Using colors [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Guitar]

When you click a note with right mouse button (ALT+Click on the Macintosh), the Edit note play... menu item can be selected. A dialog appears and let you select, among other things, the Custom color of the note. Clicking this color area opens a color palette with which you can modify the color. The same dialog can also be called by SHIFT clicking a note in the score.

In the Options menu, Graphism... item, there are four choices for the Use of colors:

• The default choice is Black color, which draws all notes and rests in black on the score.

• The second choice is Voice color. In this case, notes are drawn in the colour of the rhythmic voice to which they belong.

• The next choice, Track color, draws notes and rests in the colour associated with the staff. This colour may be selected in the instruments view.

• The last choice is Color by scale/chord. This option is quite interesting to compose music. When the score has chords in it (encoded with the chord notation tool) the notes are then displayed in three colours:

• Green: the note is part of the current chord.
• Orange: the note is part of a scale deduced from the chord
• Red: the note is not part of the chord neither of the scale

Only the first choice (Black color) displays the possible custom colors defined for notes.

Some Pizzicato versions have an automatic color assignment function, based on the note name, the note frequency or the guitar fingering.

• Create a new score and add a few notes or open an existing score. Select all measures and go in the Edit menu to choose the Assign colors to notes... item. The following dialog appears:

You can assign colors to notes in four different ways:

• From the note name - The leftmost color column lets you select the colors for each note name. Just click the color area and the color palette appears. Here, all C notes will be colored in light yellow.
• From the note pitch - The two central columns are used to assign the colors to the 12 note pitches of an octave. Here the principle is that each note frequency (within one octave) have a specific color.
• From the fingering - In a guitar tablature, it is possible to assign the fingering to the notes. The last column is used to assign a corresponding color to each fingering.
• Black color - Is used to reset all colors to black.

Here is a possible result (based on the note names):

If the Save choosen colors checkbox is checked, your color selection will be saved for the next call to this dialog. You can then customize the color table for note names, note pitches and fingering.

Making a note or a rest invisible [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]

• Select the tool in the Main palette.

It lets you to make a note or a rest invisible. The note or rest keeps its graphic position and is played but is not displayed in the score. This feature is mainly used to be able to hide rests when several rhythmic voices are introduced. Click on the note or rest and it becomes invisible. By clicking it again, it becomes visible again. Click on some notes of the measure to see it happen. In the Graphic options… dialog box (Options menu), you will find a check box allowing to see invisible symbols, in case you add an invisible note or rest which you cannot find any more…

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