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Changing the time signature

Subjects covered:

• Changing the rhythmic content of a measure

Watch also the following video:

• Key and time signatures (03'02) - Flash - Quicktime

Changing the rhythmic content of a measure [Light] [Beginner] [Professional]

Create a new document and open the Main Palette. Select the time signature tool

Click on the first measure. The following dialog box appears:

This dialog box lets you specify the rhythmic content of a measure. The first text box indicates the numerator of the measure. It is the number of beats included in that measure. In Pizzicato professional, this box may have a succession of numbers with the "+" sign between them to create composite measures (3+2 for example).

The following text box (denominator of the measure) indicates the duration of each beat. The most current value is "4" which means that each beat equals to a quarter note. "8" indicates that the beat is equal to an eighth note. "2" is for the half note and "1" is for the whole note. "16" is used for the sixteenth note, "32" for the thirty-second note and "64" for the 64th note. The most common values will be 4, 8 and 2. Any other value will not be correctly interpreted by Pizzicato when playing the score.

• Fill a "3" in the first text box (numerator) and "8" in the second box (denominator). Click OK. The score becomes:

Pizzicato automatically assigned the same time signature to both staves. It is indeed very rare to simultaneously have different time signature. When it is the case (experimental music for example), you can change the time signature of only one staff by checking the box Only this staff in the dialog box (this option is only available in Pizzicato Professional). In such a case, Pizzicato will fit the content of the various measures so that each measure will be played with the same duration. This is the same as changing the tempo for each track so as to have the same total duration.

On the other hand, it is rather common to change the time signature during a piece of music. Let us see for example how to go to 4/4 in the second measure.

• Place the mouse cursor at the beginning of the second measure (staff 1). Type the upper case letter "T". It is the shortcut of the time signature tool. The dialog box appears.

There are two very widespread conventions to represent (4/4) and (2/2) time signatures. The first is written with a "C" and the second with a crossed "C". By default, Pizzicato uses these conventions. To disable them, uncheck the corresponding checkbox in the dialog box.

• Fill in "4" in the Numerator and Denominator text boxes. Click OK. The score becomes:

The 4/4 is represented with C for the 2 staves.

In the time signature dialog box, a multiple choice (radio buttons) specifies up to which measure the change must be done. The default choice is Up to the next change, which means that the new time signature is valid up to the next time signature introduced. The first choice fixes the new time signature up to the end of the score, while the second specifies it for a fixed number of measures that you can determine using the text box.

Exercises

Starting each time with a new document, realize the two following scores (the second one requires Pizzicato Professional):

Light

Beginner

Professional