Dear Musicians,

This is issue #100 of the Pizzicato musical newsletter. It is intended to help you to better know and use Pizzicato. You will find in it various articles about Pizzicato, its use and aspects, but also references to the music course and links to other music related sites.

You may send us any information to publish about music (performances, festivals, exhibitions, music training sessions, Internet links,...). You may also tell us any difficulty you have with Pizzicato so that we can explain the solutions in the next issue. This letter is for you.

We hope you will enjoy reading it.

Musically,

Dominique Vandenneucker,

ARPEGE-Music
29, rue de l'Enseignement
B-4800 VERVIERS
Belgium

Phone ++32 - 87.26.80.10
Support ++ 32 - 87.55.23.60
Fax ++32 - 87.26.80.10
info@arpegemusic.com
Visit our site: http://www.arpegemusic.com

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Editorial
Read all previous editorials on page http://www.arpegemusic.com/editoriaux.htm

We had started a tutorial composition in our letter number 96 and we reviewed various aspects of music composition and of the use of Pizzicato.

In this article and the next one, we will finish the structure of this composition, by using the various techniques explained up to here. We will not detail these steps again, so if you need more information, please refer to the previous articles, that you can access here:

http://www.arpegemusic.com/editoriaux.htm

Let us take the composition document as it was at the end of the last article. You can download it here:

http://www.arpegemusique.com/download/LI-100-EN.piz

This document can be edited with the demo version of Pizzicato, so that you can test the software with the example. If you have a Pizzicato version that does not have the composition tools, you can switch in Professional demo mode in the Options, Working mode menu. Once you have finished, don't forget to switch back in the license mode, with the same menu.

Here is how the global view looks like. This view lets you assemble and play several scores, each one with a specific music content:

In this example, we use one score per sound layer, which helps to construct a composition in a progressive way and to easily reorganize its various elements.

Here is a way to develop this composition into a more complete structure.

1 - Duplicate a section and transposing it

To duplicate a score, click on its third icon in the series of five that are visible in the upper let part of the scores:

Duplicate the score entitled "Layer 1 - Marimba A-1". The same score appears just below it. Drag it just to the right of the original score, so that they are played in sequence. Adjust the size of the group accordingly.

Modify its name in "Layer 1 - Marimba A-2" (right-click it, then selec Rename). You can reduce the horizontal zoom with the "H-" button present in the tool bar, which helps you view a larger part of the composition on the screen.

Open that score (click its first small icon) and select the Edit, Transpose... menu. Then select the value of the interval to be "third", the type "minor" and the direction "Down". Uncheck the "Transpose key signatures" and click Transpose. The two measures are transposed down a minor third, which displays:

Listen to the result.

Do the same with the "Layer 2 - Guitar A-1", to get "Layer 2 - Guitar A-2". But make the duration longer so that it is played during 8 measures instead of 4.

Duplicate and transpose in the same way the layer 3. You should now have:

2 - Using aliases of a score

The copies made above are independent of the original score. You transposed them and the original scores stayed in the first tonality.

It is sometimes useful to play the same sequence several times in the composition, at various moments. In that case, you can use an alias, which is a copy that stays linked to its original score. If you modify one of the copies or the original score, they are all modified.

To create an alias of a score, click on its fourth icon (the small "+" with a yellow background). The name of the new score is displayed in italic to notice the fact that it is an alias.

Create 3 aliases of the percussion score and place them as follows:

If you open and modify one of the aliases, they will be all modified.

3 - adding a variation

Duplicate "Layer 1 - Marimba A-1" and name it "Layer 1 - Marimba B-1". Place it after "Layer 1 - Marimba A-2" and open the score. Modify the content and velocity to have:

Notice that this new theme is in fact a variation with eighth notes of the content of the first theme, but when you listen to it, it brings something new while keeping a similarity with what precedes.

We can now create a similar variation for "Layer 2 - Guitar A-1".

Duplicate it and name it "Layer 2 - Guitar A-1". Place it from measure 21 to measure 24 (the measure numbers are displayed in red above the group of scores and gray lines help you to align the scores visually).

Its content will be the same as "Layer 1 - Marimba B-1", but played backwards. Here is how to do it using the smart link of Pizzicato (for more details, see www.arpegemusic.com/manual36/EN800.htm ):

Open the score of Layer 1, Marimba B-1. In the Edit menu, select Select all then in the same menu, Copy. Close that score.

Open Layer 2, Guitar B-1. In Edit, select Select all, then in the same menu, select Smart link... In the list that is displayed, select Copy with note and rhythm inversion, then click Paste. Then in the Edit menu, select Fix smart links. You have now:

This last operation made the measures independent of the original score. Without it, any change made in the original score will influence and update the inverted melody. This can be used as an advantage to test various themes and their variations.

4 - Transpose the variation

We can now transpose the two variations as we did it above.

Duplicate Layer 1, Marimba B-1, transpose it down a minor third and add it to the sequence.

Do the same with Layer 2, Guitar B-1 and also double its duration so that it covers 8 measures.

As for layer 3, create aliases of the two versions (A-1 and A-2) and place them in sequence and aligned with scores of layer 3. You should now have:

Listen to the whole result. Here is an example, using the sound library of Pizzicato:

Listen to the example

You can also create two additional aliases of Layer 4 Percussion and place them at the beginning of measures 20 and 28.

In the next article, we will finish this example. You can download the file as it is now here:

www.arpegemusique.com/download/LI-100A-EN.piz

Dominique Vandenneucker
Designer of Pizzicato.

Pizzicato in United Kingdom

You can always contact Andrew Ullmann at Pizzicato Music limited, for any information you need on Pizzicato and the way to use it.

Located in Leeds, Andrew is the official distributor of Pizzicato in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

You can visit the UK site and buy Pizzicato products directly at www.pizzicatomusic.co.uk

email: support@pizzicatomusic.co.uk Phone 0113 2018850

Pizzicato in US and Canada

You can always contact Blair Ashby, at Broadlands Media, Inc. for any information you need on Pizzicato and the way to use it.

Located in Denver, Colorado, Blair is the official representative of Pizzicato for the United States and English speaking Canada.

You can visit the site and buy Pizzicato directly at www.music-composing.com

email: info@music-composing.com Phone 303-252-1270

Aspects and applications of Pizzicato...
Discover the various aspects and applications of Pizzicato

Creating systems with different number of staves

Pizzicato Professional and Pizzicato Notation have a function to optimize the staves displayed for an orchestral score. This means that when only a few instruments are playing in the orchestra, the other staves are not displayed in the conductor score, which takes much less space in the page layout. This function may be used to create a page with systems that do not have the same number of staves. Here is how you do it.

First you need to decide the way the page layout will be, how the systems, staves and measures will be organized. We will take an example with 2 systems with 2 staves of 4 measures, 1 system with 3 staves of 5 measures and 1 system with 2 staves of 4 measures.

Use the "Linear mode" template to create this score. You can find it in "File, Open a template...", in the "Templates" item. This template includes 1 measure with 1 staff.

Add the number of measures and staves.The score will include 4+4+5+4 = 17 measures. For the staves, you must create systems which include the maximum number of staves, thus 3 staves. Add thus 16 measures and 2 staves to the existing score template.

Create a page layout by selecting the page mode (small menu with Linear/Page/Global on the tool bar).

With the "+" and '-' buttons of the page (display them with the ":" shortcut), adjust the systems so that they display respectively 4, 4, 5 and 4 measures. At this step, all systems have 3 staves.

Encode the score content, but only in the staves you want to keep. In other words, the first two staves of each system must contain notes, as well as the third staff of the third system. On systems 1, 2 and 4, the third staff must stay empty.

You can now right-click on one system and select "Visible staves...". Using the list of staves, you can double-click the staves that must not be displayed so that they go in the "Invisible staves" column. Do that for the systems that must only show 2 staves and the score is displaying them as it should.

Tips and advices for Pizzicato...
Frequently asked questions about Pizzicato

Freely aligning staves and systems on a page

By default, Pizzicato automatically aligns the right and left borders of every staff on the internal margins of the pages. To disable this function, go in the "File" menu. Select the "Page layout" item and disable the "Justify systems on page, horizontally" check box, then click OK. You can the freely move the systems on the page, Pizzicato will not systematically align them right or left.

Volume control : limits imposed by MIDI channels

The MIDI communication system between the computer and an external synthesizer or a sound card may transmit messages called "Controllers". There are 128 controllers and the most known one is controller 7 which determines the volume. On a MIDI cable, there can be 16 independent channels, so that 16 sound generators may have different volumes. For a given channel, Pizzicato can send a volume value that you select (between 0 and 127). If 2 staves use the same MIDI channel, the volume message sent on one will affect the other one in the same way because the staves notes are played with the same MIDI channel. With the automatic management of the MIDI channels by Pizzicato, this situation can happen only in 2 cases, because Pizzicato always tries to use a different channel for each staff.

The first case is for the percussion instruments. The percussions are associated to channel 10 in a lot of synthesizers. If you create 4 percussion staves, they will all be assigned to channel 10 and even if the instrument view shows 4 volume sliders, only the last one will have the desired effect, because its message is sent the last and its volume is thus considered (the first messages are also sent, but immediately modified by the following ones). If you want to assign different amplitudes to the different percussions, you can use another parameter named "Velocity". You can also find it in the instrument view ("Miscellaneous effects" item). The nuances (P, FF, MF,...) placed in the score affect the velocity and are thus independent. You must know that the velocity value is sent for every note played and not globally for all the notes. So, several notes sent on the same MIDI channel may have various velocities.

The second case is when there is more staves in the scores than MIDI channels on your sound card or synthesizer. In this case, Pizzicato is forced to reassign the same MIDI channels to different staves. To avoid that, you can disable the automatic management of the channels and assign them yourself (for example, you can assign staves with an equal volume/instrument to the same MIDI channel and thus keep other channels for the staves needing a specific volume). The ultimate solution is of course to add a new synthesizer or sound card, which adds 16 MIDI channels. Pizzicato Professional 3 may work up to 16 MIDI ports (thus 16 x 16 MIDI channels).

Aligning lyrics

When lyrics are written under the notes, you can align their positions. Using the tool that moves the lyrics, you must know how the SHIFT and CTRL keys modify it:

When you move only one text line, everything moves (all measures and staves of the instrument)

When you move a text line while holding down the SHIFT key (above the CTRL key), only the lyrics of the current measure move

When you move a text line while holding down the CTRL key, only the lyrics of the current system move

When you move a text line while holding down the SHIFT and CTRL keys, only the current syllable moves

In this way you can adapt the position of the lyrics, for example when a note goes too low. It is better to move the lyrics when they have all been encoded, otherwise you will desynchronize the positions and it will be more difficult to align them after. Do not forget that you can use 8 independent text lines,that you can align independently. Every move of a line implies that all the lines below it will also move in the same way.

In Pizzicato 3, you also have a specific function. Select the measures and go in the Edit menu, Adjust lyrics... A dialog lets you readjust all the lyrics positions.

The beginner's corner...
Musical basics and access to the Pizzicato music course

Music notation examples

We will examine and listen to some examples of the notation of sound characteristics, so as to illustrate the theory learned in a previous lesson.

Note pitch - example

With Pizzicato, open the Ex001.piz file, located in the Examples folder. The following score appears:

It shows you a staff with 3 measures. The playing instrument is the piano. The sign located at the beginning of the staff is called a clef. We will explain this in the following paragraph. You can observe 9 notes distributed in the 3 measures. From left to right, these notes are placed more and more high on the staff, which corresponds to increasingly high pitch notes. Listen to the sound result by pressing the space bar. One after the other, the 9 notes are played by the computer. A small black triangle follows the play and the notes are coloured in red one after the other.

What is a clef?

The possible pitch range of notes largely exceeds the 9 notes played in the above example. In other words, it is possible to play notes much lower than the note placed on the first line of the staff or much higher than the note placed on the fifth line. As we will see further, it is possible to place additional lines on which to place higher or lower notes. Here are examples:

This technique is nevertheless limited to 3 or 4 additional lines below or above the staff, because using more lines makes the score difficult to read. By placing a clef at the beginning of the staff, the pitch of all notes can be changed. Let us see this in more detail.

We had seen that the sound consists of air vibrations. The higher the sound, the more vibrations there is and the higher the note is placed on the staff.

To locate a note on the staff, it is not enough to say that it is lower or higher than another. It is necessary to establish a precise reference on which everyone can agree. This reference is established by placing a clef at the beginning of the staff. There are several reference systems for notes and each one is marked by a different clef.

The most current clef is the treble clef (or G clef). With this clef, a note placed in the second line spacing corresponds to a sound making the air vibrate 440 times a second...

...To read the full lesson, see the lesson on Music notation examples on our site...

The commercial page...

EarMaster 5 - Interactive Ear Training Software

Have you ever thought about what might be the difference between a good musician and a REALLY good musician?

The answer is very likely to be Ear Training!

Ear training is the process of connecting theory (notes, intervals, chords, etc) with music (the sounds we hear). The more you will exercise to recognize this connection, the more you will appreciate playing music, because you will learn to understand what you play.

For more information, go to www.arpegemusic.com/earmaster.htm

You can buy EarMaster at https://arpegemusique.com/acheteren.php

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Pizzicato upgrades

The upgrade to Pizzicato 3.6 is available for download on page:

www.arpegemusic.com/clients3.htm

We regularly release corrective fast upgrades on the same page.

If you have an old version of Pizzicato, a series of upgrades are available for Mac OS X and Windows, according to the version you presently have.

If you bought Pizzicato 3.4 or 3.5, you may download Pizzicato 3.6 for free. The reference is the license number. All users whose license number is greater or equal to 19000 can upgrade for free by going to the upgrade section on our website and download version 3.6. See page www.arpegemusic.com/clients3.htm. Install it and validate it with your original license/serial numbers.

Otherwise, to know the prices and possibilities, see the upgrade order form on our site:

https://arpegemusique.com/achetermajen.php

In the menu "You have", select the version you presently have. The page will be redrawn and will show the possible upgrades and their prices. To buy an upgrade, fill in the form and validate it.

We are at your disposal.

Our purpose is to place music in everybody's hands

and to bring people to more musical creativity

Use Pizzicato and make music!