning a tune.

Scott T.

steve · Post by **steve** » Tue Mar 12, 2002 8:09 am

Another great option is Melody Assistant ($35-45 usd) It will open abc files - convert them to midi or mp3 or wav -
you can use it as a metronome -
it also has a built in sound database so that you do not have to listen to cheesy sound card sounds.
Sorry to be so rah rah but I've gotten a lot from this program.

CDon · Post by **CDon** » Tue Mar 12, 2002 8:26 am

On 2002-03-12 01:55, John Allison wrote:
Everything I get ahold of goes into Noteworthy Composer. From there I can take it to midi, abc, gif, pdf, and other formats.

Please, what software do you recommend for converting NWC to ABC, GIF, and PDF?

Cerddwr · Post by **Cerddwr** » Tue Mar 12, 2002 5:16 pm

[quote]
>On 2002-03-12 08:37, srt19170 wrote:
>Note that the (high D) tin whistle plays an >octave above the notation. I find that if >you take that into account, the piccolo >sounds pretty good.

So do you just transpose the notes up an octave, or can you setup Composer to show the notes correctly, but play that staff an octave above?

Also, I wasn't aware that a D is not a D in the whistle world. Is this true just of the D, or do all tin whistles play an octave above?

Regards,
Gordon

srt19170 · Post by **srt19170** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 6:27 pm

I leave the notation unchanged, but when I play a tune to learn it, I have the music software play it transposed an octave up.

ABCMus has this option, which is one reason I like it for this purpose.

-- Scott T.

John Allison · Post by **John Allison** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 12:34 am

There's a program called abc2nwc from <a href="http://members.aol.com/abacusmusic">htt ... usmusic</a> which converts back and forth from abc format and Noteworthy Composer format.

To get a gif (or any other graphics format for that matter) simply select File | Print Preview | Copy within Noteworthy Composer. This will allow you to copy the page to the clipboard as a sizeable Windows metafile graphic. Then simply paste from the clipboard into your favorite graphics program and save in whatever format you would like.

To get the output in a PDF format I use the BroadgunPDFMachine printer driver from <a href="http://broadgun.com/pdfmachine/index.ht ... dex.htm</a>. That way you can easily print directly to a PDF file just like you would print to your printer.

CDon · Post by **CDon** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 9:45 am

Thank you, John...

brian_k · Post by **brian_k** » Mon Apr 01, 2002 2:16 am

Is there any Macintosh equivalent yet, for Windoze's Noteworthy Composer?

If not, what would be the best way to scan in a simple lead sheet, from something like O'NEILL'S 1000 TUNES, and then play back the tune, on your iMac's speakers? Preferably, while avoiding the unnecessary complexity of Musitek's SMARTSCORE? (Even the watered-down versions of SmartScore are five or ten times more software than I could ever use, for studying the tin whistle. And besides, SmartScore cannot just simply recognize the Soprano staff, and leave out the left hand for piano staff; at least, I couldn't get it to work that way, on a piece of sheet music I tested it on. )

Thanks in advance to all here, for your valuable input; and Dale, this is a really great site -- I spent three-quarters of Easter weekend reading many of the various threads, which are a "motherlode" of info for players of all abilities. (I'm still not even halfway through, with my reading ... oh, well.)

Best to all here,
brian_k