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The graphic editor

Subjects covered:

• The graphic note editor view
• The use of colours
• Composing drum patterns

Watch also the following video:

• Introduction of notes and rests (2) (07'51) - Flash - Quicktime

The graphic note editor view [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

The graphic editor view is used to modify the contents of the measures in a graphical way. The basic principle is the same as for the piano roll view, but here you can modify the notes.

• To study this view, open the example document Ex083. Remember that the example documents are available with the File menu, Open... item, then in DataEN and Examples. Open the score. It contains the following notes:

• In the Windows menu, select the Graphic editor... item. The following window opens:

• Dispose the two windows (score and graphic) so that you can see the content of both at the same time (resize and move the windows).

Each staff (instrument) has an horizontal corresponding section in the graphic editor. The sections are separated by a colour bar with the colour of the instrument in the left part and with a gray colour through all the measures. The name of the instruments is displayed on the left of the bar. In the gray bar, the number of the measures are displayed (1, 2, ...).

On the left side of the window, between the title bars with the instrument name, you have for each instrument a series of lines, splitting the area into notes. The note names are written in the line. By default each instrument displays the equivalent of one octave.

In the middel of the window, the notes are displayed as a little coloured round rectangle. The colour is also the colour of the instrument. Each measure is vertically separated into columns. Each column corresponds here to the duration of a 16th note. 4 columns represent one quarter note as you may see in the second instrument when compared to the original score. The beginning and end of a note are represented graphically by its position inside the columns and its pitch is represented by its vertical position, according to the name of the note as displayed on the left.

Here are the possible operation you can do on that window:

• The "H-", "H+", "V-" and "V+" buttons in the tool bar are respectively used to change the zoom display horizontally (H) and vertically (V) so as to fit the display with a specific part you want to edit. Try to play with them to see the effect.

• The standard recorder and loop buttons are present as in the other views. You can start/stop playing the score. Notice that as Pizzicato plays the score, a vertical bar shows the progress and will also automatically scroll when the score contains more measures than can be displayed in the window. Play this score to see how this works.

• The next menu displays 16th note which is the grid definition for duration. Each column corresponds to a 16th note duration. You may change this menu to display any other duration you want. This will determine the smallest duration you can manipulate with this view. The two numbers that follow display "1 1". They are multiplication and division factors that are applied on the grid duration. If you place for instance "3 2" with the menu set to Eighth note, the displays will become:

There is now an 8th note triplet duration for each column. Go back to the previous setup (16th and 1 - 1).

• On the bottom left corner, the first measure number is displayed as well as the total number of measures in the score. On the bottom right side, the note name and exact time position in the measure are displayed, for the location of the mouse cursor.

• If you click with the right mouse button (Alt+click on Mac) inside this window, a menu item is available to call the following dialog, used to select which staves of the score are displayed in the graphic editor:

By default, all staves are visible.

• To add a note, you must click inside the square (column+line) where the note should begin, drag to the right and release the mouse button inside the square where the note should end. A new bar is added and the corresponding note in the score is added also. For instance, add a G3 note in the Piccolo instrument, starting at beat 2 of the first measure and ending on the second beat of the second measure. You should have the following:

Notice that the note has been added also in the score.

• To delete a note, click on it while holding down the CTRL key. The note disappears.

• To move a note, click on it and drag it to another position, inside the measure or in another measure, at the same pitch or to another pitch.

• To hear a note, just click on it without moving it.

• To change the duration of a note, click on its last square while holding down the SHIFT key and drag it to the right (longer duration) or to the left (shorter duration) then release the mouse button. Any of the above changes affects the score. Try these various operations with the example score to see the effects.

• When you click in the yellow column, you hear the note of the corresponding pitch with the corresponding instrument.

• You can change all the pitches in one shot, by clicking and dragging the note name (on the left) while holding down the CTRL key. All notes with that pitch will be transposed to the note in which you release the mouse button. Try for instance to move the E3 notes of the Pizzicato strings to the G3 note. Notice the change in the score view.

One point of caution. Whenever you make a change in this view, Pizzicato changes what is needed in the MIDI track of the instruments and then transcribes the result in the score measure. This transcription function may somehow change the presentation of a measure if the measure was manually adjusted for some reason.

There are three other important actions that you need to know about this view.

• For any instrument, you can shift the range of the visible note pitches, just by clicking in the note name area and dragging it up or down. Try for instance to see the notes that are lower than C3 in the Pizzicato strings area.

• You may increase the size of any visible note areas, by clicking and dragging up or down the horizontal gray border between instruments. Try to lower the gray border between the Piccolo and the Pizzicato strings.

• The standard scroll bars left and below the main area are used as in the other views: the horizontal scroll bar moves from one measure to another, the vertical scroll bar lets you see lower or higher.

 

The use of colours [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

With this view, there is a very interesting application to help you to compose a melody or secondary voices when you already have a chord progression associated to the score.

• Close the previous score and open the Ex084 example file.

• In the Options menu, select the Graphic options... item. In the middle of the dialog box, change the Use of colours to Colour by scale/chord and click on OK. The score displays as follows:

• The notes are all displayed in green, as they are all part of the current chord. Modify the first measure by changing the notes as follows, moving them with the mouse:

• Notice that the colours of the notes change automatically. The coulour rule is the following:

• Any note that is part or the current chord is displayed in green.
• Any note that is not part of the current chord but that is part of the most probable scale associated with the chord is displayed in orange.
• All other notes are displayed in red. They are neither part of the chord nor of the associated scale.

• The same principle applies to the graphic editor view. In the Windows menu, select the Graphic editor item. The following is then displayed:

The colours of the bars representing the notes are also drawn in green/orange/red so as to easily see what note fits which chord. This is even more clear than in the score, because here, the background of the grid is also coloured for each note of the full range of pitches. You can then easily locate the green and orange areas so as to place the notes in them. You may use the following general principles:

• The main notes, the ones with the longest duration and or the notes placed on the main beats of the measure should be green.
• The short duration notes, the transition notes between the green notes should be orange.
• If you use red notes, use them sparingly. They should be very short or acting as a transition between green and orange notes.

This tool is very useful if you do not know by root or instinctively which note is in which chord or scale. You may create or arrange your melody by using these simple principles.

You should know that when the Use of colors choice is set to Black color in the Graphic options... item of the Options menu, it is then possible to assign custom colors to notes. This can be done with a right click on the note, then selecting the Edit note play... A Custom color box lets you change the color of that particular note. It is also possible to assign colors to the notes of a selection of measures, by selecting Assign colors to notes... in the Edit menu, that brings the following dialog:

The colors can be assigned to notes in four ways:

• Using the note name, which means that all C notes (including C# and Cb) will have the same color: the one specified in the first column. To modify one of the colors, just click on it.
• Using the note pitch for the 12 semi tones, as given by the second and third columns.
• Using the fingering assigned to notes. The color is specified by the fourth column. The fingering of a note may be specified by the contextual menu of that note when it is placed inside a tablature. The fingering also appears in the edit note play dialog, also reacheable through the note contextual menu.
• Using black color, so as to reset all notes colors to normal (black).

As you can modify the default colors, the Save choosen colors box, if checked, will save your color preferences so that they appear the same next time you call that dialog.

Composing drum patterns [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion]

With Pizzicato Professional and its special staves for percussion instruments, the graphic note editor becomes an ideal tool to design or modify drum patterns.

• Open the Ex085 example file. Its score displays the following:

• Open the graphic editor view. You have now:

You will notice that the note name area now displays the names of the corresponding percussion instruments. By clicking in the yellow squares, you hear each instrument. You can play this measure in loop to hear how it sounds. While Pizzicato is playing it, you may delete, add or change notes. The drum patterns you hear changes accordingly as well as the score you see in the score window. This principle may of course be applied to compose for any instrument (piano repeated patterns, bass patterns,...) but in the case of percussion instruments, it is particularly interactive and intuitive.

Light

Beginner

Professional

Notation

Composition Light

Composition Pro

Drums and Percussion

Guitar

Choir

Keyboard

Soloist