Instruction manual - Pizzicato 3.2.2 EN110 - Revision of 2007/03/10

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Working with a document (1)

Subjects covered:

Watch also the following video:

We will learn how to visualize and handle a musical document. This is the basis of every other manipulation that you will do with Pizzicato. It is thus essential to master these concepts very well.

What is a document? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional]

A document is a set of musical information gathered under the same name.

Example: you want to write an arrangement for a jazz group. All measures, all notes that you write, the way you lay out the pages of the score, the tempo, the various instruments playing, the force with which each instrument plays… constitute a set of information related to this arrangement. They form a set of information. To easily find this arrangement, you will give it a name, for example "Jazz-1". You thus have a document called "Jazz-1" which contains all information relating to this arrangement.

In computer terminology, a document is a type of file, created or handled by the user.

If it is not already done, start Pizzicato. A template document is automatically open. It is like a paper sheet, ready to receive your music:

This window is the score view. It enables you to visualize or modify the contents of the score.

A scroll bar is visible on the right of the screen. It lets you reach the bottom of this page, whose content is currently not fully visible. If your screen is not large enough to visualize the width of this score, you will find in the lower right part an horizontal scroll bar allowing you to reach the right part of this page. When a score has several pages, a scroll bar is activated in the bottom left part of the screen and allows you to go from one page to the other.

We will see other types of windows (called views) allowing to work other aspects of a score, like the selection of instruments, the introduction of lyrics…

If at least one view is open (in this case, the score view), the document is considered to be open, i.e. it is in the working memory of the computer and can be visualized, played or modified. When you close all views of a document, it is no more visible and the computer deletes it out of its working memory. Close the score view by clicking the lower closing box in the top right corner of the screen (on Mac, the top left corner):

There is now no more open document. In this case, we neither added nor modified information in the document, Pizzicato thus agree to close the document without comments. When you modify the document and close all views, Pizzicato asks you if you want to record the document, in order to be able to read it again later. By answering yes, Pizzicato will save your document on the hard disk of the computer before deleting it out of its memory. We will see that in detail in a forthcoming lesson. For the moment, if Pizzicato asks you if you want to save, just answer "no".

Let us see now how to open a document.

Opening a document [Light] [Beginner] [Professional]

When you want to listen to or modify an existing musical document of the hard disk of your computer, it should first be loaded in the working memory of Pizzicato. We will load an example document provided with Pizzicato.

To open a document, select the Open item…in the File menu. The opening dialog appears:

Double-click on the DataEN folder and then on the Examples sub-folder. The contents of the Examples folder appears:

It is in this folder that you will find all the examples quoted in the lessons of the manual. With the horizontal scroll bar (vertical for Mac) located under the list (for Mac, on the right of the list), move to the right (downwards for Mac), so as to see the Ex042.piz document (if it was not visible yet):

Open it by double-clicking on its name. The score view appears:

To listen to this score, there is a very practical shortcut. You just need to hit the space bar of the computer keyboard. If your musical configuration or MIDI setup is correctly installed (see the lesson covering this subject), you will hear the sound of these 4 measures. While playing, Pizzicato shows you the current measure with a small triangle moving through the measures during the play. The notes are coloured in red when they are played. After 4 measures, it automatically stops. You can stop it before the end by using the space bar again.

Close this score and open the Ex043.piz example in the same way :

With the space bar, listen to this score. Then close this score and open the Ex044.piz example:

This arrangement of 4 measures, in a more modern style than the melody of the first 2 examples, is written for a synthesizer or a sound card compatible with the General Midi (GM) standard. It will not necessarily play correctly on other types of devices. Listen to it with the keyboard shortcut, then close this score.

Creation of a new document [Light] [Beginner] [Professional]

At any moment, you can create a new document to begin a score. Select the New item in the File menu. An empty document appears, like the one seen above.

When a document is open alone, the score view automatically takes the full size of the screen. The lower central box located at the top right corner of the window is the zoom box :

on Mac or "+"

Click in this zoom box and the score view decreases its size.

By clicking on the left zoom box (and or "-" on Mac) of the score view, you reduce it in the left lower corner of the screen (on Mac, it disappear in the Dock, below the screen):

When you have several views, this lets you easily arrange the screen space while keeping views accessible. To bring it back to its previous size, click the first zoom box of this reduced window.

By clicking in the box (and or "+" on Mac) the view goes back again to its maximum size.

When a view does not have its maximum size, you can move it by clicking and dragging its title bar. The view follows your movement and is stabilized when you release the mouse.

Observe the outline of the score view. It has a gray border. On Windows, you can resize a view by clicking and dragging inside this border. The view is redrawn with its new size. By clicking and dragging a border close to a corner, the corner follows your movements. The view increases or decreases its size from the corner. On Mac, this is only possible with the bottom right corner. Notice that when you resize a view and close it, its dimensions are memorized when you record the document. If you open the document three months later and open this view, it will take the same dimensions again.

Professional version only:

Pizzicato Professional enables you to work with several documents opened at the same time. In other words, you are not forced to close a document before opening another one. According to the size of your screen, by opening several documents, there will of course be quickly obstruction if you open too many views at the same time. Generally, when you do not need a document any more, close it in order to avoid confusion among all open views. This remark is valid for the rest of the course. When you are asked to open an example or to select an exercise, you can close the preceding example or exercise so that the screen does not get confused. If Pizzicato asks you to save the modifications, click No in order to keep the original examples. When Pizzicato has several views on the screen, you can move them or resize them in order to lay out the screen as you want. See the lesson about the windows.

Beginner and Professional versions only

In the left higher part of the score view, you can see the three following graphic objects:

They influence the zoom of the displayed score. By clicking on the + button you increase the size and on the - button you decrease it. The popup menu displays the zoom value (100 % by default). By clicking on this menu, the list of the possible values appears and lets you directly select one of them. In the following lessons, you can increase or decrease the size of your score, according to the work you do. If you adjust the page layout, it can be interesting to decrease the zoom in order to see the whole page as it will be printed. On the other hand, by adjusting the contents of a measure or by encoding notes, you can increase the zoom to improve the precision of your work. Note that this zoom value only influences the screen. The printed score is not affected by the screen zoom.

Exercise

As an exercise, if you are new to computers, we invite you to close the previous document and execute the following steps:

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