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Beginner |
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| Pizzicato 2.0 - Instruction manual | EN180 - Revision of November 15, 2001 |
Light |
Beginner |
Professional |
Introduction of notes and rests (1)
Subjects covered:
In this lesson, we will start to place notes and rests on the staff.
How to introduce notes and rests?
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
in the notes and rests palette by clicking on it.
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?
If you want to delete a note, the A for example, execute the following steps:
- Select any note or rest value on the palette : quarter note, eighth note, quarter rest, whole rest… it does not matter, so long as it is a note or rest.
- Place the mouse cursor on the head of the note:
- On the computer keyboard, hit the delete key. It is the key located at the top right corner of the main keys block, just above the "return" key:
- The note disappears:
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.
If you followed the example, your measure looks like this now:
Let us see how to move this note into a low C.
- Select a note or rest tool.
- Place the arrow of the mouse cursor on the head of the note. Click by holding the mouse button down and drag it lower to the position of a C note. The note follows your movement. By releasing the mouse button, the note is stabilized. After this operation, you should have:
- To move a quarter rest, it is the same operation. You can move it vertically.
- Considering the automatic justification, the fact of moving a note or a rest horizontally will force Pizzicato to recalculate the spacing. If you move an item without changing the order of the items in the measure, Pizzicato will cancel this movement. On the other hand, if you move a note by dragging it in front of or behind another note or rest (i.e. by changing the order of notes and rests in the measure), Pizzicato will take your modification into account and will readjust consequently the spacing of the measure.
By adding a note, it is also possible to move it directly:
- Select the
- Place the arrow of the mouse cursor at the level of a G :
- Click and hold down the mouse button and drag it lower, to the position of a C. Release the mouse button. The added note has followed your movement.
How to select tools with the keyboard?
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:
7
8
4
5
6
1
2
3
0
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:
- Select the eighth note by typing the "4" key. The
- Place the mouse cursor to the right of the second C :
- Press and hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard. Most keyboards have two such keys, located on the left and on the right of the main keys block . While holding down the SHIFT key, click. An eighth rest appears :
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.
For the Light and Light Plus Pizzicato versions, the automatic justification is always activated.
With the Beginner or Professional Pizzicato versions, it is possible to disable automatic justification. In the higher part of the score view, a check box entitled "J"
lets you deactivate or activate it. Its keyboard shortcut is the "j" lower case letter.
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.
- By selecting the tools on the palette with the mouse:
- By selecting the tools with the keyboard only, while keeping the tools palette visible:
- By closing the tools palette and by using the computer keyboard shortcuts:
Light |
Beginner |
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