A template or plug-in to convert noteheads into different shapes (one shape for each note of the chromatic scale)

• Apr 20, 2010 - 07:54

~~~

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I joined because I have a burning question that someone here may have the solution.

This is what I would like to do:

I would like to assign different notehead shapes to the different notes of the chromatic scale. For example, a triangle notehead for all C notes, a diamond notehead for all E notes, a half-oval for all G# notes etc... The result that I am seeking to achieve is that notes such as B#, C and Dbb will still be notated as before except that the notehead shape used for each of them will be a triangle (because they are all essentially the same note).

I have been playing around with the Finale Percussion Map, but it apparently requires that staff position be fixed along with the notehead when re-assigning noteheads to MIDI notes. What I need is to be able to assign a notehead shape to a MIDI note without having to fix the staff position for it. So a B# will still be notated as a note with a sharp in front of it on any of the B-note positions of the treble and bass staves, the C will still be notated as a note without accidentals, and the Dbb will still be notated as a note with two flats in front of it. In other words, they will all be notated as they were in the traditional notation except that the notehead used for all of them (the B#, C and Dbb example) will be a triangle.

The idea behind this feature request is essentially the same as the one explained in this patent:
//www.freepatentsonline.com/6284961.pdf - except that instead of using different colors, different notehead shapes are used to accommodate musicians with color-blindness.

Can somebody please help me with this? Can this feature I am looking for be done in Musescore?

I am hoping that this can be done using the Percussion Map and be made into a template, rather than a plug-in. If this needs to be created as a plug-in, is it something that I can do myself ?

Thank you in advance for all your responses.

Troy

~~~

Comments

• Apr 20, 2010 - 10:03

Unfortunatly, there is no way yet to change a notehead from a plugin (See Note Object ) and for the moment, a plugin is called only on a click in the menu. So you could be able to enter all your notes and run the plugins to change all the noteheads at once (if the notehead was accessible). See the Color notes plugin for example.

I file a feature request for you : #5470: Add get/set notehead in plugin framework

Drumset in MuseScore associates a given staff line with a given notehead. So it will not work for enharmonics I guess.

Reply

• Apr 21, 2010 - 16:02

~~~

lasconic, about your color notes plug-in, does it color notes based on their pitch, by any chance? In other words, would B#, C and Dbb get the same notehead color? If it does, I could probably use your plug-in while waiting for the feature request to get added to MuseScore.

Thanks for your reply.

Troy

~~~

Reply

• Aug 15, 2012 - 19:01

Lasconic, first, I want to say thank you for adding this feature. Second, I have another related question to this but it has been two years and I do not know whether to start a new thread. The question is:

I notice there is only a small set of notehead shapes to choose from. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to import my own notehead shape glyphs (in TTF format) into Musescore and use them instead? What are the steps involved to do this successfully?

~~~Troy

Reply

• Aug 16, 2012 - 22:23

As for me, I would like a bigger set of notehead shapes to choose from. Perhaps we could start including/importing the notehead shapes available from LilyPond into MuseScore in its next version?

Off the top of my head, shapes like a trapezoid, a parallelogram, an equilateral triangle, a half-oval in various orientations would be good for starters as well.

What is my objective for needing a greater selection of shapes? I would like to create a plug-in that would convert a traditional music notation to Simplified Music Notation (http://www.simplifiedmusicnotation.org/). However, my version of SMN will be different in the following respects:

1) Manner of indicating Key Signatures and Time Signatures will be the same as the traditional notation.
2) Double-accidentals will not be re-notated. They are kept where they were originally notated, except that the accidental signs will be hidden and different notehead shapes will be used for them. I am thinking of using the notehead shapes for TI (triangle pointing down) for double-flats and DO (triangle pointing up) for double-sharps, because these noteheads seem to "point" to the line or space where the actual notes are (this concept works for all double-flatted or double-sharpened notes except for E##, Fbb, B## and Cbb).
3) I am thinking of using the LA notehead (square) for all flattened notes and MI notehead (diamond) for all sharpened notes. This includes E#, Fb, B# and Cb.
4) Only notes that are not native or diatonic to a Key Signature will still be marked with # and b. This includes E#, Fb, B# and Cb. This keeps the musical and harmonic function of these "color" notes intact for composers and musicologists, and alerts the musician/player to enharmonic notes E#, Fb, B# and Cb.
5) Optional: transform/re-notate the treble staff to the bass staff.

Concerning point #4 above, is it possible to program this into a plug-in? Is it possible to selectively hide/show the accidentals for certain notes, based on the Key Signature?

Is there any step above that cannot be programmed into a plug-in?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

~~~Troy

Reply

• Aug 17, 2012 - 09:17

Have you thought of using colour instead of shape to indicate the note position within the octave?

I have used this method myself in the early stages of teaching notation in both piano and guitar, and there are various colour systems around. Colouring notes is already possible within the bplugin framework.

Incidentally I have found that whilst this approach gives an extremely fast start you often get problems when transferring to stanfard notation.

Reply

• Aug 17, 2012 - 17:01

ChurchOrganist and Jojo-Schmidt:

The original idea was to use coloured noteheads. It seems to be the easiest work-around to the problem. But I decided to nix the use of colour for the following reasons:

1) to accommodate colour-blind musicians and/or would-be-musicians.
2) someone already has a patent to idea (the very first one I suggested at the very root of the thread. The SMN-derived idea is my second on this thread.) The patent uses coloured noteheads.
3) using shaped noteheads give distinctive outline to chords and melodic phrases.
4) using shaped noteheads allows a person to move back-and-forth between my notation and traditional notation. People seem to have a higher tendency to get dependent on coloured noteheads than on monochromatic shaped notes.

Also, because my SMN-derived notation does not re-notate the notes, people are still required to learn their key signatures and scales and chords/harmony. In fact, I do not consider my SMN-derived notation as a new kind of notation at all. Like SMN, the shaped notes are there to remind the musician/player which notes are to be played sharp or flat. An adjunct to memory. But unlike SMN, my notation differentiates between sharped or flattened notes that are intrinsic to the key (key signature) and those that are not. This way, the musician/player (after learning what the various shapes mean, and using their knowledge of scales, chords and chord progression, however rudimentary) can safely ignore the accidental signs and play notes based solely on their position on the staff and shape(s).

~~~Troy

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.