Entering Chords

When more than one note is entered at the same beat location and in the same voice, NoteAbility creates a chord. Chords can be built at any time and in any order. You can enter a single line then go back to the beginning and enter a second layer of notes or you can enter a single note and immediately return to the previous beat position and add the next note of the chord.

First note added - Entry Cursor repositioned - Second note added

To return to the previous beat position either:

click on the back arrow (small left-facing arrow) located on the Entry Cursor
type command-g to step back to the previous note location
press on the Step Back button on Score Controls
press on the Go Back button on the Keyboard panel
turn the auto increment feature off using the button located at the bottom of the score window . This stops the Entry Cursor from moving to the next beat position after a note has been entered.

When chords are built, the stem direction and notehead position (on the right or left of the stem) is automatically calculated.

When different rhythmic values are used in a chord, the smallest rhythmic value is generally used when the chord becomes part of a beam. In the example below, a layer of eighth notes was entered followed by a layer of quarter notes, then a layer of sixteenth notes.

- Even though all notes in the above example appear as sixteenth notes, the original durations are retained and are used during playback or if the file is exported as a Standard MIDI file.