reference.book Page 97 Monday, August 31, 2009 2:47 PM
2.6 Beam groups
Beaming tuplets If a tuplet falls within a beam group, it is typically joined to the other notes in the group (unless the notes in the tuplet are of the same duration as the notes on either side). However, you may prefer to always separate tuplets from notes on either side, to make the rhythm as clear as possible.
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Switched off (default)
Switched on
Beaming eighth notes (quavers) in 4s By default, Sibelius beams eighth notes (quavers) in fours in simple duple (e.g. 2/4, 4/4, 2/2) time signatures. Four consecutive eighth notes that fall within beat divisions will be beamed together, but Sibelius will automatically break the beam groups if the rhythm within the group changes, e.g.
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If you want to change this behavior, define new beam groups (e.g. set the Group 8ths (quavers) as option to 2,2,2,2 etc.) when creating the time signature, or when you choose Notes Reset Beam Groups to reset the beaming of an existing passage. In addition, Sibelius does not apply this rule when Beam over rests (on the Beams and Stems page of House Style Engraving Rules) is switched on ( 2.8 Beamed rests and stemlets).
Feathered beams In contemporary music, extra beams sometimes “splay out” from a single beam to indicate an accelerando or ritenuto, like this:
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ff
To create a feathered beam, select the first note of a beamed group or sub-group, switch to the third Keypad layout (shortcut F9), and then choose the desired type of feathered beam: click (shortcut 0) for an accelerando beam, or (shortcut .) for a ritenuto beam. Feathered beams don’t play back as an accelerando or ritenuto: if you want to produce an approximation for playback purposes, try using nested tuplets with hidden brackets – see Nested tuplets on page 201.
Hiding beams, flags and tails To hide any beam, select it (not the note) and choose Edit Hide or Show Hide (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H or H). As with other objects, hidden beams are displayed in light gray if View Hidden Objects is switched on (shortcut Ctrl+Alt+H or H), and invisible if it is switched off. 97
Notations
The option Separate tuplets from adjacent notes in the Beam and Rest Groups dialog, switched off by default, controls this behavior. You can see its effect in this example: