How to Write Music for a Barbershop Quartet Using Crescendo Music Notation Software

We’ve all heard them; the Barbershop Quartet acapella group that makes us all sing along using their great homorhythmic melodies. It is extremely peculiar how every voice seems to blend seamlessly, yet when you dissect the audio, you realize all voices and pitches are independent and they rely on one another to make the perfect melody. With our Crescendo Music Notation Software, the process to write music using multiple voices for quartets is fun and simple.

Download Crescendo for Windows

Crescendo and Voices

With the many voices heard in the quartet it can be difficult to write a music sheet for the different voices. With Crescendo, however, if you have multiple voices in the same measure, it is easy to add stems that will go up or down depending on which voice they are assigned to. If you only have one voice on the staff, the stems will behave as normal.

To select the voice go to the notation tab and click voices, from the menu select which voice you want new notes created on. It's important to remember to place rests in areas of silence on each voice that is resting.

Add Length and Text between Staffs

Crescendo also features a layout and notation settings menu. This allows you to change the distance between staffs when writing your music. Under the score tab, choose “settings” to activate these features.

Unleash your creativity, adding text and or lyrics can allow your sheet to look like this:

You can also quickly change the direction of each tie or slur by right-clicking on a note like so:

Crescendo allows composers to save time writing their music; meaning more time rehearsing for that big audition! We hope you find this process useful when writing music for a quartet. Head over to our video tutorials page for more great tips on how to take full advantage of all the features that Crescendo Music Notation has to offer.

Download Crescendo for Windows