Using templates

Subjects covered:

• What is a template?
• Pizzicato Light
• Pizzicato Beginner
• Pizzicato Professional
• Variety styles (Pizzicato Professional)
• Easy creation of an orchestral score (Pizzicato Professional)

What is a template?

A template is a prepared music document you can use to start a score faster. If you often write jazz band scores, it is practical to have a template with all prepared staves for each instrument but which contents are empty. By opening the template, you must not create the various staves, indicate the instruments names, nor configure the synthesizer and sound volumes… All is ready in the template document of your jazz band. You can thus immediately begin the interesting work: what are the instruments going to play.

According to the version you have, Pizzicato offers a more or less sophisticated template management.

Pizzicato Light

When Pizzicato is started, it automatically opens a score template with one piano page. The same happens when you select the New item of the File menu.

By selecting the Open template item, a sub-menu offers you 8 templates with prepared scores. Examine them in order to see what is possible.

The document is named Document - xx (xx is a sequence number incremented each time you create a new document). When you save this document for the first time, Pizzicato will automatically ask you to give it a name. In this way, the original template is preserved. No risk to select the Save item and forget to change the document name (this would otherwise destroy the original template, replacing it with your score).

Pizzicato Light Plus and Beginner

When Pizzicato is started, it automatically opens a score template. By default, it is one page of a piano score. The same happens when you select the New item of the File menu. This document is named Document - xx (xx is a sequence number incremented each time you create a new document). When you save this document for the first time, Pizzicato will automatically ask you to give it a name. In this way, the original template is preserved. No risk to select the Save item and forget to change the document name (this would otherwise destroy the original template, replacing it with your score).

To change this default template, select the Global options item in the Options menu. The following dialog box appears:

By clicking the Select… button, Pizzicato lets you select a score to be used as the default template. You can use most of the documents located in the Templates directory. You can also use a document that you created, suited to your working needs (choral, jazz band, small orchestra…).

Pizzicato professional

When Pizzicato is started, it automatically opens a score template. By default, it is one page of a piano score. The same happens when you select the New item of the File menu. This document is named Document - xx (xx is a sequence number incremented each time you create a new document). When you save this document for the first time, Pizzicato will automatically ask you to give it a name. In this way, the original template is preserved. No risk to select the Save item and forget to change the document name (this would otherwise destroy the original template, replacing it with your score).

To change this default template, select the Global options item in the Options menu. The following dialog box appears:

With the first frame, labeled At Pizzicato startup, you can determine what Pizzicato will automatically do when you start it. You can select between:

• Do nothing : no document is open
• Create an empty document: Pizzicato creates a document of one measure only
• Open the default template: Pizzicato opens the template selected in the lower frame, labeled Default template. To choose it, click the Select button… and select a document among those located in the Templates directory or among your own documents. You can for example create a template with prepared options. If you want to remove automatic justification, personalize colours and fonts, graphic options,... you can create a prepared empty document like you want and then save it in the Templates directory.
• Call the open document dialog: Pizzicato presents the open a document dialog box.
• Call the creation assistant: Pizzicato opens the dialog box that lets you create a personalized score
• Reopen the last document: Pizzicato automatically opens the last document used.

Just below, the frame entitled New document lets you specify the action executed when you select the New item in the File menu. The three available choices are explained here above. Click OK.

In the File menu, the Open template item offers a hierarchy of template documents. It is a direct access to all templates located in the Templates directory and sub-directories. The selected document is then open as a template that you can work with and save under a personalized name.

Variety styles (Pizzicato Professional)

In the File menu, select the Open template then the Light Music item. A list of templates is offered. Each one has one measure with several instruments prepared for 20 variety styles, as well as prepared page layout.

Easy creation of an orchestral score (Pizzicato Professional)

Close all open documents of Pizzicato. In the Open template menu, open the Orchestral instruments template located in the Orchestral sections sub-menu. The main view of this document contains a great number of musical scores. Use the vertical scroll bar to see all of them.

The scores are grouped by instrument families. You will find the woodwinds, the brasses, the strings, the percussions and the other instruments that may appear in an orchestral piece of work. Open some scores to see what they contain. Some scores are already made of several instruments of the same family.

From this vast choice of prepared instruments, you can very easily compose a full orchestra according to your needs. Select one of the instruments as the first instrument, for example the Piccolo flute. It is the beginning of your orchestra score. You can now add the instruments one by one in the following way. Drag the Flute icon on the Piccolo flute icon. Its contents will be added directly to that of the piccolo flute. Drag then the Oboe icon on this same Piccolo flute icon. If you open the Piccolo flute score now, you will notice that it contains the added instruments:

You can in this manner build your personal orchestra. Then, you can remove all the other scores or create a new document and drag the Piccolo flute score in it and close the template document. You may then add the needed number of measures and begin to write the notes.

The Chamber music templates contain classic chamber music groups. Orchestra contains some prepared templates for traditional orchestras. Consult them as well as the other templates in order to see how they could be useful for you.