Handling documents and windows (1) |
Watch also the following video:
What is a document? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] 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.
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 sheet of paper,
ready to receive your music (please note that the template
depends on the Pizzicato version you have, so it may be different
than this one): 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
The document manager [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In the left part of the main window, you can see the document
manager: This part of the window can be displayed or hidden, by using
the small "D" checkbox that is visible in the tool bar
of the window. It means "Document
manager". Click on that checkbox. You can now only see the
score. Click again on it and the document manager is shown again.
By hidding the document manager, you can have more screen space
to see the score you are working on. The document manager is an important part of Pizzicato. With
it, you can manage and organize your musical documents, without
the need to use the standard Windows or Mac open and save
dialogs. The blue buttons shown on top of it are the various
configurations. According to the Pizzicato version you have,
there may be more than two configurations, but these two
configurations are common to all versions. Configuration "1" is the default document folder,
named My scores. It contains all the documents you
create. When you start Pizzicato, a new document is created and is
automatically named with the date and time. If you do not modify
this document and exit Pizzicato, this document will be
automatically deleted by Pizzicato, but if you modify the score,
it will be saved and kept in the My scores folder. A Pizzicato document is represented by a green icon. The
document contains by default one score, named Score 1. You can rename the document as well as the score, by clicking
on the icon with the right mouse button and selecting the menu
entitled "Change name..." which brings a small
dialog to fill in the new name you want to give it. You can learn much more about this document manager, in the
lesson dedicated to it. For instance, you can add other folders
and organize them on your hard disk. See the lesson entitled The
document manager. You can of course still use the open dialogs of Windows and
Mac. They are available in the File menu, Open... item. Opening and creation of a document [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] To open a document so as to play it, print it and modify it,
just double-click on the name of its score icon in the document.
The score appears in the main part of the window. For instance,
open the example 42. The score appears: To listen to this score, there is a very practical shortcut.
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. Open now the Ex043 example in the same way: With the space bar, listen to this score. Then open the Ex044
example: This arrangement of 4 measures, in a more modern style than
the melody of the first two 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. At any moment, you can create a new document to start writting
a score. Select the New item in the File menu.
An empty document appears, according to the Pizzicato version you
have. All Pizzicato versions also offer you a series of templates.
They are available in the File menu, Open a
template... item. You can explore them, just by selecting
these menus. A new document is created, based on the template you
selected. This is useful to start a new document with a prepared
page layout. Since Pizzicato 3.6.1, a new plyback tool lets you listen to a
precise point in the score (a chord, melodic transition,...),
with the Music-Touch playback tool You simply need to click and hold the mouse button down, to
hear what is present at the specific point in the score, for all
instruments together. If you move the mouse (while still holding
the button down), the playback is shifted to that new location.
By releasing the mouse button, the playback stops, except if you
hold down the CONTROL key, in which case the sound continues to
play until the next click. According to the Pizzicato versions, this tool applies in: The original idea of playing back by dragging the mouse on the
score comes from the Music-Touch software (hence the name of the
tool) which was developed in collaboration with Jacques
Ladyjensky. Later, the Music-Touch software evolved more into
helping beginners to compose music. Opening several documents at the same time [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] The more advanced versions of Pizzicato let you open and view
more than one score at a time. When you want to open another score and keep the curent score
visible, you can double-click a score icon in the document
manager, while holding down the CTRL key of the keyboard.
Pizzicato opens the score in another window and rearrange the two
score windows. In these versions, when you create a new document (with the New...
menu item or the Open template... menu item), Pizzicato
automatically creates a new window. You can of course close the
documents you do not want on the screen anymore.
. This tool is located in the main palette and its
shortcut is letter "w".