Hi folks,
Tim's reply and our subsequent private email conversation reminded me of a feature in version 5 that some folks may be interested in, especially if you want your "swing" notation (which looks straight but is performed with a "swing") to sound correctly.
In some cases folks are creating a song file for the audio performance to help musicians or vocalists to properly perform the notes. This little feature will help you to more speedily enter the notation for "swing", keep the rhythm transcription as "swing", and have the cleaner "swing" transcription of your piece.
I'm including a small example file. The general directions are given below. The exact steps I did are in parentheses.
1. Enter the "straight" notes in your score. (I did the exact same note figures in staves 1, 2, and 3.)
2. Now select that region of notes. (I selected 2 and 3).
3. On the Notes,Rests / Notes tool palette, there is a button that shows the swing notation that you entered - please see the attached screen shot. Click that button.
4. The notation will now reflect the change to a "swing" performance.
5. If you want the notation to look "straight" but still "swing" (ie, to be "swing" notation, where you'll want to put in that text annotation to remind the musicians 😉 ), then use Format/Retranscribe, and select "Swing" as the rhythm style. (I did this only for staff 3).
SwingMethod.jpg
As you can see, the "swing" rhythm style makes for a "cleaner" and typically easier to read sheet for musicians, especially if there is a lot of notation on the sheet.
You can hear the difference by listening to the Straight_Swing_SwingNotation_example.not file that is attached.
Hopefully this will help someone out there save a little time and have a swinging performance as well
ttfn,
Sherry
Straight_Swing_SwingNotation_example.not