How To Enter Musical symbols with Unicode fonts

[mambo4]

by convention we often use "b" for flat and "#" for sharp, but if your browser uses a default Unicode font, you can display a few "real" musical characters.
Sadly, due to browser limitations they can't be typed directly into the forum post, but they canbe cut and pasted.
So here is the limited set of Musical Unicode characters for cutting and pasting:

♭ ♮ ♯ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

If you are interested in typing these characters in other , non-browser places (I used MS Wordpad )
for Windows,
the trick is to hold down your ALT key, enter a decimal code 9on the number pad), and then release ALT

♭ (hold alt) ( 9837 )(release alt)
♮ (hold alt) ( 9838 )(release alt)
♯ (hold alt) ( 9839 )(release alt)

♩ (hold alt) ( 9833 )(release alt)
♪ (hold alt) ( 9834)(release alt)
♫ (hold alt) ( 9835 )(release alt)
♬ (hold alt) ( 9836 )(release alt)

you can't get too detailed with the music notation, but you can mix it up and notate some simple rhythms, like a son montuno:

||:♩. ♩. ♩ |♩. ♩. ♩ :||

dotted notes are just a note followed by a period
bare lines are (shift)+(backslash)
this works with WIN XP or later.

Mac OS X provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality. It must first be enabled under System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu.

Note that unicode is note quite universal, and these may not display on everybody's machines (especially if they changed their system or browser default fonts)

more unicode symbols

wikipedia on unicode

[mambo4]

Mods PM'd with a request

[wemmick]

On a mac, you an enable code entry to -- enable the "Unicode Hex Input" keyboard layout as described in this article.

To enter the code, you'll hold down the Option key. You'll need to enter the hexadecimal (not decimal) value. For the symbols mentioned above, the hex values are:

♭ (hold option) ( 266d )(release option)
♮ (hold option) ( 266e )(release option)
♯ (hold option) ( 266f )(release option)

♩ (hold option) ( 2669 )(release option)
♪ (hold option) ( 266a )(release option)
♫ (hold option) ( 266b )(release option)
♬ (hold option) ( 266c )(release option)

[Mark Wilson]

I personally think this is a fantastic discovery.

Sticked.

Thanks!!

[magickbass]

9833 is listed twice. fyi

[PhiDeck]

Alt-codes must be typed on the numeric keypad (in NumLock mode).

They don't work if you try to type them in the numeric row above QUERTYUIOP.

Which means that on a laptop you must press and hold Alt and Fn, while you hunt and peck the embedded numeric keypad. Good luck doing it in low light.

[JimmyM]

i think i'll just stick with b for flat holy cow! i mean it's a cool thing and all, but way too much for my brain to handle.

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by magickbass

9833 is listed twice. fyi

good catch, thanks.
fixed!

♬= 9836.

If I could only figure out how to do ties, I would be a happy camper.

@ jimmy :I wouldn't blame any one for sticking with the more easily typed b and #.

This all came about when I cut and pasted something from Studybass.com and the little "♭" stuck.

Actually this may be more difficult than at first it seems, as I am trying to type the codes right now and it's coming out wrong. They work in Windows Wordpad and I can cut and paste, but typed directly into the forum window in my Chrome browser, it goes awry...need to look into it.

[PhiDeck]

This is not the only forum where Alt-Codes can't be typed. I've had same experience in Geni, and a few others.

I have a text file in which I've saved many Alt-Code characters (eg. ñ), and from which I copy/paste the appropriate ones into the rogue applications.

[mambo4]

@PhiDeck

Yes, a quick test shows that browsers and forums can't handle typing the codes directly, yet cutting and pasting works. I will edit my initial post.
Makes the discovery a little less cool now...