Notes beaming
Summary
| Feature | Toolbar | Icon |
|---|---|---|
| Custom automatic beaming | Note |  |
| Force beam | Note |  |
| Force un-beam | Note |  |
What is a beam?
A beam is a horizontal or diagonal line used to connect multiple consecutive notes to indicate rhythmic grouping. On Flat, by default we automatically beam the notes by beat. You can easily customize this by changing the automatic beaming policy or by manually beaming/un-beaming notes.
Custom automatic beaming (Premium feature)
If you don't want to manually set the beams for your notes, you can create your own automatic beaming rules that will be applied either to a complete piece of sheet music or, by selecting a set of notes, to a specific section of a score.
Some examples:
- In 4/4, by default Flat uses the "1 + 1 + 1 + 1" beaming rule, which means the notes are beamed by beat. If you change to "2 + 2", the eighth notes will be beamed by 4 (i.e., two beats).
- In 6/8, the most common notation is to group the eighth by 3 (3 + 3), or 2 (2 + 2 + 2).
Here is a quick demo in 6/8 of changing the beaming rule from 3 + 3 + 3 to 2 + 2, and then setting a custom rule to 1 + 3 + 2.
Encompassing 8th rests in beams
With the beaming pattern tool, you can also choose to allow rests to become part of a beam, which can help make the beats easier to identify.
Manual notes beaming/un-beaming (Free feature)
As an alternative to automatic beaming, you can choose to beam or un-beam notes using the designated tools in the note toolbar. When you select a single note, the settings will apply to the selected note and the next one. You can also quickly beam or un-beam multiple notes by selecting them all, then clicking on Force beam or Force un-beam as needed.