Tip #2 - Modifying Notes in Note Clusters

A note cluster is a group of notes (8th notes or shorter) which are joined together. You may have discovered that if you need to change a note which is in the middle or at the left end of a note cluster things can get messy because if you delete the note you're going to change the note cluster shrinks to fill in the gap where the note was removed, then it can be awkward to add the new note.

To make this process easier, do the following:

1) Before deleting the note you want to change, first add a 'dummy' note (or tab fingering if you're working in a tab line) somewhere above or below the note you'll be changing. This will act as a place holder so that when you remove the target note the cluster won't shrink, and all the remaining notes in the line won't shift to the left.

2) Now add the new note or tab fingering in the correct place.

3) Now remove the dummy note (put caret immediately to left of the note and hit "delete").

Tip: In treble and bass staff the easiest way to move a note up or down is to simply put the caret immediately to the left of the note and hit Alt+Up/Down Arrow. But when this doesn't work, or in tab lines where you have to change the fingering number on a string the method described above works best.

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