Introduction of notes and rests (1) |
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How to introduce notes and rests? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In this lesson, we will start to place notes and rests on the
staff. If you are using Pizzicato Drums and Percussion, we
suggest you to use a template with a normal staff. You will find
some in the File menu, Open template item. For
instance, select the xylophone. A set of tools is available
to encode the notes and rests. They are located on the palette
titled Notes and rests, in the Tools menu.
Start Pizzicato and select the Notes and rests item
in the Tools menu. Each note and rest value can be found
in it, as well as various other tools: To place a note or a rest on the staff, you
just need to select the corresponding tool and to click on the
staff where you want to place the note or the rest. For example
let us see in detail how to write the following measure: Select the half note tool Place the arrow of the mouse cursor where the
note must come, around the middle of the space between the second
and third lines (starting from the bottom) of the measure: Click and release the mouse. A half note A
appears at the expected place. If you click too high or too low,
the note will be a B or G note. We will see below
how to erase or move a note. For the moment it does not matter. Select the quarter note tool Place the arrow of the mouse cursor where the
note must appear, on the second line (starting from the bottom)
of the measure: Click. The note appears. Select the quarter rest tool Place the arrow of the mouse cursor as follows: Click. The rest appears. Note that the vertical
position of rests is automatically adjusted. By clicking a little
higher or lower, the result would have been the same. How to delete a note or a rest? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] If you want to delete a note, the A for example, execute the
following steps: Notice in this example that the note and the rest are shifted
back to the beginning of the measure. It is the action of the
automatic justification. Thanks to this function,
Pizzicato automatically adjusts the contents of the measures so
that notes and rests are distributed in a balanced way into the
measure. The content of a measure, when incomplete, is adjusted
starting from the beginning of the measure. By deleting a half
note, Pizzicato thus recalculates the position of the two
remaining items (the quarter note and the quarter rest). Thus, if you place a note in an empty measure,
even if in the middle of it, Pizzicato will automatically replace
it at the beginning of the measure and will equalize the
distances between the notes introduced thereafter. You can also
place a new note to the left of the first note and Pizzicato will
shift the existing notes to insert the new note. To delete a rest, it is the same principle than
for a note. Select a note or rest tool, place the arrow of the
mouse cursor on the quarter rest of the score and use the delete
key. The quarter rest disappears. Another practical and easy way to delete a note
or a rest is to drag it outside the measure, to the left or to
the right. How to move a note or a rest? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] If you followed the example, your measure
looks like this now: Let us see how to move this note into a low
C. By adding a note, it is also possible to
move it directly:
How to select tools with the keyboard? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The tools representing the values of notes
can be directly selected from the computer keyboard, by using
the 0 to 8 keys on the numeric
keypad located to the right of the
keyboard. The equivalence is as follows: By typing the "3"
key for example, you select the quarter note tool. Notice
that the notes and rests palette must not necessarily be open
and visible on the screen. Once you know these shortcuts, you
can work without the palette. To add a rest, you can also reach it with
the note tool of equivalent duration, by holding the SHIFT key and by clicking in the measure. Let us see how
to place an eighth rest in this
manner: These shortcuts lets you work without the
palette for the introduction of notes and rests. It is very
practical, especially for small screens: the saved space lets
you better see your score.
Automatic justification [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] For Pizzicato Light, the automatic justification is always
active. For all other Pizzicato versions, it is possible to disable
the automatic justification. In the upper part of the score view,
a check box entitled "J" The justification of a measure is a method which enables to
automatically adjust the position of the introduced notes to
obtain a measure which is graphically balanced and pleasant to
read. Pizzicato has an automatic justification function which
enables to space the notes and the rests as soon as you place
them. With the activated automatic justification, any
modification executed in a measure will cause a new calculation
of the spacings. Therefore, Pizzicato erases the content of the
measure and entirely redraws it with new spacings. As much other automatisms, this function sometimes limits the
graphical possibilities of note layout. This is why you can
disable it at any time. One of the limits is that when you move a
note slightly, Pizzicato will automatically recalculate spacings,
redraw the measure and of course redraw it as Pizzicato wants it,
i.e. it will cancel your manual moving of the note. By disabling
this option, you ask Pizzicato not to modify the graphical
display. You can then arrange yourself the content of the
measure, tighten notes
Usually, one can say that the more
complex the measure is as regard to the various rhythmic voices
(more than two voices), the least it is advised to use automatic
justification. For simpler measures, the automatic justification
will save you much time by adjusting the spacing for you. Exercises By starting each time from a new document (New item
in the File menu), create the following measures.
in the notes
and rests palette by clicking on it.
.
.
tool.
7
8
4
5
6
1
2
3
0
tool is selected.
lets you
deactivate or activate it. Its keyboard shortcut is the
"j" lower case letter.