Handbell Notation in Noteflight

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unknowntoal

• March 23, 2020 17:58

I have played Handbells for eight years, and throughout those years, every piece I have played has had a consistent notation style. Noteflight's "Handbells" preset follows none of these. The preset creates two treble clef staves labeled "Handbells I" and "Handbells II," both in treble clef. In reality, Handbell music is written in a Grand Staff similar to the Piano, but the music is written one octave lower than it sounds. Additionally, all Handbell music has a "Bells Used" Chart at the beginning of the piece that shows every bell that a particular piece requires in chromatic order. (Including enharmonic equivalents) If the piece includes Hand Chimes, there will be a separate chart for those as well.

Noteflight also has little to no support for the notation system unique to handbells, so composers cannot properly notate techniques including, but not limited to table malleting, mallet lifting, Martellato, Martellato lifting, echo, gyro, shake, tower swing, etc. If Noteflight wishes to have support for Handbell music, I ask that you pay more attention to the details of the instrument, otherwise, do not feign support. A separate synthesizer for Handbells and Hand Chimes would also be nice, with the Handbell synthesizer switching to Hand Chimes when the "Diamond" notehead is selected, in addition to the previously discussed notation support.

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  tcromwell

  • April 27, 2021 03:15

  Nice to see that they added LV.

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  zadojla

  • June 16, 2021 17:54

  I use Noteflight to transcribe and transpose hymns so if we're playing multiple pieces and hymns in a service, we can avoid "bell juggling" between pieces.  Not only would the "bells used" staff be enormously helpful, but it should be built automatically as notes are entered.

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