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Quick Start

When we say "quick", we really mean it. Putting music into Noteflight isn't complicated, and there isn't a lot that you need to know to get started. Here's the quick scoop:

• Select objects and measures by clicking or dragging. The prelude to doing anything with an object in the score is always to select it. You can select a note, rest, barline or other notations by clicking on it directly: You can also select a measure specific to a part by clicking in a blank space: And you can select a section of the score across all parts by clicking in the measure number bar above the score: You can also select time ranges by clicking and dragging horizontally.


• Enter notes with the mouse by clicking next to the blinking cursor (if you don't see the cursor, click the place where you want it to appear): By holding the mouse down after you click and dragging from side to side, you can change the duration of the new note, making it longer or shorter:

  After entering a note, click buttons in the Editing Palette to adjust it:



• Enter notes with the keyboard using the letters A through G, and the special keys [Space] and [Backspace]. After entering a note, you can adjust it:
  • - + = add a flat, sharp or natural
  • [ or ( makes a note shorter
  • ] or ) makes a note longer
  • , . make ties and dots
  • [Up] and [Down] adjust a note's pitch.


• Add measures by moving the mouse above any measure and clicking one of the (+) icons:


• Add parts by moving the mouse to the left of any staff and clicking one of the (+) icons:


• Move notes or measures from side to side by selecting them, then dragging them horizontally and releasing them in the place you want them to appear. For example:


• Use the Sharing panel to publish or share your score with other Noteflight users and on the web:

All changes that you make to the score can be undone and redone, including changes to the set of selected objects or measures. (Undo/redo of selection changes is handy in complex edits since it can take some work to select exactly the things you want). The Edit > Undo and Edit > Redo menu commands perform these important functions. When you pull down the Edit menu, these menu items also show the names of the actions that they will undo or redo if selected: Up to 20 prior changes are maintained in the edit history.

The keyboard shortcuts [Ctrl/Command]-Z and [Ctrl/Command]-Y are also available for these commands.

The current score may be saved using the File > Save command, also accessed by the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl/Command]-S. If there are no changes that need to be saved, this command is disabled.

Scores are not saved automatically, but if you try to leave a page with unsaved work Noteflight asks you to confirm first, in order to avoid losing your changes.

You may save your own copy of any score using the File > Save a Copy command. The new copy will have the same name as the old one, preceded by "Copy of..."

Noteflight keeps a record of document copies for purposes of tracking intellectual property rights. When you save a copy, the copy has internal tracking data that identifies the original document.

Documents can be printed with File > Print. This displays a print dialog whose contents depend on what operating system you are using, and what printer you are using.

On Mac OS X and Linux, printing is also the best way to convert a score into Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by choosing the Save As PDF... option in the print dialog.

You can add a note in two main ways: by using the mouse, or by using the keyboard. Using the mouse is easier when getting started, but most people find that using the keyboard is far quicker once they learn the ropes.

To add a note with the mouse, select the place where you want the note to appear and move the mouse cursor over the area just to the right of the blinking insertion point (the thin vertical line). As you move the mouse up and down, a gray note head appears under the mouse pointer to show where a note will be placed if you click: Clicking the mouse button then adds the note head to any note or rest at that position. If any single note or rest is already selected when the note was added, the newly added note takes on the time duration of that selected object.

To control the duration of a new note using the mouse, hold the button down after entering it and drag to either side. The cursor will change and its horizontal will start to control the length of the new note. Dragging to the left makes the note shorter; dragging to the right makes it longer:

After you add a note, you can also use the Editing Palette to adjust it:

At any point, you can drag one or more selected notes vertically with the mouse to change its pitch. Dragging normally moves all notes one staff line or space at a time (diatonic transposition). You can also drag notes by half steps (chromatic transposition) by holding down the [Shift] key while dragging.

You can also drag one or more selected notes from side to side with the mouse to change where they fall rhythmically within the bar. While you are dragging, the cursor will change to a small note and an orange bar or gray outline will travel with the mouse to show where the selected notes will be placed when the mouse button is released:

Holding down the [Ctrl/Command] key while doing this drags a copy of the selected notes and leaves the original in place.

Holding down both [Shift] and [Ctrl/Command] keys at the same time lets you adjust the duration of an existing note, chord or rest, as when it was first entered.

To add a note with the keyboard, select the place where you want the note to appear and type a note name (A through G). The note will be added to the location following the blinking insertion point (a new note will be created if there is no note there already), and the insertion point will move ahead to the next note. Type several note names in sequence to enter the successive notes of a melody. Use the [Shift] key to add more notes to the same location, forming a chord.

The following keys are generally useful for keyboard entry:

• Delete (on Windows, Backspace) deletes the current selection and moves the insertion point backwards.
• Left and Right move the insertion point one note to the left or right, also moving the selection if needed.
• Space inserts a rest instead of a note and moves the insertion point ahead.
• R repeats the last-entered note with the same duration.

Newly entered notes are always added at the pitch nearest the last note entered, with no accidentals. You will often need to adjust a note after it is typed. As you type, or after selecting some set of notes, use the following important keys to adjust the pitch of each selected note:

• Up and Down transpose the note up or down by a staff line or space at a time respecting the key signature and accidentals in effect.
• [Shift]-Up and [Shift]-Down transpose selected notes up or down by a chromatic step, adding sharps or flats as needed. Sharps are preferred when transposing up, flats when transposing down. If you don't get the accidental you want, transpose one extra half-step and then come back in the opposite direction.
• [Ctrl]-Up and [Ctrl]-Down transpose the note up or down one octave.
• The -, +, and = keys toggle a flat, sharp or natural respectively.
• The _ and * keys supply a double flat or sharp.

Also use these important keys to adjust the duration of each selected note:

• The [ and ] keys (also ( and )) make the note shorter or longer respectively.
• The , key toggles a tie on the selected note.
• The . key toggles an augmentation dot.

Once selected, a note, chord or rest or other notation can be manipulated with the editing palette. This palette is only shown when there is a single object selected. Its contents vary depending on the nature of the selected object. It positions itself at the bottom of the system containing the selected object, directly below the object.

When a note is is selected, the palette appears in two modes: Basic and Advanced. The Basic palette looks like this:

Editing actions available from the Basic palette include:

	Sharps, flats and naturals
	Rhythm duration changes
	Addition of lyrics, text, expression/dynamics or chord symbols
	Marcato accents and fermatas
	Ties and augmentation dots
	Use of slash and hit note heads
	Deleting selected notes

Editing actions available from the Advanced palette include:

	Hairpin dynamics
	Slurs
	Double accidentals
	Control over beaming in either direction
	A full range of articulation symbols including accents, bowing and open/closed
	Alternate note head styles such as crosses, diamonds, etc.

Selecting music is one of the most important operations in Noteflight, because it is the prelude to many other kinds of editing that affect the score. Understanding how selection works is fundamental to using the capabilities of the Score Editor.

Whenever you have a selection, you can use any of a wide variety of commands that affect the selection. Commands that operate on individual notes or objects (like deletion or transposition) will affect every object that is within the selection. Commands that operate on ranges of measures like Change Time Signature works against the measures that encompass the selection. And commands that affect the structure of the score like Cut, Copy and Paste will operate in different ways depending on the kind of selection you are working with (see below).

There are three different ways to select parts of a Noteflight score so that you can apply other operations to them afterwards:

Object selections contain one or more notations like notes, rests, barlines or chord symbols. After making this kind of selection, the next editing action (like transposition or deletion) is applied to each object that is selected.

Very often there is only one selected object, the new note or other symbol that you just created by clicking or typing. In this case, you will not need to select it before editing it, since it already is selected.

You can select objects by simply clicking them with the mouse: When the mouse is over an object that can be selected in this way, it "glows" a little bit and the mouse cursor changes to a pointing hand.

For selecting several different objects, use the [Ctrl/Command] key while clicking to toggle individual objects' selected state on or off: Double clicking a chord selects the entire chord.

After you have selected more than one object, any editing action will apply to all the selected objects. For example, using the Editing Palette's "sharp" function on the above selection will yield this result:

Note: the Left and Right keys provide a quick way to select the object to the left or right of the current selection.

Score selections are defined as a range of one or more measures in the score. Use a score selection for applying actions to an entire section of the score, and also to insert or remove sections of the score itself. Deleting a score selection removes part of the score entirely without leaving a gap, while pasting a score selection splices a new section of score in between two existing measures. A score selection always begins and ends at a bar line.

You can make score selections by clicking the numbered "measure markers" that appear above each measure when one's mouse is over a system: Clicking in a measure marker and then dragging horizontally selects a range of the score, rather than a single measure. Double-clicking any measure marker selects the entire score.

You may also [Shift]-click a measure-marker to extend a score selection in some direction.

Staff selections are defined in terms of a time range rather than as a collection of separate objects. A staff selection's starting point lies on some note within a bar, and ends on some later note within that bar or a subsequent one. Additionally, staff selections (as their name suggests) apply to some set of selected staves, for the duration of their time range. Staff selections are good for apply some edit to all notes that lie in a particular time range on some set of staves, or erasing a time range in the score. Copying and pasting a staff selection is the best way to copy music from one staff (or set of staves) to another.

You can make staff selections by clicking in the staff within any measure, away from any notes or other objects: Clicking in the staff and then dragging horizontally selects a range of measures on that staff, rather than a single measure.

To select an entire staff throughout the whole score, you can also click the gray "staff marker" that appears to the left of the starting point of each staff: Double clicking in any staff also selects that entire staff .

[Shift]-clicking measures or objects can be used to extend the time range or staff range of an existing selection:

Note: the [Shift]-Left and [Shift]-Right keys provide a quick way to extend the current selection into a staff selection that is one object longer or one object shorter.

At any point, you can drag a score or staff selection with the mouse to another place in the score. This operation can move the selected music forwards and backwards in time (if you drag from side to side) and can also move music from one staff to another (if you drag up and down).

The first step in dragging a selection is, of course, to select something! Once you've done that, place the mouse over the highlighted region, hold down the mouse button and start dragging. What happens next depends on what kind of selection you made.

If you selected a single object, then an orange bar will travel with the mouse to show where the dropped object will go:

If you made a staff selection or a multiple object selection, then a rectangular outline will travel with the mouse to show where the dropped music will go. Dragging horizontally will move the music to a new place in the score, but keep the part(s) the same:

If you select music within a single staff, you can move selected music from one staff to another by dragging vertically:

If you make a score selection, you can drag an entire section of the score horizontally to rearrange entire measures or groups of measures. While dragging, an orange bar in the measure-number area above the score shows where the dropped material will go:

You can also drag one or more selected notes from side to side with the mouse to change where they fall rhythmically within the bar. While you are dragging, the cursor will change to a small note and an orange bar or gray outline will travel with the mouse to show where the selected notes will be placed when the mouse button is released:

Holding down the [Ctrl/Command] key while doing this drags a copy of the selected notes and leaves the original in place. The cursor looks different in this case:

Of course, sometimes you don't want anything selected at all. You can always clear the selection by clicking in the white space outside of any staves, or typing the [Esc] key.

The Edit menu contains the all-important triad of commands Cut, Copy and Paste (with keyboard shortcuts [Ctrl/Command]-X, [Ctrl/Command]-C and [Ctrl/Command]-Z respectively). These commands allow selected music to be copied or removed from one location and placed or inserted into another.

Cut and Copy place the selected music into an invisible "clipboard". Once that has been done, a different selection can be made, at which point the Paste command may be used to insert the contents of that clipboard at the starting point of the selection.

Cut and Copy completely replace the former contents of the clipboard.

Paste inserts the clipboard contents into the score, usually at a different location from where Cut or Copy were previously used. The way in which Paste works depends on the type of selection that was in effect when the clipboard was created.

If the clipboard was created from a Score Selection, then the pasted bars are inserted into the score just prior to the first bar in the selection. Existing bars are moved over to make room for the pasted measures; nothing is erased.

If the clipboard was created from an Object or a Staff Selection, then it can be thought of almost as a "recording" of the selected music. The Paste command overlays this "recording" on top of the selected staves, beginning at the starting point of the selection. First any existing music that would be overlaid by the pasted material is removed, and the score is extended with additional measures as needed. Then the pasted music is placed into this freshly cleared area, without changing any of the existing barlines, key signatures or time signatures. If the new material has a different relationship to the barlines than the original, it is re-beamed and notes may be broken up and tied across barlines to preserve their rhythmic values.

If the clipboard was created from a staff selection, it must be pasted into the same number of staves that it was cut or copied from (although they can be different staves of course!).

A special case of using Copy and Paste is when a section of music is to be repeated, possibly with some modification. Repeated music is very common, ranging from a single note to a melodic theme to entire sections of the score.

To make this operation easier, there is a special Edit > Repeat command (shortcut key R) which duplicates the selection and immediately pastes a copy of the selection after itself, without affecting the contents of the clipboard.

You can add a new measure to the score by selecting a measure and clicking one of the "+" icons that appears to the left or right of its measure marker; this adds a new measure before or after the selected measure respectively:

Another way to add measures is to make a score selection, use the Cut or Copy command, and then use Paste to insert the score selection after the measure containing the current selection.

Yet another way to add measures is to make a score selection and use the Repeat command to duplicate it. The new copy is placed directly after the original.

To delete one or more measures from the score, create a score selection by clicking a numbered measure marker, then Shift-click elsewhere in the score to extend the selection to more measures if needed. Then press the [Delete] key, or use the Edit > Delete menu item.

To clear out the contents of a measure without removing it from the score, create a staff selection by clicking in the staff area of a measure and using Shift-click in another staff area to extend the selection if desired. Then press Delete or use Edit>Delete.

To add a new part to the score above or below any existing staff, move your mouse to the left of any staff and click one of the "+" icons that appears: A popup is then displayed allowing you to choose a new instrument sound: clicking OK in this popup inserts the staves for the new part at the requested position.

Some instruments such as the piano will add two staves to the score, both of which belong to the same instrument. This is known as a grand staff, denoted with braces.

The "Drum Kit" instrument uses a 5-line percussion staff with a fixed set of assignments from staff lines to drum sounds. With this staff, stems are forced up or down to correspond to parts of the kit that are played with the hands and feet respectively; also, note head styles are defaulted appropriately for cymbals.

The same popup displays controls that affect the key of a transposing instrument. There are three such controls:

• Instrument key selects the key in which the instrument actually sounds (if the instrument's key is Bb, then a C on the instrument produces a Bb in concert pitch). These transpositions are conventionally below concert pitch, not above it.
• Instrument octave supplies a number of octaves by which the instrument's actual sound differs from concert pitch, in addition to the transposition defined by the instrument key.
• Score octave supplies a number of octaves that the score itself will be shifted relative to the instrument's actual sound. Unlike the instrument octave, the score octave is always applied regardless of the current Transpose parts setting.

To change the instrument for a set of staves, select the staves to be affected and select Score > Part > Change Instrument... from the menu. If you select multiple adjacent staves and change their instrument, you'll get a grand staff-type brace to show that these all belong to the same instrument.

To remove a part from the score, select an entire staff by clicking the "staff marker" to its left or double-clicking one of its measures, then press the Delete key or select Delete from the Edit menu. Note that you cannot remove all parts from a score; at least one part must remain.

Part names are supported in both long and short form. The long form is only used on the first system in the score. You can edit any part name by clicking in it and typing. The display of part names is optional and can be toggled using the View > Show Part Names menu item.

The name of a part has nothing to do with its sound. You can name a part completely differently from its sound; likewise, changing a part name won't make it sound different; use the Change Instrument command for that!

Some parts are for transposing instruments, whose parts are written with notes at some fixed interval from concert pitch. Noteflight can optionally show these parts at their transposed pitch, so that they can be read directly off the chart by performers without having to transpose from concert pitch. Noteflight scores can even be edited in this mode, using transposed note names and accidentals. In the following transposed view, the clarinet part is transposed to the instrument's key of A, yielding a different key signature from the other parts:

To view all such parts at their transposed pitch instead of concert pitch, toggle the View > Use Concert Pitch menu item off, or click the Concert pitch checkbox on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen: This setting is saved along with your score, although anyone viewing the score is free to change it (much as with the zoom scale)

A number of important functions are available on the Editing Palette when you select a Barline:

• Add system text above the barline
• Change the style of the selected barline
• Specify the start or end of a repeat
• Specify system or page breaks to format the score

To change the barline style, click one of the style icons on the editing palette with the barline selected. The dashed line specifies an invisible barline. (An invisible barline can be hard to select again, but it is possible -- you'll know it when you see the barline palette reappear!)

To cause a repeat to start or end at the given barline, click either of the two repeat icons on the editing palette. Each icon independently toggles the corresponding type of repeat (start or end); a barline may simultaneously start and end a repeat. The type of barline is forced to the appropriate appearance by whatever combination of repeats applies, ignoring any specific style that you may have set earlier.

(To start a repeat on the first bar of a score, you currently have to add an extra bar at the beginning, place the start of a repeat on what is now the barline before bar 2, and then delete the temporary bar 1.)

Marking repeat 1st and 2nd endings is accomplished with the Text feature; see below.

To cause a line or page break, click either of these two icons on the editing palette. Clicking an icon when the break already is in place removes it.

Adding breaks is frequent enough that there are some keyboard shortcuts available. To force the next measure to start on a new system, select anything in the preceding measure (including the barline at its end) and hit the [Enter] key. To force the next measure to start on a fresh page, use [Shift]-[Enter] instead.

In some cases you may wish to change the visual width taken up by a particular measure in the score for reasons of clarity or aesthetics. Noteflight determines the width of any given measure using a complex set of calculations, but you can "inflate" or "deflate" the result of these calculations by manually adjusting this width.

To do so, simply drag a measure's ending barline from side to side. This adjusts the measure's width and causes the measure to take up proportionally more or less room in the score layout.

Once you have made such changes to a measure, they will persist. You may remove a custom width setting for some measure by selecting the measure and using the View > Reset Measure Layout command.

To apply a key signature to a range of measures, select those measures (or objects within them) and use the Score > Change Key Signature... command. A dialog allows you to specify the new key signature in terms of sharps or flats to apply to the selected range: The special choice labeled atonal means a key signature that will still have no accidentals even in a transposed score.

To change a key signature and all the bars following it up to the next key change, or the end of the score, simply click the key signature to edit its meter.

To apply a time signature to a range of measures, select those measures, or any objects within them. (To change a time signature and all the bars following it up to the next meter change or the end of the score, click that particular time signature.) Once you have made your selection, choose the Score > Change Time Signature... menu command.

A dialog then appears which allows you to specify the new meter to apply to the selected range:

There are three modes for time signature changes:

• Normal (the default): the time signature in the selected measures is changed to the specified number and type of beat, and the visible time signature is adjusted to reflect the change.
• Pickup: a single pickup bar is created with the specified number and type of beats, and contains the portion of the selected music immediately preceding the last barline in the selection. The visible time signature is not adjusted.
• Hidden: the time signature in the selected measures is changed to the specified number and type of beat, but the visible time signature is not changed.

There are a number of situations in which measures do not have as many beats as the current time signature implies. The most common case is a pickup bar or anacrusis in which the music starts in the middle of a bar.

To create such a feature in Noteflight, use the Score > Change Time Signature... command to change the time signature of the bar to the actual number of beats that you want to appear in the bar, and select the button labeled Pickup. This causes the measure to contain the desired number of beats, but leaves the notated time signature as it was before.

Let's look at these steps in a little more detail. First, select the measure that you want to turn into a pickup measure:

Next, change the time signature using Pickup mode. Here, we select a time signature of 1/4 because we want a pickup measure consisting of a single quarter note:

The result is a pickup measure with a single beat of music, but which preserves the overall 3/4 time signature of the piece:

To apply a clef to a range of measures, a portion of some staff, or even a single note, make the appropriate selection and use the Score > Change Clef... command. A dialog is offered allowing selection of the clef to be applied to the range:

To change the clef for an entire staff within the score, click that staff's clef at the start of any system.

To change the clef for a specific sequence of music beginning with an existing clef change and continuing up to the next clef change, click the clef change notation at the start of that sequence.

Clefs may be cut, copied, pasted and deleted. The Score Editor makes the appropriate changes, inserting clef changes as needed to preserve the correspondence of the music and the notation.

The toolbar contains a numeric metronome marking that controls the playback tempo. This tempo is saved as part of the score, along with the musical content. Currently there is only one tempo for the entire score.

The tempo may only be changed if the score can be edited by you. If the score is not editable, then the tempo appears as a fixed number that cannot be altered. However, anyone can adjust the playback speed regardless of the saved tempo: see adjusting playback.

You may specify that a piece should be performed with the second eighth note of each quarter note delayed by a variable amount, to achieve a jazz swing feel. Use the Play > Swing Eighths... command to display a dialog that allows the amount of swing to be specified. The degree of swing may only be changed if the score can be edited by you.

The percentage of swing refers to the displacement of the second 8th note in each quarter-note group from exact time. At 0%, there is no deviation and the playback will be in "straight 8ths": At 33%, the deviation is one 3rd of an 8th note, meaning that the same passage will be performed like this: At 50%, the deviation is half an 8th note -- that is, the passage will be performed as:

Tuplet grouping such as triplets, quintuplets, and so on can be added by entering or selecting the note that will become the first note of the tuplet and then using one of the actions on the Score > Tuplets menu to create the tuplet. You can also type the number of the tuplet on the keyboard (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) as a shortcut.

The following common tuplet groupings are available with these menu and keyboard actions:

• 3:2
• 4:3
• 5:4
• 6:4
• 7:4

Custom tuplet ratios will be available in a future release.

A tuplet acts like a "mini-measure" in that it contains a certain span of musical time. Just as with a measure, Noteflight will limit the number of notes you can put inside the tuplet to the correct time span, and will also fill the tuplet out with rests as needed to maintain its proper length. So working with the notes inside, say, a quarter-note triplet is just like working with the notes in a bar with a 3/4 time signature.

There are several ways that tuplets can be removed. The most straightforward way is to delete the rest at the beginning of the tuplet. (If there's already a note there, first remove the note to make a rest.) You can also delete the contents of the measure containing the tuplet, but that may remove a lot of other material as well. Finally, Noteflight automatically removes a tuplet if you make its initial note or rest last the entire length of the tuplet, since it is not meaningful to use a tuplet grouping on a single note.

Noteflight can play a score in several ways:

• From the beginning
• From a particular measure
• From the first measure in which something is selected.

To play a score from the beginning, you can select the Play > From Start menu item, or click the Play button on the toolbar, or press the P key on the keyboard. Expect a short delay before playback as Noteflight begins to convert your score into audio data.

A very useful option for listening to scores is to start playback from a specific measure. Move the mouse over the numbered "measure marker" above that measure, and a small play button appears in the marker. Click the button, and playback starts from that measure:

Playing a score from the first measure containing selected notes is also a useful feature. To do this, select the Play > From Selection menu item, or press the [Shift]-P key on the keyboard.

While playback is active, a triangular pointer moves continuously along the top of the score to show the current playback position within the music, and the toolbar changes to display a Stop button. You may stop playback at any time by clicking the Stop button, by clicking anywhere in the Score Editor, by using the Play > Stop menu command, or by pressing P again.

It's often very useful to be able to hear a single instrument for playback, or a subset of the instruments for which a piece is scored. To do this, select exactly the staff or staves you want to hear by double-clicking in a measure, or clicking/[Shift]-clicking the "staff markers" to the left of each system. When entire staves are selected in this way, playback is restricted to only the selected instruments.

In the toolbar at the bottom, next to the tempo indicator, there is a slider that adjusts the playback speed to go slower or faster than the marked tempo. You can slow the piece down to half the normal tempo, and speed it up to twice the normal tempo. Unlike the actual tempo, this adjustment is never saved in the score. It's a little like the Zoom function in that it is only a temporary adjustment to what the user is hearing.

You cannot adjust the speed while the music is playing; playback stops as soon as the speed is changed.

Flash Player 10 introduced a new approach for audio playback that is used by default whenever Noteflight detects this version of Flash. If you are using Flash Player 10 and experience difficulties with music playback, try toggling the Play > Use Legacy Audio Output menu item. When checked, this will force Noteflight to use an earlier approach to audio output that may produce a better result on your particular system.

The setting for this option is specific to a particular user on a particular computer. It will be remembered between different Noteflight sessions, and affects playback of embedded Noteflight scores as well as scores viewed on Noteflight.com. This option is respected regardless of whether you are logged into Noteflight or not.

Two different display modes are available via menu commands: View > Page Layout which displays a fully justified page layout whose systems flow from page to page, and View > Strip Layout. These modes may be selected from the which displays a horizontally scrolled continuous strip with a single system.

In Page Layout mode, you edit the score using the exact format in which it is printed: Editing in this mode is the best way to remain aware of the printed look of your score, and to see at all times how measures flow from system to system and page to page. As you edit, however, music may jump from system to system as Noteflight determines where system and page breaks occur.

In Strip Layout mode, the score is presented as a continuous horizontal strip: This mode sacrifices faithfulness to printed output, but in return delivers a visually smoother experience and somewhat faster editing response.

A score can be displayed at a range of magnifications, to see multiple pages at a glance or to zoom in on tiny details. To control the view magnification, use the Zoom slider on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen:

It's important to understand that changing the magnification does not change the printed size of the music: it only magnifies it on the screen.

Document Layout Settings

A group of settings controls the appearance of the document, which can be modified using the View > Document Layout... command, which displays this popup:

The line spacing slider controls the distance between adjacent staff lines in pixels at a zoom scale of 100%. This line spacing is a "master setting" that determines the size of many other elements of the document including notes, fonts, and so on. It also supplies the units for the following two settings.

The staff spacing is the distance between staves in the same system, in staff line units.

The system spacing is the distance between systems on the same page, in staff line units.

Noteflight supports up to two melodic voices in a staff, although by default there is usually only one voice. The number of voices can vary from measure to measure in the same staff. Any single measure contains either one voice or two voices, from start to finish.

To directly add a second voice to some measure, select something in that measure and use the Score > Use Upper Voice (shortcut U) or Score > Use Lower Voice (shortcut L) commands to add the new voice. The stems of any existing notes are adjusted into two-voice format, and a selected whole-measure rest appears in the new voice that you just added. The blinking cursor for adding new notes will also shift up or down to show you which voice you are working with:

You can now start to enter notes in your new voice with the mouse or keyboard. In general, once you have two voices in a measure, new notes or rests will always go into the voice you currently have selected. If you continue entering notes into the next measure using a second voice, that voice is automatically added to the new measure as well.

Changes you make to a voice are almost completely independent of the other voice, except for the visual layout of the measure, and for the effect of voice-independent symbols such as clef changes. You might as well be working with two different measures that are superimposed on top of each other.

To move between voices without losing your place, you can use the very same Score > Use Upper Voice (U) or Score > Use Lower Voice (L) commands. If the specified voice already exists, these commands simply select a note or rest in that voice in the same rhythmic location as the currently selection.

Rests in a multi-voice measure are displaced to reflect which voice they belong to. If you want to move them for greater clarity, recall that rests can be dragged up and down or moved with the arrow keys.

Sometimes there are silent passages within a two-voice measure in which only rests for a single voice need be notated. To achieve this effect, you can move the rests for both voices exactly on top of each other.

To remove a voice from a measure, select any note or rest in that voice and make use of the Score > Remove Voice command. The entire voice is removed from that measure.

A number of kinds of text can be added to Noteflight scores: general text, lyrics, dynamics/expression text and chord symbols.

General text can be placed in or near any bar, and has many different uses. Performance instructions like ritardandos, as well as formal elements such as D.S. al coda are entered as general text in Noteflight. General text can also be used as a way of adding comments throughout the score.

General text may be added at any position by selecting any object at that position, and then clicking the performance text icon on the Object Editing Palette, or using the Score > Text > Performance menu command, or typing the T (text) keyboard shortcut. Here is an example:

When editing general text, a blinking cursor appears in the place where the text goes, and you can type the text there. Double-clicking an existing piece of text allows you to edit that text.

General text can contain multiple lines. Pressing the [Enter] key while typing general text will advance the cursor to the next line:

If you want to change the position of general text, drag it in any direction with the mouse, or select it and use the up/down arrow keys.

Lyrics can be added to any note in a score by selecting it, and then clicking the lyrics icon on the Object Editing Palette, or using the Score > Text > Lyrics menu command, or typing the [Ctrl/Command]-L keyboard shortcut.

When editing lyrics, a blinking cursor appears in the place where the lyric syllable should go, and you can type the lyric there: When you are finished typing the syllable, type one of these characters:

• Space finishes this syllable and begins the first syllable of a new word on the following note.
• - (hyphen) finishes this syllable and continues the current word on the following note.
• Enter/Return finishes this syllable and begins the lyric for a new verse on the same note.
• Esc finishes this syllable and stops editing lyrics.

Double-clicking an existing lyric syllable allows you to edit that syllable.

Dynamics and expression text are instructions to the performer on how the music in a particular staff or part is to be played. In Noteflight, a single kind of notation is used for both, and its interpretation depends on what is typed. If you type a dynamic then a dynamic is understood, but you may also type any other text that you like.

Dynamics and expression text may be added to any notation in a score by selecting it, and then clicking the dynamics icon on the Object Editing Palette, or using the Score > Text > Dynamics/Expression menu command, or typing the [Ctrl/Command]-E keyboard shortcut.

When editing dynamics/expression text, a blinking cursor appears in the place where the text will go, and you can type the text there. If you type a recognized dynamic abbreviation such as p, mf, and so on, the correct dynamic symbol is shown as soon as you are finished entering the text and the playback of the score will make use of the correct dynamic. So, while you're entering a dynamic it may look like this: but after you are finished, it will automatically change to look like this:

Double-clicking an existing dynamic or expression text allows you to edit that text.

For grand-staff instruments such as piano, dynamics on the upper staff also affects the playback of the lower staff. Dynamics on the lower staff apply to that staff alone.

Chord symbols can be added to the score by selecting a note, then clicking the chord symbol icon on the Object Editing Palette, selecting the Score > Text > Chord Symbol menu command, or typing the K key on the keyboard. Also, Double-clicking an existing chord symbol allows you to edit that symbol.

Automatic formatting. Chord entry in Noteflight is incredibly easy and simple: just type the chord name in a normal way, using the typical convention of substituting a lowercase "b" for flat, and the "#" character for sharp. When you're done, Noteflight will automatically format the chord so that it looks correct.

So, while you're entering a chord it may look like this: but after you are finished, it will automatically change to look like this:

Pop/Jazz Chord Symbols. If you can type a chord, Noteflight will usually figure out how to format it correctly. Here is a sample illustrating some of the main ways that chords can be typed, and showing how Noteflight formats them. You can include any combination of scale degrees, flats, sharps, "+", "-" and triad abbreviations. Note that to vertically "stack" scale degrees, you may separate them with spaces. Here are some examples that show some of the many possible chords you can create by simply typing them:

Classical Analysis with Roman Numerals. You can also create chord symbols using Roman numerals, in a similar way. Note that preceding such a symbol with a key name and a colon (":") will align the chord correctly, shifting the key name to the left.

Figured Bass or Fingering Notations. Noteflight also supports figured bass and fingering notations. These are typed in the obvious way, placing the different elements of the symbol on separate lines:

Placeholders for Analysis Exercises. If you are creating an exercise or assignment in which the user is to supply an analysis of some elements in a score, you can create a "placeholder" chord symbol that shows a horizontal line indicating where the analysis should go. This is just a chord symbol that consists of one or more underscore characters (_). The result looks like this:

As soon as the user double-clicks such a placeholder line to enter their response, the line disappears to make room for the user's response to be entered. The response is formatted as a normal chord or analysis symbol, and is not underlined.

Repeat Endings. A repeat ending is recognized when it consists of a number followed by a period. It is automatically preceded by a repeat-ending bracket. Currently this bracket is of a fixed width and is not adjustable to cover multiple bars.

If you want to take full control of the formatting of text and chords, surround it with double curly braces {{...}} and make use of the following special characters and character sequences:

• @: flat
• #: sharp
• $: natural
• [: repeat ending
• ^...^: run of superscript text
• !...!: run of small text

If you want to change the position of a chord symbol, drag it in any direction with the mouse, or use the up/down arrow keys.

An important feature for musical collaboration is annotation, in which objects and notations in a score can be marked up with comments. Each comment bears the name of its author and the time it was created or last changed.

To add an annotation to a note or rest in the score, select the notation and use the Score > Add Annotation... menu command. A icon that looks like a sheet of paper will appear above the selected object; clicking this icon opens the annotation and allows comments to be attached to it.

Slurs and hairpin dynamic symbols are similar in that they can span any number of measures in a Noteflight score. In Noteflight, these kinds of symbols are referred to as "lines". In the future, other types of lines will be supported such as trills, 8va/8vb, and more.

What they have in common is that they have a starting point and an ending point, which can be placed independently. The general way to make a line notation is to select the starting point by clicking with the mouse, select the ending point by [Shift]-clicking, and then asking Noteflight to create the slur, hairpin, or other line notation based on the selection.

It is also possible to create a line-type notation by selecting just one note. This usually makes a line between that note and the note that follows it.

Selecting a line-type notation also causes it to display small draggable "handles" that can be repositioned with the mouse, Typically there is one handle for the starting point, one for the ending point. There may also be other handles depending on the symbol in question.

The advanced object palette displays a button that creates a new slur based on the current object or staff selection. The shortcut key S also creates a slur.

As mentioned above, one method is to select the note on which the slur starts, and then create the slur. This produces a two-note slur. This figure shows how things look before and after the slur is created:

The two small squares are draggable handles that can be used to move the slur's endpoints around, making it longer or shorter.

Another way to go is to select the range that the slur will occupy, then create the slur:

Note that there are more "handles" on this slur. A slur that is longer gives you additional ways of controlling its shape. This is important because it's much easier for a human user to position slurs in a good way than for a computer program to guess what's right. Here are some examples of different slur shapes, some of which were adjusted by hand:

Hand adjustments like this must be made after you are finished entering notes into the score, since adjustments to the notes will automatically reset the appearance of the slurs. The following figure illustrates how the different handles affect a slur's shape (although playing with a slur is probably a faster way to learn!):

The advanced object palette displays two buttons that creates hairpins or wedges based on the current object or staff selection. The shortcut keys < and > also create these symbols.

Hairpins work a lot like slurs, although they are not as complicated because their shape does not vary as much. Also, because hairpins usually span more than two notes, staff selections are a good way to create hairpins, as in these two figures showing the selection and then the newly created crescendo:

Use the draggable square "handles" to adjust hairpins by hand to work around adjacent notes and symbols:

The Sharing Panel allows you to share your score with other Noteflight users, to decide how the score is shared, and to embed scores in your own web pages. Click the Sharing tab at the upper right of the screen to see the panel. No changes will be made until you click the OK button, so it's safe to explore the different settings.

All newly created scores are private, meaning that no other users can see the score even if they know its web address. Private scores are never displayed in pages seen by other users who are browsing or searching in Noteflight. A private score is yours alone.

You can make the choice to share your score. If you do share your score, then other people can view your document, and may also have other capabilities that you give them. How much access others have is up to you.

You can also decide whether you are sharing only with people that you give the score's web address to, or whether you are publishing your score. Publishing makes the existence of your score known to any Noteflight user who uses the Browse or Search features on the site.

When you first open the Sharing panel on a new score, it shows the following choices:

Keep this score private (the default). This choice means that no one else can access your score under any circumstances.

Others can view this score. This choice means that other users who access your score's web page may view, play back, print or copy the music. Unless you also publish the score for searching and browsing, though, this set of people is limited to those who have the unique web address of the score.

Others can view and comment on this score. This choice means that other users may do all of the above, and can also add comments about the score using the Comments panel.

Others can make any change to this score. This choice means that other users may do all of the above, and can also edit the music in the score and save their own changes. They must be signed into Noteflight in order to do so.

When any of the non-private options are selected, the panel expands to show other options for sharing: two checkboxes appear that let you control how sharing works:

Allow others to discover this score by searching and browsing permits other users to search for your score on Noteflight by title, composer, author, description and tags. If you leave this box unchecked, then the only way other users can find out about your score is by knowing its web address (i.e. its URL). Leaving this box unchecked is a good way to selectively share your score with people -- and they don't need to be registered or logged into Noteflight to view it. Anyone with the URL can see the score, signed in or not. The web addresses for scores are specially randomized and are not possible to guess; if someone doesn't know the web address, they won't be able to figure it out or accidentally stumble on it.

Note that searching and browsing are features that are only available to registered and logged-in Noteflight users.

Use this score as an activity template is available to users of Noteflight Learning Edition only, and permits the score to be used as a template for activities that is automatically copied when students access it for the first time.

Linking to a Score from Web Pages

In Noteflight, you can take any shared score and link to it from any web page on the Internet. This allows you to put references to your scores anywhere on the web; if people click the link, they will go to a page that allows them to view your score (or even edit your score, if you allow that.)

To link a score, open the Sharing Panel and make sure that your score is shared, not private. Then copy the URL in the text field at the bottom of the panel into your clipboard by clicking the Copy button:



You can then paste this HTML into any web page that accepts HTML tags. When that web page is viewed, the embedded score appears in the place where you placed these tags. Unlike a score viewed on the Noteflight web site, no menus or panels appear -- just a Play/Stop button. Users may select objects in the score to listen to them selectively, but cannot edit the score.

Embedding a Score in Web Pages

One of the most powerful features of Noteflight sharing is that you can take any shared score and embed it in any web page on the Internet. This allows you to create musical scores in Noteflight, but show them anywhere on the Web: on your blog, a personal web page, or on a school website to cite just a few examples.

To embed a score, open the Sharing Panel and make sure that your score is shared, not private. Then copy the HTML in the text field at the bottom of the panel into your clipboard by clicking the Copy button:



You can then paste this HTML into any web page that accepts HTML tags. When that web page is viewed, the embedded score appears in the place where you placed these tags. Unlike a score viewed on the Noteflight web site, no menus or panels appear -- just a Play/Stop button. Users may select objects in the score to listen to them selectively, but cannot edit the score.

Embedded scores are always displayed in Strip Mode; it is assumed that the surrounding page will include descriptive information as needed in HTML.

The size of the embedded score is calculated as a reasonable default by Noteflight when you open the Sharing Panel. You may freely change the width and heightdimensions in the tags (be sure to change both occurrences), and also change the scale parameter to affect the view scale of the music.

Changing a Score's Description and Tags

A score has a textual description associated with it that is indexed for search purposes, and which can be used to provide people browsing and reading your score with more information about it. To edit this description, use the File > Change Score Information... command. This displays a popup:

The same command also allows one to edit a set of tags that further guide the search process.

Favorites and Comments

Scores can have favorites (users who have noted this score as interesting to them) and comments (remarks by users). Both of these features are accessed from a set of panels on the tabs at the upper right hand corner of the score editor:

Each tab shows a counter of how many objects are in it

Favorite Scores

Anyone can make a score a favorite, which means that they can easily get to the score from a list of personal favorites on their Noteflight home page. Each score's favorite count is also shown on listings of that score, and contributes to its position in the the "Top Scores" pages on Noteflight.

To make a score into a favorite, click the "ADD TO FAVORITES" button at the top of the favorites panel:

The remainder of the panel shows the names and avatar images of all the users who have made this score into a favorite. Clicking on either a name or an image will display that user's public page on Noteflight, allowing you to investigate that user's own scores and favorites.

Commenting on Scores

You can create any number of comments to accompany a score, which are shown in a separate panel from the score. If it's your own score, you are always able to add comments; if it's someone else's score, then you can add comments only if they allow other to do so (see section on Sharing). Score comments appear in the Comments Panel:

Each comment shows the user's name and avatar image. Clicking on either one will display that user's public page on Noteflight, allowing you to investigate that user's own scores and favorites.

To add a comment, type it into the box at the bottom of the panel and click the "ADD" button. You can delete your own comments using the trashcan icon, and if it's your score you can delete anyone else's comments too.

Each score's comment count is shown on listings of scores, to make it clearer when there is commentary that accompanies the music.

Importing and Exporting Files

Importing and Exporting MusicXML

MusicXML is an industry standard file format for representing music notation. It is very useful for exchanging scores between different programs. Because Noteflight supports MusicXML, you can easily move scores between Noteflight and another notation program that also supports it.

You may import a MusicXML score from any file on your computer using the File > Import command. Some errors or warnings may appear after doing so, depending on the validity of the MusicXML file and whether the Noteflight import translator encounters unexpected conditions in the file.

You can export a score out of Noteflight as MusicXML by using the File > Export command and selecting MusicXML as the output format in the following pop-up window. At that point you may choose the filename to which the score will be exported.

Although MusicXML is a standard industry format for notation, it is supported to varying degrees by different notation programs. The results you get from exchanging scores via MusicXML very much depend on the program you originally exported it from, or import it into. In general, you can expect to perform some degree of cleanup on imported scores to get them to look good in Noteflight.

(Note: This feature requires Flash Player 10.)

Importing and Exporting MIDI

Like MusicXML, MIDI is an industry standard file format, but it was not designed to represent music notation. Rather, MIDI is a way to capture a musical performance, down to very precise details of timing and dynamics. Despite this fact, however, many musical scores are available in MIDI format, and MIDI continues to play a role in exchanging music between different music notation programs despite its shortcomings. For this reason, Noteflight supports MIDI for both import and export.

You may import a MIDI score from any file on your computer using the File > Import command. Some errors or warnings may appear after doing so, depending on the validity of the MIDI file and whether the Noteflight import translator encounters unexpected conditions in the file.

Note that because MIDI accurately represents music as it is played, rather than as it is written, it is necessary to make a number of assumptions and guesses in order to convert this performance back into music notation. In some cases these guesses work well; in others, they may not. The results of importing MIDI will vary a lot, depending on the nature of the performance in the file and how easily it can be interpreted as notation according to these guesses.

Because of the need to make some guesses about how to best turn performance into notation, Noteflight gives you a number of choices when you import a MIDI file:

Here's what those various options do:

• Tracks become parts: This option, which is enabled by default, causes each track of the MIDI file to be considered as one part in Noteflight.
• Channels become parts: this option causes each channel number used in the MIDI file to be considered as a single part in Noteflight. This option can be helpful for "type 0" MIDI files in which separate tracks are not employed.
• Extend short notes through rests: this option causes short notes to be extended through a following rest of comparable duration. This can be useful when correcting for extra rhythmic spacing present in a MIDI performance, which is sometimes more a reflection of the performer's phrasing rather than of the actual notated time value.
• Quantization: this option controls how rhythms in the performance are quantized, or "rounded off", to the nearest notated note value. The default setting of AUTO indicates that Noteflight should automatically determine the best way to do this. Other settings specify the smallest note value that Noteflight will use when quantizing.
• Quantize dotted durations: this option indicates that Noteflight should permit dotted durations to be recognized and used as part of the rhythm quantization process.

You may export a MIDI file from a score to a file on your computer using the File > Export command. After choosing this command, a pop-up window will appear asking you which file format you would like to use for export. You should choose MIDI to export a MIDI file, at which point you will be able to make a further choice: .

Choosing for musical performance indicates that you intend the MIDI export to be played back for listening purposes, and causes the exported music to include performance features such as articulation expression and swing eighths. Choosing for import into another notation editor, on the other hand, causes the exported music to be simplified so that it imports as cleanly as possible into another editor.

(Note: This feature requires Flash Player 10.)

Exporting Audio files

You may export a WAV Audio file from a score to a file on your computer using the File > Export command. After choosing this command, a pop-up window will appear asking you which file format you would like to use for export. You should choose WAV Audio to export a WAV audio file with the audio for the score, exactly as Noteflight would play it.

(Note: This feature requires Flash Player 10.)

Working with Versions

The Versions Panel allows you to inspect previously saved versions of your score, play them, copy material out of them, and restore them to the current version. Click the Versions tab at the upper right of the screen to see this panel. This saves the current state of your score immediately, if it needs saving. No other permanent changes are made unless you click the Revert button; it is safe to click different versions and experiment.

The Versions Panel looks like this:

Each row in the Versions list is a previous version of the currently open score, and shows the date and time at which that version was saved and the name of the user who saved it. Selecting a row temporarily displays the corresponding version in the Score Editor. When the editor shows a previous version, you cannot make changes are not allowed: what's done is done! However, you can select, view, print and copy music out of the old version into the clipboard.

If you select the most recent version again, or close the Versions Panel (which does the same thing), you are once again returned to an editable view of your current score, and your selected objects and undo history are the same as they were before you inspected an old version.

Click the Revert button while a previous version is selected to save that version as the new, most current version of the score. You will not lose any information by doing so, because you can always revert once again to the version that was current before this change.

Miscellaneous Notation Features

Slash and Hit Notation

Slashes and hits are unpitched notations that behave much like notes. They indicate a set of beats where improvisation occurs, or where the rhythm is specified but not exact pitches. They are particularly common in conjunction with chord symbols (see below). They look similar, except that slashes do not have stems.

To place a slash at the location where the next note is to be entered, click the / icon on the Object Editing Palette or else type the [/] key on the keyboard.

To convert a slash to a hit, select it and click or type / again. The distinction is only important in the case where the slash duration is a quarter note and hence lacks a stem.

Slashes and hits always occupy the middle line of a staff. They do not have a pitch, and are therefore unaffected by transposition commands. Accidentals are not added to them.

Working with Beams

Beaming rules are applied automatically to all notes that require them. You can force beams to start and end at specific places, however, by manually editing the beaming policy for notes after they have been added. This may done on the editing palette using the two beaming icons, or using the keyboard: the { key toggles whether a beam starts on the currently selected note, while the } key toggles whether a beam ends on the currently selected note.

Editing the Score's Title and Composer

In Page Layout mode, the first page of the document always shows the score's title and composer. These fields may be edited by simply clicking in them and typing. Hit [Enter] when done, or click elsewhere in the page.

If you have not provided this information, the fields are shown with "(Edit Title)" and "(Edit Composer)" in dimmed text. Clicking on them causes the dimmed text to disappear so that you can insert your own text. Should you choose not to fill them in, the dimmed text will not be printed; they only appear while editing on the screen.

Note in order to rename a score in Noteflight, you simply edit the score's title.

Adjusting Symbol Positions

You can adjust the vertical position of any rest or chord symbol by selecting it and using the Up or Down keys to move it up or down. Dragging with the mouse also works.

This adjustment is not possible if there are also selected notes or chords, since this would confuse changes in position with actual pitch changes.