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Speedy Entry

With the Speedy Entry tool, you can enter music in step-time very efficiently, using the synthesizer to specify the pitch of each note and the computer keyboard to specify the duration.

To enter music in step time using MIDI

Click the Speedy Entry tool $image\Speedy_Entry_Tool.gif$ . Check to make sure Use MIDI Device for Input is selected in the Speedy menu.
Click the first measure into which you want to enter music. The Speedy Entry editing frame appears.
To enter a note or chord, hold the desired notes on the synthesizer and press a number key on the computer keypad corresponding to the desired rhythmic value. If you press a number key without holding down any synthesizer notes, a rest of the specified value appears. If you want to insert a note, chord, or rest before the insertion bar, press shift as you press the number key. Press the period key to dot the note (you can add up to ten dots by repeating this action).

If the next few notes you want to enter are part of a tuplet (a triplet, quintuplet, etc.), press option-number, where 3 means triplet, 5 means quintuplet, and so on. PrintMusic places a small “3” (or whatever number you pressed) in the upper right corner of the editing frame; the next notes you enter will automatically be grouped into a tuplet. (If you want to create an uncommon tuplet—such as 11 in the space of 2—press ctrloption-1. The Tuplet Definition dialog box appears, in which you can specify exactly what kind of tuplet you’re about to create.)

To change the rhythmic value of a note or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press the number key corresponding to the desired value. The following diagram, which also appears on your Quick Reference Card, shows which keys correspond to which note values.

Move the insertion bar either by pressing the right or left arrow keys or by clicking the desired note. If PrintMusic presents the There Are Too Many Beats In This Measure“There are too many beats” dialog box when you change a note’s value, press return to eliminate the dialog box. If you choose Jump to Next Measure from the Speedy menu, so that a check mark no longer appears, this dialog box will only appear when you exit the editing frame of a measure with too many beats.

To add a note to a chord, position the crossbar at the desired pitch, and press return. You can also double-click where you want the new note to appear.
To remove a note, chord or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press delete. To remove a single note from a chord, position both the insertion bar and the pitch crossbar) on the notehead and press clear or shift-delete.
To change a rest to a note, position the insertion bar on it, position the crossbar at the desired pitch, and press enterreturn. This method can also be used to add a note to an existing chord. You can change a single note (not a chord) to a rest by pressing clear or shift-delete.
To change a note to a different note or chord without changing the duration, position the crossbar on the note, hold down the desired note or chord on the MIDI device, and press Enter.
To add or remove a tie, position the cursor on the first note of the tied pair and press the equal sign (=) or T key to add a tie. If you are adding a tie to a single note of a chord, use the up or down arrows to position the crossbar squarely on the notehead; to tie every note in a chord, position the crossbar on any line or space not containing a notehead. Remove a single tie by pressing the equal sign key again. To tie the previous note or chord, press option-= or Shift-T.
To move a note or rest horizontally, drag it to the left or right. Press the shift key as you drag to prevent you from accidentally dragging the note or rest up or down.
To move a note or rest vertically, drag it up or down. Press the shift key as you drag to prevent you from accidentally dragging the note or rest horizontally. If you want to move a whole chord up or down, double-click it; on the second click, keep the mouse button pressed and drag up or down.
To hide a note or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press the letter O or H key. Press the O or H key again to display the note or rest again.
To flip a stem, press the L key. This process freezes the stem up or down, so that it’s no longer free to flip if, for example, it gets transposed. To restore the note to its “flippable” status, press ctrloption-L.
To raise a note by half steps, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the plus (+) key. The minus (–) key lowers the note by half steps; both keys only apply accidentals to an existing note, and won’t actually move the note higher or lower on the staff. You can add up to seven sharps or flats to a note. Use S to add a sharp, F for a flat and N for a natural.
To change a note to its enharmonic equivalent, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the 9 key. If the pitch crossbar isn’t squarely on a notehead, PrintMusic changes the “spelling” of all notes in the chord each time you press 9.
To hide an accidental, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the asterisk (*) key. If no accidental is displayed, the asterisk key forces a courtesy accidental to appear; for parentheses, press the P key. If you’ve hidden an accidental, press the asterisk key again to display it again.
To create or break a beam, position the insertion bar on the second note of the pair and press the slash (/) or B key. If the notes were flagged separately, they’re now beamed; if they were beamed, the beam is broken (and the notes are individually flagged, if they’re not beamed to any other notes). Use Shift-B to restore beaming to the default settings.
To add a dot to a note, position the insertion bar on the note and press . (period).
To switch layers (from Layer 1 to Layer 2, for example), press shift-’ (apostrophe)shift-up arrow or shift-down arrow. For a more complete discussion of multiple voice mechanisms, see Multiple voices.
To advance to the next measure, press the right bracket (]) key. Pressing the left bracket ([) key moves the editing frame to the previous measure. Press shift-return to move down a staff, or shift-return to move up a staff.

To enter many notes of the same value (hands-free MIDI method)

Click the Speedy Entry tool $image\Speedy_Entry_Tool.gif$ , and click a measure. The editing frame appears.
Press caps lock; then press the number key on the computer keyboard corresponding to the value you want to enter. In other words, you’re now telling PrintMusic what the note values are going to be before you specify the pitches.Use option-number to enter a series of tuplets.

The number you press appears in the lower-left corner of the editing frame. The tuplet number, if any, appears in the top-right corner of the editing frame.

Play the notes on your MIDI keyboard. Each note you play appears in the score; if Jump to Next Measure is checked in the Speedy menu, the editing frame advances automatically as soon as you fill each measure. It’s safe to outplay PrintMusic, too; it will remember up to 500 notes (and continue to notate them as fast as your computer allows). To enter rests, play a three-note cluster, in other words, three notes each a half-step apart.

To enter music in step time without MIDI

You can also use the Speedy Entry tool to enter music in step-time without using a MIDI keyboard. Use the number keys on your keypad to specify the durations of notes, just as you normally do. Use the arrow keys or your mouse to specify the pitch. With practice, this method of “typing in the music” can become extremely quick and precise.

Click the Speedy Entry tool $image\Speedy_Entry_Tool.gif$ . The Speedy menu appears.
Make sure no checkmark appears beside Use MIDI Keyboard in the Speedy menu. Otherwise, choose the command to make the checkmark disappear.
Click the first measure in which notes are to appear. The editing frame appears.
Use the arrow keys to place the crossbar on the desire pitch or click on it.
Press the number key corresponding to the desired rhythmic value.

To insert a note or a rest in a measure

Click the Speedy Entry tool $image\Speedy_Entry_Tool.gif$ . The Speedy menu appears.
Position the cursor on the entry before which you want the note inserted.
While holding down Shift, press the number (using the keyboard, not the number pad) representing the note duration you are inserting. If you are playing a note on your MIDI device, you will insert a note. Otherwise, you will insert a rest. For non-MIDI, press a number to insert a note, or option-shift and a number to insert a rest.

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