Entering multiple voices on the same staff
Many people will want just to write a single melody on the staff, but sometimes you need additional harmony notes or even additional polyphonic voices. Each Songworks staff can carry as many as 8 separate melodic tracks or voices, though it would be rare to find music with more than 4 parts per staff.
The basic principle in multipart writing is that one of the voices defines the time of each measure - one voice's notes and rests must take up the entire value of the measure. We call that voice the primary track or "track one." Additional tracks can then be freely added without any requirement that their time fill the whole measure (this is the typical case, though in strict polyphonic writing it's musically desirable to make each voice complete in itself).
To add additional tracks to an existing passage just choose the desired note values, as you did before, and click in the music where you want them to go.
It's best to think as you do this about consistency of voices. If you're adding a second track, for example, it will generally work better musically if the notes of that track are not too far apart in pitch; it's good to let the notes of each track seem to follow each other naturally.
Short cuts
If you are entering notes by step entry (choosing rhythmic values and then playing the notes on the keyboard) Songworks will enter on the same stem any notes that are played at the same time (or even approximately the same time). So if your multiple parts are very simple you can enter them just by playing the notes:
Recording in real time
You can also enter music in several voices in "real time" using the recording feature. This requires more care, as you must play while keeping in time with the metronome, but for simple music it may again be a good technique. As with step entry, when recording in real time Songworks will place on the same stem any notes you play at about the same time. If you need to write complex inner voices in which there are simultaneous voices in the same staff with different note values then you're better off using the manual method and just clicking the notes directly into the staff. A passage like four part example above would be best entered by clicking in the staff.
To start a recording, choose Record from the Staff menu, or press command-R. Then begin playing, listening carefully to stay in time with the metronome.
The Keyboard split
If you are playing with both hands the left hand part will go to whatever staff is below the chosen (active) staff. The right hand part will arrive in the active staff. How does the computer decide which notes are for the left hand? By default it sets this "keyboard split" at middle C, and any notes below that are sent to the lower staff when recording to two staves. You can change the split point with the Set Keyboard Split Point command in Options/Autonotation. If you want all recorded notes to go to the same staff, choose Record to One Staff in the Options/Autonotation.
Combining staves
If your writing involves complex inner voices you may find that it slows you down to manually enter each of several tracks on a staff, since only the first one can be quickly placed by clicking notes on the piano. If each part makes a complete melody, as for example in a 4-part chorale, you'll find it much quicker to enter each voice in a separate staff at first, then use the Merge Staves command (Staff Menu) to combine two or more melodies into one staff. Of course this can only work if each part is a complete melody.
For choral music you may find it desireable in any case to leave the parts on separate staves - perhaps only combining them to make a keyboard reduction. If the parts are on separate staves they take up more room, but are much easier for singers to read. And there is the additional benefit that singers can use the "active listening" feature in Songworks to learn their own parts.