Characteristics of staves |
Watch also the following video:
Changing the staff names [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] We will learn how to change the staff names
and how to reach the staff characteristics dialog box.
When you create a new document and add staves to it, they are
automatically named with the sequence number of the staff. The
instrument view lets you modify this name. The first column indicates the sequence number of the staff.
The two following columns are text boxes. By clicking inside it,
the text cursor will be activated. You can then modify the
contents of these text boxes. The main name (Name column)
is the name displayed in the score view in front of the staves,
in linear mode. In page view, only the first system of the first
page displays the main name. The other systems will display the
abbreviated name (Abbrev. column). The names of the
sequencer view tracks are also the abbreviated names. Notice that you can use the tabulator key to go from a text
box to the next. By using the return key, the blinking text
cursor disappears and complete the encoding of the instrument
name. Note that the other names follow the horizontal movement. By
default the names are automatically justified to the right for
all staves. The vertical position can be adjusted individually. Characteristics of staves [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] With the measure tool or the arrow tool, a dialog box can be
called to consult or modify various characteristics of the
staves. Place the arrow of the mouse cursor to the left of the first
measure of the first staff, in the area in continuation with the
lines of the staff: Double click. The staff characteristics dialog box appears: This dialog box offers various options for each staff. In its
upper part, an horizontal scroll bar selects the staff to modify.
To its right, you can see the name of the staff of which the
parameters are currently visible. As you called this dialog box
from the first staff, this staff is selected by default. The first check box is labeled Group this staff with the
next. As you may have noticed, when you add staves,
Pizzicato connects them all by an extension of the bar lines: The line connecting the first measure of a system is always
visible. It shows that all connected staves belong to the same
system and must be played all together. On the other hand the lines which follow are not always drawn.
They usually connect the groups of instruments in an orchestra
score, such as for example all the brasses, the strings
In
the case of a piano score written on two staves, the two staves
are also connected. We will remove the bar lines connecting
respectively staves 2 and 3, then 3 and 4. Click one time in the right arrow of the scroll bar to display
the second staff (which does not have a name). Uncheck the Group
this staff to the next option. Click once more to display
the drums staff and uncheck it also. Click OK and you
get the following: The first bar line remains but the next ones disappeared for
the required staves. Thanks to this option, you can organize the
instrument groups as you want. Braces and brackets [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] It is common to connect with a brace (or a bracket) the staves
played by the same instrument (here the 2 piano staves) or all
instruments of an orchestra group. We will connect the 2 piano
staves and then the drums and the bass (rhythm section). Call the staff characteristics dialog box on the first staff.
In the popup menu located under the text Start of a first
bracket, select the "Piano braces" item.
This indicates that this staff (the first) will be the beginning
of a bracket. In the Number of included staves text box,
fill in "2". The bracket will thus connect two staves
starting from the first. The second text box shifts the bracket
to the left and it is not necessary for the piano brace. Now move the horizontal scroll bar to display the drum staff.
Select the "Orchestral bracket", "2"
staves included and an "Horizontal shift" of
"3". Click OK. The score becomes : In the above dialog, the section entitled Start of a
second bracket, is used in a full orchestra score, so as to
associate staves inside the same instruments section, for
instance the French horns within the brass section. Measure numbers [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] It is possible to display measure numbers on one or more
staves. Call once again the same dialog box. In the Measure
numbers frame, for the first staff select the For each
measure option. Go to the drum staff and select the Each
system item in the same menu. The option For each measure displays the measure
numbers above each and every measure of the concerned staff. The
option Each system displays it only at the beginning of
a system. Another option lets you number only the measures
multiple of a given number, 5 by default, which means to display
the numbers on measures 5, 10, 15,... A check box displays a rectangular frame around the measure
numbers. You can move the position of the measure numbers by clicking
and dragging them vertically and horizontally. All numbers of the
same staff move together. If you hold down the SHIFT key while
dragging, all the score measure numbers move together. Move the
drum staff number to the right so that it is no more on the bar
line. Move slightly the piano staff numbers upwards. If you hold
down the CTRL key while moving, only the clicked measure number
will move. If you check the Cancel individual displacements for
one or more staves, the corresponding measure numbers will be
moved back to their default positions. Two other options of this dialog box are located in its lower
part. They are global for all staves. The first is labeled Instrument name position.
A popup menu gives you 4 possible choices. The Manual choice
lets you move each name horizontally as you want. The Right and
Left choices justify the instrument names on one side
and when you move one of them, the others follow the movement.
The Center choice aligns the middle of the names and
they also move together. The second option is labeled First measure number
and defines the offset number of the first measure so that
you can start a score with measure 50 for example. It is useful
when you encode several parts of a symphony in separate documents
and you wish to keep the sequence of measure numbers. You can
also place a negative number, for example -1. In this case,
measures -1 and 0 will have no number and measure 1 will be in
fact the third measure of the score. Exercise As an exercise, realize the following score starting with the Ex049
document and adding the necessary measures and staves with the
adequate tool. Miscellaneous [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The following options are valid on a per staff basis and are
located in the Various properties frame. They were
designed for use with the guitar tablature, but some of them may
be useful in other cases. The Tablature frame is designed for the guitar only.
See the lesson about the
guitar tools Lines, size and drums map [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] Some Pizzicato versions have one or two additional options in
the staff characteristics dialog box: The text box located to the right of the text label Staff
size defines a ratio to increase or reduce the staff size.
Call the staff characteristics dialog box and for the second
staff select for example 50 %. It is sometimes useful to modify the number and layout of
staff lines, particularly for percussion instruments. Pizzicato
offers a very powerful way to create a unconventional staff. For
the drum staff, click the Number of staff lines popup
menu. It lets you select the number of staff lines between 0 and
16 lines. They will be consecutive. In our case, we would like to
realize a staff of 3 non consecutive lines. With that purpose,
select the last item of this menu, labeled "***". The
following dialog appears : On the right, the check boxes represent the 16 possible lines
of a staff. Only the checked lines will be displayed on the
score, which lets you create very original and very practical
staves for percussions. Uncheck lines 8 and 10. Click OK and you
go back to the previous dialog. Click OK once again and the
staves become: The Drums map... button calls a specific dialog box
to assign percussion and drum instruments to the staff lines. This dialog offers an intuitive way to create a custom drums
map. Notice that you can define several instruments with different
note heads on the same staff line. When you enter a note on the
staff, the first one will be used and you can use the sharp tool
(or the "+" shortcut) to select the other instruments. Exercise As an exercise, realize the following score starting with the Ex049
document and adding the necessary measures and staves with the
adequate tool.