Notehead sets

A notehead set is a collection of related noteheads that together allow you to represent all the different noteheads required for the different durations used in music notation.

A typical notehead set contains at least four noteheads:

  • A black notehead for quarter notes (crotchets) and shorter

  • A white notehead for half notes (minims)

  • A wider white notehead for whole notes (semibreves)

  • A wider white notehead with one or two vertical strokes on either side, or a square white notehead, for double whole notes (breves)

Pitch-dependent notehead sets contain noteheads that vary according to the pitch of notes rather than their duration.

  • In pitched notehead sets, there are different noteheads for different pitches.

    For example, the Pitch Names notehead set shows the letter name and any applicable accidental of each note within its notehead.

  • In scale degree notehead sets, there is a different notehead for each scale degree, relative to the current key signature.

    For example, the Aikin 7-shape notehead set uses a different notehead shape for each pitch.

Note
  • A single notehead can appear in multiple notehead sets. If you edit a notehead within one notehead set, your changes affect the appearance of that notehead in all notehead sets that contain it.

  • Notehead sets can only contain noteheads of the same type. For example, you cannot use a normal notehead in a pitched notehead set.

  • You cannot change the type of an existing notehead set or an existing notehead.