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Transposing and justifying measures

Subjects covered:

• Transposing measures
• Justifying measures
• Justification options

Watch also the following video:

• Copy, paste and transpose measures (04'23) - Flash - Quicktime

Transposing measures [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

It can be useful to transpose a melody, chords or a whole score, for example with a transposing instrument or simply to transpose a melody which appears several times in a piece.

• Start from a new document and fill in the first two measures to obtain:

• Duplicate this melody with a copy/paste by dragging the first two measures to the third measure:

• We will transpose the second melody. Therefore, we first need to select the two measures to transpose. Use the selection tool to obtain:

• Now select the Transpose item from the Edit menu or from the contextual menu appearing when you click in the score with the right mouse button (or Option-click for Macintosh). The transposition dialog box appears:

The selection of the transposition interval may be defined in three different ways.

• The upper part of the dialog box is used to specify it in terms of transposing instruments. Select the instrument in which the score is now written and the instrument for which you want to transpose the score. Pizzicato will then display the correct interval in the second part of the dialog box. The Adjust MIDI playback for transposition check box will add a MIDI transposition to the staff, so that Pizzicato will play the transposing instrument correctly.

The second part of this dialog box is used to specify the transposition interval directly.

• The Value of interval (from the unison to the octave) specifies the transposition interval with a menu. The unison corresponds to the distance separating a note from the same note, i.e. no transposition. The second is the distance separating two consecutive notes, a transposition of one note,… and the octave corresponds to a 7 notes displacement. Select the fourth which corresponds to a displacement of 3 notes.

• The Type of interval more precisely characterizes the interval content used to transpose the melody. The diatonic choice simply moves the notes of the specified interval. No checking will be done to be sure that the sound effect remains the same. For example, if you transpose a C a second higher, you get a D note. If you transpose a B a second higher, you obtain a C. The interval is however not the same: it is a two half tones interval in the first case and a one half tone interval in the next case. If you want the transposed melody to keep the original sound effect despite the pitch change, take one of the other choices (Diminished, minor, perfect, major or augmented). Each one of these will give you a different pitch. Select Perfect.

• The Direction specifies the transposition direction: Up (higher pitch) or Down (lower pitch).

• The Octave transposition adds or subtracts one or more octaves to this interval.

You can also define the interval as a number of half tones on a slider and Pizzicato will compute the corresponding definition of interval.

Three check boxes specify what must be transposed: notes, chord symbols and/or key signatures.

Click Transpose. The score becomes:

The melody was transposed a perfect fourth higher. Listen to the result with the space bar.

• Similarly, transpose the last two measures a diatonic fifth lower. You obtain:

Listen to the result. The second melody resembles the first, but is slightly different.

• Now transpose the first two measures a minor second lower. Pizzicato corrected the intervals and added sharps so as to keep the same melody. You now have:

Listen to the two melodies. They begin both with the same note, but the melody which was transposed in a diatonic way (the second) is no more the same than the original one.

Justifying measures [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

We have seen that when creating a new document, the automatic justification tool is activated. It helps you to distribute the contents of a measure in a balanced way. As soon as you add, erase or move an element of the measure, Pizzicato calculates the measure layout again to take the modification into account. If you disable automatic justification, you are responsible for the graphic organization of the measure (only with Pizzicato Beginner and Professional).

Pizzicato also has a function used to justify a selected block of measures.

• Open the Ex054 example:

The notes were written without justification, incorrectly distributed in the measures, with a didactic purpose. Select 2 measures of the first staff with the selection tool and choose the Justify item from the Edit menu. The first staff becomes:

The notes are distributed in a more balanced way inside the measures. As opposed to automatic justification, this function is a justification on request. It only acts on the selected measures.

• Select 2 measures of the 2nd staff only and justify them as above. You obtain:

The notes were adjusted to be more regularly laid out in the measure.

Observe the contents of measure 1, on staves 1 and 2. Beats are not aligned together. For example the half note starting on the third beat is not aligned with the third quarter note of the upper measure. To read a score, it is much easier to align rhythms starting at the same time.

When we justified these measures, we did it separately, with the result that Pizzicato justified each measure without taking the other measures into account. To force Pizzicato to take into account the alignment of beats between various staves, you need to do the operation in one time. Select the 6 measures and justify them. The score becomes:

The notes played at the same time are now aligned together.

Justification options [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

• In the Options menu, select the Justification item…The justification dialog box appears:

• The first Adapt measure width box forces Pizzicato to adapt the width of measures with each automatic justification of their contents. Be careful, this option works only when the horizontal justification of systems is disabled in the page layout dialog box or when the page layout is not yet made (linear mode). The Only Local box forces Pizzicato to do a local justification, i.e. without examining the contents of the measures located below or above it.

• The second Adapt measure width box, located below the Justification function title, lets Pizzicato modify the width of a measure when justification is done on request (not automatic). It calculates the optimal width so that its contents are balanced, then it multiplies this width by the Scale factor located in the bottom of the dialog box. Its default value is to 125 %. If you want more spaced measures, increase it. The preceding remark about page layout remains valid.

• The two boxes entitled Optimize stems specify that Pizzicato will compute the optimum lengths for stems, as well as for the beams angles and lookout. The first option applies when you enter or modify the notes with the automatic justification. The second option applies when you explicitely call the Justify function of the Edit menu.

• The Analysis of incomplete voices box is an indication for Pizzicato. It specifies the way to analyze a second rhythmic voice.

Let us take the case of a rhythmic voice with 4 quarter notes:

If you add a quarter note, Pizzicato will automatically place it over the first beat of a second rhythmic voice, and you will get for example:

The place where you clicked does not matter, the quarter note is brought back to the beginning of the measure. If you check the Analysis of incomplete voices box, Pizzicato will place the quarter note at the nearest place to a note or a rest of the first voice. In other words, if you place a note below the 4th note, you will get:

The second rhythmic voice is incomplete because the first 3 beats lack. Thanks to this option, Pizzicato analyzed it.

• The Automatic vertical adjustment of tuplets box: when checked, the beam (or the hook) of the irregular groups (Tuplets) will be vertically adjusted by Pizzicato. Disabled, this box allows a manual adjustment of irregular groups (default choice).

• The Include rests in beams box is used to include rests between notes that should be attached by beams, for example:

Disabled, this option would produce:

• The Beam creation box tells Pizzicato to create and adjust note beams during justification. The text box located to the right specifies how to establish them. The default choice is empty, which means that notes are beamed per beat in the current measure. By placing for example "2+1+1", you will obtain 3 connected note groups: the first 2 beats, the 3rd beat and the 4th beat. For a 6/8 measure, if you place "3" in this text box, the eighth notes will be beamed by 3.

• The following menu specifies the way stems directions are set. The Do not modify choice does nothing. The Adapt to note height choice adjusts the direction to the note pitch (on the third line of the staff or lower, stems are directed upwards). The two following choices (Stems up and Stems down) fix all stems up or down. The last choice (Adapt for multiple voices) is selected by default. Pizzicato takes into account the note pitch when there is only one voice. If you add a second voice, stems are adapted for a correct layout of multiple voices in the measure.

• The next text box adds a shift between 2 voices whose notes would otherwise be colliding. A value of 8 will give for instance:

  

• The Do not justify chords horizontally check box is used to avoid that a manual adjustment of chord symbols gets cancelled by the justification of the measure.

• The Accidentals slider specifies the influence of accidentals on notes spacing. A value of 0 % will not take them into account. By placing 100 %, a large space will be reserved in front of the note for the associated accidental.

• Similarly, the Mobile clefs slider specifies the influence of mobile clefs. Pizzicato adjusts their position so that measure are well laid out. If this value is set to zero, Pizzicato will never move mobile clefs.

• The Symbols and lyrics slider adjust the influence of some graphic symbols as well as songs lyrics added under the notes. If the symbol is placed in front of or behind a note, Pizzicato gives more space for this note, according to the value of this slider.

• The Distance/rhythm ratio slider adjusts the relationship between the distance allotted to two successive rhythmic values (quarter note and eighth note, eighth note and 16th note,…). A value of 100 % allots the same space to each rhythmic value:

All notes are then spaced in the same way. A value of 200 % doubles the space for 2 successive rhythmic values. The above measure would become:

• The Grace notes slider is only available in Pizzicato Professional and adjust the spacing of grace notes created with the grace note special tool. Pizzicato adjust their position so that the measure looks correctly.

Exercise

Create the following score, starting from a new document, copying/pasting, then using the transposition tool. Finish it by justifying the whole score.

Light

Beginner

Professional

Notation

Composition Light

Composition Pro

Drums and Percussion

Guitar

Choir

Keyboard

Soloist