guitar fingering: small bar

• Jun 18, 2012 - 10:04

Hallo,
could anybody create a capital "C" which is divided by a vertical line? The Line standing out on top and bottom of the "C" just a bit? In guitar notation, this sign means the small bar (first finger put across three strings) and I need it quite often when writing fingering to classical guitar sheets. When I create it with the "system text" and a line, I found that the small line tends to jump out of place easily and must be found and corrected many times you open the file, which is quite a nuisance. The C should be aligned to a line in the way the "VII" example in the line section is.
Thank you, Stefan


Comments

I don't have an answer to your question but I just put "1/2" as text in front of the Roman numeral representing the position of the bar. That's assuming you use the bar symbol from the Lines Pallette.

If you are creating your own bar symbol, using the capital the "C", or whatever, you could still do something similar

In reply to by fatwarry

You are right! Browsing through my guitar music, I find that there are far more editions using the 1/2 before (or above) the Roman numeral or the C (or "B" in some cases) than any other way, Segovia being the most prominent editor. Nevertheless, he used the C with line in his edition of Turinas Sevillanas (Columbia Music, Washington), and I still would prefer this way, as it gives the information in a clear and compact form that does not occupy too much space on the page. Look at my example attached. This was done with a 9 point broad book antiqua font and the normal line from the palette, "C II" replacing the "VII" in the line palette. I shortened the hook at the end of the line to 0.50. But thank you for making me rethink the matter!

Attachment Size
Example.jpg 73.46 KB

In reply to by StefanN

I have been playing classical guitar since 1975, but have never seen the symbol you describe.

A half barre has always been notated as I/2C then the position number.

Some more modern editions abandoned this notation in favour of the position number with a vertical line with hook suspended from it indicating which notes should be played with a barre, which I have adopted in my own writings as being more accurate.

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

I am from Germany, and we know the hook for barring very well from the Karl Scheit Editions we have been taught from. The hook is a big sign which can't be overseen, as it crosses the music stave or part of it. While this form of notation works fine for beginners, who think of a bar as a big thing, and like to see the effort of doing it represented in the music, it soon comes to its end in more advanced musical textes where it simply occupies too much space and obtrudes the music itself. Imagine Study 9 by Villa-Lobos, it would have a hook before every single chord! Looking through my music editions, I also found out that Julian Bream in his editions used CII for a big bar and II for the small bar. Very effective, but unfortunately nobody followed his example, as far as I know. The C with or without line nevertheless is used by Abel Carlevaro in his "Seria didactica" and some modern tutors, Hubert Käppel for instance.

If you press Z you call up a palette with lots of symbols. One of them is a C with a vertical line through it (for "cut time").

OR, you can press [Ctrl]-t to enter text and then the [Alt Gr] key and c to get a cent sign (if you have a PC) and then experiment with changing the font for this.

Would either of those do? If not, can you post an image of what you want?

In reply to by StefanN

Why wouldn't the cut time symbol work? It doesn't look identical, but then, nor do any two different publishers" treble clef signs or any other symbols. If you place it from the symbols palette as described, it can be placed anywhere, not just in the usual position for a time signature.

And as under quark says, that symbol looks pretty much exactly like the traditional US symbol for "cents" (as in, a penny - 1/100 of a dollar). So my guess is that some font you already have installed will produce a very good visual match if you just insert that symbol.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I have tried it out and learned a lot, many thanks for making me work on that. I could drag the cut time symbol as you said, but then there seems to be no way to alter the size. And my keyboard doesn't have the cent symbol, probably because it is a European keyboard. But I have found several fonts that apply a vertical line to the C, and I will experiment with that the next time. For my taste, none of these ("Helsinki", "Maestro"..) are looking sober enough, they all have some curl or winding, so I will see how it looks on the printed page. But with an open source programm like MuseScore, isn't it possible to simply add a Symbol to a font or palette, if you are able to write a program? I have no idea how much work this means, but would like to know about it.
Thank you again, Stefan

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

When in doubt, on Windows, I go to the Character Map program installed under accessories, start scrolling through the fonts until I find something I like, and copy and paste from there.

But yes, MuseScore is open source, so if someone who feels this is important to add wants to check out the Development link in the menu at rght to learn how to get builds up, you should be able to try your hand, and then perhaps submit a patch for consideration (I think that's how the process works).

In reply to by underquark

I won't get the vertical line with [AltGR], just the normal letter. Nor do I have the Andale font on my PC. But I have saved the cent sign you sent so that I can now copy and paste it whenever I need it. Funnily, it changes to a sort of italian character after the pasting, but I can alter everything afterwards as I want it. So, many thanks for sending me this little letter, I think the problem is solved now! I am sure I can use some of the other characters you sent some time or other too. It it marvellous to get qualified help like this very special case from the other users, I am very grateful for that!

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