How to constrain notes within measure ?

[Slidewayz]

Hi,

I am new to Notion and loving it !!!

It is letting me put as many notes as I please in a measure, versus forcing them into a new measure. For example, if I have a tune in 4/4, I can put 5 quarter notes in a measure.

Is there a way to force that fifth quarter note into a new measure ?

Thanks.

[fabiolcati]

1. Turn the whole content of the measure into a "quintuplet" via the tuplet tool.

or

2. Turn the measure into a 5/4 one than back to 4/4 from the next on.

(Am I right saying they will sound rhythmically different?)

[Surfwhammy]

. . . if I have a tune in 4/4, I can put 5 quarter notes in a measure.

NOTION 3 keeps track of the total beats in each measure, and when the total exceeds the defined limit, the extra notes turn red, which is a visual clue (a) that there are too many beats in the measure and (b) that you need to do something to correct the problem . . .

As fabiolcati explained, one way to fit more notes into a measure is to use tuplets, where the general idea of a tuplet is that the notes are played with fewer actual beats . . .

For example, if you want three quarter notes played as two beats in 4/4 time, then you can make them a tuplet, and instead of being played as three beats, they will be played over two beats, which is a way to do a bit of automatic syncopation, but you also can have larger tuplets, where for example you can have a five quarter note tuplet that is played on four beats, where the duration of each quarter note is 80 percent of a beat or 0.8 beats . . .

The most common type of tuplet is a "triplet", has three notes but is played on two beats . . .

However, in the grand scheme of everything, my perspective is that it makes more sense to discover the rules of syncopation in music notation, which is very helpful when you need to do percussion notation for instruments like drums, cymbals, and Latin percussion . . .

As best as I have been able to determine, everything in NOTION 3 music notation is binary, where the various types of notes are multiples or fractions of two, which probably is the case for all music notation software, although this is only a guess . . .

In other words, the typical notes on the NOTION 3 palette are double whole, whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth, but you can augment them with a dot, which multiplies them by 1.5, where a dotted quarter note has the same duration as the combination of a quarter note and an eighth note, which is fine with me, except that sometimes I am in an odd mood and want to do something that requires notes of different base multipliers, where for example I might want to have third, fifth, seventh, ninth, or eleventh notes (1/3, 1/5, 1/7, 1/9, 1/11), and I have not discovered an easy way to do this, although one might suppose that using a different time signature than 4/4 could be helpful, except that I do everything in the key of C and 4/4 time regardless of the actual key and time signature, since this reduces the amount of stuff that I need to understand and to remember, which in some respects is based on playing electric bass and lead guitar, where the only thing that matters mathematically and geometrically is the patterns on the frets . . .

From yet another perspective, which is one of the more fascinating aspects of Joseph Schillinger's System of Musical Composition (SoMC), the general concept of measures is both arbitrarily defined and vastly misunderstood, where the true length or duration of a measure is defined by the rhythm pattern in such a way that the bar delimiter is positioned where all the components of the rhythm pattern play a note simultaneously . . .

As an example, I am working on a new Surf Whammys song ("Tastes Like Anarchy For Her"), and its rhythm pattern is constructed from five drums and cymbals, where the kick drum plays on every beat; the ride cymbal plays on every other beat; the hi-hat cymbal plays on every third beat; the snare drum plays a rimshot on every fourth beat;, and the high tom-tom plays on every fifth beat . . .

In this rhythm pattern, all the instruments play a quarter note at the same time at the end of the 30th 4/4 measure, which in the SoMC maps to the true length of a measure being 120 beats, where instead of having 30 measures with 4 beats per measure, there really should be one big measure, but so what . . .

So what!

Overall, I think the best strategy is to discover the rules for doing syncopation, which in music notation maps to becoming both conversant and proficient in translating what you hear or want to be played into the correct sequence of notes and rests, where the SampleTank 2.5 XL (IK Multimedia) VSTi virtual Stratocaster® playing hard slides in "Tastes Like Anarchy For Her" (The Surf Whammys) is an example of a syncopated instrument, and at first I tried to do the syncopation with tuplets, but it was not sufficiently precise, so I switched to do it with standard notes and rests . . .



[NOTE: This is the basic rhythm section for the verses, and there are six of them, where (a) each verse or section is 30 measures and (b) the chord change pattern is 8-8-4-4-4-2, where for reference the title is a bit of parody or pun on "Tastes Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana) , since (a) "Anarchy For Her" is one of the new AXE® bodysprays for the ladies that Unilever® is marketing to teenage girls and young women and (b) I have a somewhat sardonically risque sense of humor, which should be obvious by observing that I am working on a new Surf Whammys album titled "Electric Underpants™". . . ]

"Tastes Like Anarchy For Her" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3 (7.4MB, 298-kbps [VBR], approximately 3 minutes and 24 seconds)

[NOTE: There is more detailed information on the strategy I am using for arranging and composing "Tastes Like Anarchy For Her" in the following topic in this FORUM, which includes an overview of some of the more useful basic principles of the SoMC . . . ]

Composition Tools in NOTION (Notion Music FORUM)

This is the music notation for the Stratocaster single-note repeating pattern that begins each 30 measure section and is played in the second measure . . .

[NOTE: It took me approximately 30 minutes to discover how to do this, which is a significant bit of progress compared to how long it would have taken before I understood how to do percussion notation, where it might have taken from 4 to 8 hours. On the other side of the coin, I can play this on a real electric guitar off the top of my head instantly, but the reality is that for this song the particular Stratocaster is a VSTi virtual instrument, so it needs to be played via music notation. And the next time I need to do a bit of syncopation, it might take only 15 minutes or perhaps just a minute or so, which is the way it works the more you focus on making sense of music notation . . . ]



It is not so complicated to do syncopation, but while I learned how to sight-sing treble clef notes as a child, I never learned how to do music notation for percussion instruments, so I had to do a lot of work to make sense of drumkit patterns and other syncopated phrases, but it is making sense now, and it is not so difficult to do it once you start thinking in terms of the available notes and rests . . .

And rather than trying essentially to force extra notes into a measure, it is better to focus on working within the various constraints and rules, since (a) there is a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes in NOTION 3 and (b) extra notes might not always work the way one expects . . .

Is there a way to force that fifth quarter note into a new measure ?

Not really . . .

However, you can use the measure tool in the NOTION 3 palette to create a new measure, which then causes the fifth quarter note to be in a new measure, but this creates a new measure for all the instruments, so if the problem is that the fifth quarter note needs to go in the next measure for an instrument but all the other instruments for the measure are correct, then the best solution is simple to delete the fifth quarter note and then to insert a new quarter note in the next measure . . .

Lots of FUN!

P. S. As noted, while I learned to sight-sing treble clef as a child when I was in a liturgical boys choir, my primary perspective is "play by ear", and the reality is that in some respects music notation is a vast hassle, except that when you understand how it works there are a lot of vastly useful things you can do, so even though it takes a while for music notation to make sense and it takes a while for you to become somewhat conversant and proficient in doing music via music notation, it is well worth the effort, and it begins making sense sooner that most folks imagine, so the painful aspects of the learning curve for music notation are not really so different from the fingertip callous phase of learning how to play electric bass or electric guitar . . .

P. P. S. NOTION 3 is quite amazing! And it works nicely with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, where if you do not have professional quality mixing and mastering software, this is a stellar time to get T-RackS 3.5 Deluxe (IK Multimedia) at a vastly discounted price, where for reference I used the Opto-Compressor on the drumkit and Stratocaster in "Tastes Like Anarchy For Her" . . .

[NOTE: This stellar IK Multimedia discount promotion ends on February 29, 2012, and it is a rare opportunity to get professional quality mixing and mastering software at a very attractive price . . . ]

T-RackS 3.5 Deluxe "Group Buy" Extravaganza (IK Multimedia)

You will find a lot of useful information in my topic on "Notion 3, DISCO Songs, and Sparkles" in this FORUM, really . . .

Notion 3, DISCO Songs, and Sparkles (Notion Music FORUM)

Really!

[wcreed51]

The OP doesn't want to fit more notes in, he wants the extra notes to automatically go in the next measure.

No way to do that that I know of...

[fabiolcati]

Sorry.
I misread it.

[Slidewayz]

The OP doesn't want to fit more notes in, he wants the extra notes to automatically go in the next measure.

No way to do that that I know of...

Yes, that was my question...thanks !

I'm pretty literate with code...do you know if Notion lets people hack stuff or has an API that might allow me to add this feature ?

When I'm in a flow state writing rhythmically complex stuff, I don't want to stop transcribing what I'm hearing in my head to work out the arithmetic...I'd rather have the tool do that for me.

[wcreed51]

You'd have to address that to them directly, but I seriously doubt it...