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Tutorial 1a: Simple Entry
In this tutorial we’ll show you the easiest ways to start a new document and get notes on the page. There are three basic note entry methods, so we’ve divided this tutorial into three parts: Simple Entry, Speedy Entry, and HyperScribe. We recommend you start with the Simple Entry tutorial to get a good introduction to navigating around PrintMusic. Simple Entry is PrintMusic’s most basic entry method and also one of its most powerful. If you want, you can simply click notes onto the staff with a mouse. Or, for more speed, quickly type them in with your computer or play them in with a MIDI keyboard. As you enter, you can even enter articulations, expressions, and other items on the fly. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to enter your notation into PrintMusic using the powerful options offered by Simple Entry.
Creating
a New Document with the Document Setup Wizard
You are probably familiar with Wizards
from other applications, such as word processors and spreadsheets. This
Wizard is designed to help you set up a new PrintMusic document. Let’s create
a simple piano score.
If you haven’t already started PrintMusic, do so now. When the Launch Window appears, click the Setup Wizard button. If PrintMusic is already started, click on the File menu and choose New, then Document with Setup Wizard. The “Select and Ensemble and Document Style” page appears.
.
- Click
Next. The Add or Delete Instrument(s) page appears.
- In
the first column, click on the word Keyboards. A list of common
keyboards appears in the second column.
- In
the second column, click on the word Piano; click Add. Now the
third column contains the piano you intend to use in this score.
You should be aware that the order in which
the instruments appear in the third column is the order in which they
will appear, from top to bottom, in your score. If you are creating a
multi-instrument score and the Document Setup Wizard incorrectly orders
your instruments, you can use the small up and down arrows to move the
instruments around in the list until they are correct. You can also select
a “standard” score order from the drop-down menu: Custom, Orchestral,
Choral, Concert Band, or Jazz Band.
Your Wizard should now look like this:
- Click
Next. The Score Information page appears.
- Click
in the Title box and type “Simple Gifts.” When the Wizard creates
your score, your title will be centered at the top.
- Click
in the Composer box and type “Traditional Shaker Song. ”
- Click
in the Copyright box and enter the year and your name after the © symbol.
- Click
Next. The Wizard asks for the time signature, key signature, initial
tempo marking, and pickup measure.
- Click
the button.
- In
the lower left quadrent of the box, click the up arrow once to set the
key signature to G Major.
- In
the upper right, check the box next to Specify Initial Tempo Marking.
Set the tempo to the default: 120 beats per quarter note. This
piece does require a pickup, so we’ll add that next.
- Check
Specify Pickup Measure and click the quarter note icon. The pickup
is two eighth notes which equals a quarter note duration.
Your Wizard should now look like the following
picture:
- Click
Finish. PrintMusic now presents you with a new, Untitled document,
displaying your “Simple Gifts” title and containing the piano staves in
the correct key and time signature with a pickup measure and a tempo marking
in the first measure.
You could continue with this file, but let’s
close it and open a file where we’ve completed the left hand for you.
- From
the File menu, choose Close. Save the file, if you wish.
- Choose
Open from the File menu. Locate the document named “Tutorial 1a” in the
PrintMusic 2011/Music Files/Tutorials folder, and double-click it.
After a moment, you’ll see a simple piano arrangement of “Simple Gifts”
come to the screen.
The left-hand part has been prepared for you;
in this tutorial, you’ll finish the melody.
Macintosh View
Take a look around the screen. Across the top, you’ll find
the menu bar. You’ll be using these menus to control PrintMusic’s behavior, edit documents, change the view, and
much more. There are eight unchanging menus; File, Edit,
Utilities, View, Document, MIDI, Window, and Help. Also,
you will likely see another menu which corresponds to the
tool currently selected in the Main tool palette.
Below the menu bar is the Main tool palette. Each square
tile on these toolbars contains a symbol representing its
function. Just about everything you do in PrintMusic will
be in the context of one of these tools. You’ll also see the
Simple Entry palette: on Windows running vertically along
the left edge of the screen, on Mac to the right of the Main
tool palette. All of these toolbars can be hidden, providing
you with more space to view your music, or they can be
viewed as palettes that float in front of the music. To hide
any toolbar, select it from the Window menu to remove the
check mark. Selecting it again will cause it to reappear.
(Note: Depending on your monitor's video resolution, the
toolbars may first appear as palettes on your screen.)
To turn a toolbar into
a floating palette, click on the edge of the toolbar and drag
it out into the center of the screen, until you see a dotted line
representation of a smaller palette. Release the mouse
button.
The palette can then be moved to any position on
the screen. To restore a palette to toolbar status, double-click.
For now, leave the toolbars in their original positions.
The right side of the screen has a vertical scroll bar, which
you’ll use to move the music you’re viewing up or down;
and across the bottom of the screen is a horizontal scroll
bar, which you’ll use to move left or right through your
piece.
You’ll also see the Page counter; this number
identifies the current page on the screen. To jump to any page in the
score, highlight the current page number, then type a new number into
the box and press . (This piece has only one page.)
At the bottom of the window, you’ll see the Status Bar. On
Macintosh, you’ll find the Message Bar at the top of the
window.
- Click
the mouse pointer across the tools on the Main tool palette. As
the pointer touches (Win) or selects (Mac) each tool, the Status or Message
Bar identifies it by name, and gives you the first instruction for how
to use it.
If you look at your score, you may notice that
PrintMusic automatically fills any empty measures with
a whole rest (hereafter called a default whole rest).
That’s just to save you time. You’ll also notice that the
music is displayed as a page of sheet music.
If you’re new to computers, take a moment to click and
drag (while holding down the mouse button!) across
the menu titles at the top of the screen, noticing how
the lists of commands drop down as you pass over each
title.
- Click
the Staff tool icon
on the Main tool palette. Not only does the icon highlight, but
there is now an additional menu on the menu bar: the Staff menu. Some
PrintMusic menus appear only when you select certain tools, so they’re out
of your way until you need them.
Now that you’ve had a look around, let’s begin
our masterpiece. Click the horizontal and vertical scroll bar arrows until
measure one is visible (if necessary).
Entering
Music with the Simple Entry tool
PrintMusic offers many different entry methods.
The simple entry tool itself can be used to click notes onto a staff,
or enter notes with your computer keyboard or with a MIDI keyboard. Here,
you’ll learn how to enter notes using each of these methods.
- Click the
Simple Entry tool .
The Simple Entry palette becomes active. From the Window menu, choose
Simple Entry Rests palette to show the Simple Entry Rests palette. These
palettes are shown on the next page. Also, another menu has appeared on
the menu bar: the Simple menu. This menu contains commands, a list of
keyboard shortcuts, and other options that allow you to customize the
way Simple Entry works.
In addition to this tutorial, you can
also open the file "EntryExercise” in the PrintMusic/Tutorials
folder for hands-on training.
- From the Simple menu uncheck Create New Measures.
For this tutorial, all measures are already in place. In
the future, you can recheck this option if you want to
tell PrintMusic to automatically add new measures
when the final measure has been filled. We’ll talk more
about this and other Simple Entry Options later in this
chapter.
- From the Window menu, choose Simple Entry Rests
palette.
Now, notice the two Simple Entry palettes.
You can click tools in the
Simple Entry palette to specify
the rhythmic duration,
and other attributes, prior to
entering a note. The tools are
divided into different groups.
There are duration tools, like quarters, eighth notes, etc.,
accidental tools, like a sharp or flat, a tie tool, tuplet tool,
and grace note tool. Click a duration tool to select it, then
click an accidental, dot, or tie to modify the note. Notice
your mouse cursor displays the tools selected in the Simple
Entry palette. Click a modifier tool again to de-select it if
you don’t want to use it anymore. To select any tool and
clear all the other tools, double-click on it, or press the keystroke
twice.
You can mix and match the tools to
build exactly the note you want to add,
whether it’s a quarter note or a sharped,
tied, dotted note that starts a triplet!
Simply click in the staff to enter the
note displayed on the mouse cursor.
To see a list of Simple Entry keyboard
shortcuts from the Simple menu, choose Simple Edit Commands and Simple
Navigation commands.
You can always select the note and edit
it later using different, modifier keystrokes,
which we’ll talk about soon.
The fastest way to enter notes in Simple
Entry involves using keystrokes to select tools in the
Simple Entry palette, and then enter the notes using
keystrokes on your computer keyboard, which we’ll do
now.
- Click
the Eighth Note tool
on the Simple Entry palette. The Simple Entry palette contains
an icon for each note duration. Notice the note with a vertical line at
the beginning of the first measure. This line is called the Simple Entry
Caret. The caret is much like a cursor in a word processing program. You’ll
learn how to quickly type in music using the caret soon.
For now, move the mouse cursor above and below
the staff. Notice PrintMusic draws temporary ledger lines to help you place
new notes. The cursor also changes to show you where you are and what
will happen if you click the mouse. Currently, a ghostly eighth note
should be floating above your music, waiting for your click to place it
into the score.
- Position
the mouse cursor over the D just below the staff and click. PrintMusic
places an eighth note where you clicked.
- Click
just to the right of the existing note to enter the second eighth note.
PrintMusic beams the eighth notes together and spaces out the pickup measure
accordingly. The next note is a quarter note, so we’ll need to change
the duration.
- Click
the Quarter Note tool in the Simple Entry palette. The cursor changes
to a quarter note.
- Position
the cursor over the second line G in the top staff of measure 1 and click.
A quarter note appears on the second line G. You could click the Simple
Entry palette to choose each new duration as you enter, but it’s much
faster to use the numeric keypad. Each key in the numeric keypad corresponds
to a different note duration. 3 for a sixteenth note, 4 for an eighth
note, 5 for a quarter note, and so on.
- Press
4 in the numeric keypad. This is the same as clicking the Eighth
Note tool. You are now ready to continue.
- Position
your cursor on the second beat of measure one and click in the next 6
notes. Use the image below as a guide. If you miss and click the
wrong line or space, use the up and down arrows to move the note to the
correct staff position. Notice you can use the left and right arrows to
move the selection from left to right.
- Finish
entering measures 3 through 5 shown below. If you enter the wrong
note duration, simply hold down the Alt key (Option key on Mac), and press
the correct duration key in the numeric keypad to edit the note you just
entered. (Remember, 4=eighth note and 5=quarter note).
- If
you ever make a mistake, you can also use the Eraser in the Simple Entry palette to remove items in the score.
Click the Eraser tool, and then click a notehead to remove the note. Click
above or below a chord to remove the whole chord. Click on an accidental,
tuplet, tie, or dot to remove it.
Now, although it would be fast to simply click
in measure 6, let’s use the Selection tool to copy and paste measure 5
to a couple of other measures that require identical notation.
- Click
the Selection tool .
- Click
measure 5 in the top staff. The measure is now highlighted. You’ve
just selected it, or told PrintMusic that this is the measure you intend to
manipulate.
To see a list of Simple Entry keyboard
shortcuts from the Simple menu, choose Simple Edit Commands and Simple
Navigation commands.
- Drag
the measure so it is superimposed on measure 6 (the first measure in the
second system). A dotted outline of the selected measure moves
with the cursor, showing exactly where PrintMusic will copy the music.
- Release
the mouse button. Voila! You’ve just copied the music from measure
5 into measure 6. Alternatively, you could have highlighted measure 5,
pressed +C, then highlighted measure
6 and pressed +V.
- Click
measure 6 so it is highlighted. Instead of dragging, you can also
use a keyboard shortcut to copy and paste this measure anywhere in your
score.
- Hold down the
, and click
measure 13, top staff. The quarter notes appear in measure 13. Now, let’s
use the Simple Entry Caret to type in some notes.
- Click the
Simple Entry tool again.
- Hold
down the key, and
click the second quarter note in measure 6. The note changes color
indicating it is now selected.
- Press
the right arrow key to invoke the Caret on beat 1 of measure 7.
The same principles used for clicking also apply to typing. First select
the duration using the numeric keypad, then specify the pitch, this time
using the arrow and letter keys.
- Press
the 4 key in the numeric keypad. The note on the caret changes
to indicate the duration just like the mouse cursor. You should now see
an eighth note on the second space A, beat 1 of measure 7.
- Press Enter the
key and then
. PrintMusic enters an
eighth note on the pitch specified. The caret moves to
the ‘and’ of beat 1. The Enter key enters the note displayed
on the caret.
- Press
. PrintMusic enters an eighth note on the pitch specified.
The caret moves to the ‘and’ of beat 1. The Enter key enters the note
displayed on the caret.
- Press
the Up arrow. The note on the caret moves up to middle line B.
- Press
Enter again.
Another eighth note appears. You could continue to enter the remaining
notes using the arrow keys to specify the pitch, but there is a faster
way—just type the note letter.
- Type
A, F, and then D. PrintMusic enters the next three notes. We need to
change the D to a quarter note, so we’ll do that next.
- Hold down and press
5 in the numeric keypad. The D at the beginning of measure 8 changes
to a quarter note. Notice the duration of the caret remains the same,
so you can easily continue entering eighth notes.
- Complete
entering measures 8, 9, and 10. Use the letter keys to enter the
G, F, G, A, and B. Then, change the B to a quarter note by holding down
Alt/Option and pressing 5. Then enter the two As. When you are done the
last note of measure 10 should be selected. Now, let’s explore some other
Simple Entry functions—say we want to enter an eighth rest.
- Press
0 (zero). PrintMusic adds an eighth rest. The 0 key adds a rest of
the duration currently chosen in the Simple palette. You can also press
the R key to change a selected note to a rest.
- Press
Delete. The rest disappears and the previous note is selected.
Now, let’s add an articulation to this note.
- Press
the * key in the numeric keypad. A dialog box appears that notes
you are now in articulation mode. The Articulation Selection dialog box
appears.
- Choose the accent marking (>)
and click Select. An accent
appears on the note.
- Hold
down and type Z to undo. The
articulation disappears.
Now, notice the 10th measure of
“Simple Gifts” has the same
rhythm as the 11th and 12th measure. This is a good
opportunity to demonstrate how copying music and
repitching a melody can save time.
For the following we’ll use the Selection tool again.
Note that you can also use any tool that permits regional
selection for copying, moving, and erasing music.
- Click
the Selection tool .
- Click
measure 10 of the top staff. The measure is now highlighted.
- Press +C. You
have just placed this measure on the clipboard and can now past it anywhere
you wish.
- Click
measure 11 and press +V. The music appears in measure 11. This method is
particularly useful for copying music to measures on a different page.
Now, say instead of just one copy off the source material, we want to
mast multiple copies...
- Click
the Edit menu and choose Undo Mass Paste. The music in measure
11 disappears. The music in measure 10 is still in the clipboard and measure
11 is still highlighted.
- Press
+
+
+V. The Paste Multiple dialog box appears.
- Enter
2 in the “Paste Horizontally” text box and click the OK button.
Instead of clicking OK, you could press the key; in PrintMusic, pressing is the same as clicking the OK button. PrintMusic pastes
the music to both measures 11 and 12.
- Click
the Simple Entry tool . Now that
we’ve got the right rhythms, let’s repitch measures 11 and 12 accordingly.
- Click
the Repitch tool in the Simple Entry palette. The
Repitch tool allows you to quickly change pitches of existing notes.
- Click
the first note in measure 11. The middle space B is now selected.
- Type
the pitches (B, B, C, D, C, B) to complete measures 11 and 12.
If you are using a MIDI keyboard, note that you can also simply play the
pitches. You will learn more about MIDI input soon.
- Hold down and press
. Selection moves to the bottom staff. Hold down and press again to select the
lowest note of the chord.
- Press . Selection moves to the next measure in the
bottom staff. Using the arrow keys, you can navigate to
any note in your score.
- Hold down and click
the second quarter note in measure 13. Then, press 5 in the numeric keypad,
and then press . The caret appears on the first beat of measure
14.
If you have a MIDI device, such as a MIDI keyboard,
you can use it to easily specify pitches in Simple Entry. (If you do not
have a MIDI device, skip to the step marked [Non-MIDI users]). First,
ensure your MIDI device is properly configured with your computer (See
earlier chapters Installation for
Windows or Installation for
Mac (depending on the platform you are using) for information on setting
up a MIDI device). Then continue with the following steps.
- From
the Simple menu, ensure Use MIDI Device for Input is checked. If
it is not, select it from the menu.
- On
your MIDI device, play B4 (B above middle C). PrintMusic adds a B to
the measure and the caret advances to the right. A note played on the
MIDI device is the same as pressing Enter or a note letter on your computer
keyboard. Simply choose the duration on the numeric keypad and then play
the pitch to continue entering.
- Press
4 in the numeric keypad and then play B and A. Then press 5, and play
G twice. Then press 6 and play G once more to complete the phrase.
In the future, note that you can play multiple notes simultaneously to
specify a chord. Also note that PrintMusic adds any accidentals accordingly.
Feel free to use a MIDI keyboard to specify pitches in place of your computer
keyboard or mouse for the remainder of this tutorial. If you just used
your MIDI device to complete the phrase, skip the next step.
- [Non-MIDI
users] Type B, 4, B, and A. Then type 5, G, G, 6, G to complete the phrase.
Remember to use the numeric keypad for the duration numbers.
Congratulations! You’ve completed your first PrintMusic melody.
You can use additional Simple Entry keyboard
shortcuts to add ties, grace notes, articulations, and even clef, key,
and time signature changes. See Simple Entry for detailed
info. Also, while using Simple Entry, -click) a note or rest to invoke a context menu which
allows you to hide the note, change it to a rest, and make other changes.
Or, choose the Simple menu to see a list of
options. Each of these commands can also be applied with a keyboard shortcut.
In addition to using the list of keyboard shortcuts under the Simple menu,
you can also refer to your Quick Reference Guide.
As we mentioned earlier,
you can adjust the behavior
of Simple Entry by
changing items available
under the Simple menu
such as: Check for Extra
Notes, Fill with Rests at
End of Measure, and Playback
Notes on Entry.
When Check for Extra
Notes is selected (this
command is selected by
default), PrintMusic will
consult the time signature
and not allow you to inadvertently enter extra notes in a
given measure. Fill with Rests will add enough rests to fill
the measure if you leave the measure and start entering
notes in another measure.
Accidentals
Let’s add some blues to our melody line
to illustrate how to add accidentals. If using the mouse or the Caret,
you can specify an accidental by choosing both a duration tool and an
accidental tool prior to entering the note. You can also specify accidentals
as you enter notes by using keystrokes to apply a sharp (+= key) or flat
(- key) to the note you just entered. By selecting an accidental tool
exclusively, you can click to add accidentals to any note in the score.
The Sharp tool and
the Flat tool add
a sharp or flat to the note, if needed by the key signature. If you use
the Half Step Up tool or
the Half Step Down tool , you’ll raise or lower the note. If the note is already sharp,
raising the note will add a double-sharp.
- Click
the Selection tool . First,
we’ll clear a measure to show how to enter accidentals while entering
notes.
- Click
measure 9 in the top staff so it is highlighted, and then press . This method clears all entries
in the selected region.
- Click
the Simple Entry tool .
- Click
the Eighth Note tool , or press numeric
keypad 4, and then enter a second line G at the beginning of measure 9.
An eighth note appears in measure nine.
- Press
+ (plus) on the numeric keypad. PrintMusic adds a sharp to the note.
- Press
- (minus) on the numeric keypad twice. The note is now flat. PrintMusic
alters the pitch of the note chromatically with each keystroke. You can
also use the Sharp and Flat tools in the Simple Entry palette to specify an accidental
before entering a note.
- Click
the Flat tool in the Simple Entry palette. Now both the eighth note
and the flat are selected in the Simple Entry palette.
- Press
the right arrow key to activate the caret.
- Type
F. PrintMusic places an F flat on the staff. Notice an F flat is actually
a whole step down from the diatonic because we are in the key of G. In
this way, the Flat tool is said to be ‘absolute’—not relative to the key
signature.
- Double-click
the eighth Note tool (or press numeric
keypad 4 twice) to deselect all other tools.
- Finish
entering the measure by typing G, and then A. Notice PrintMusic does
not add a natural on the G. That’s because Simple Entry’s accidentals
are ‘smart.’ In other words, they apply through the remainder of the measure.
Of course, you can always add or remove accidentals manually where needed
to override a smart accidental. You
can delete accidentals with the Eraser tool. Now, let’s use the mouse
to edit existing notes.
- Double-click
on the Flat tool . Only the Flat tool is selected.
- On
the last note of measure 9 in the top staff, click on the A. An
A flat appears next to the quarter note.
- Click
on the Half Step Down tool . Click the A again. A double-flat appears next to
the A. The Half Step Up/Down tools are ‘relative’ - they increment the
pitch up or down a half step with each click. When you selected the Half
Step Down tool, the Flat tool automatically deselected. You can only have
one accidental tool selected at one time. Let’s try a sharp now.
- Click
on the Sharp tool . Click the first note of measure 9 (G flat). A sharp
appears next to the note. Also notice PrintMusic automatically places a flat
on the second G flat because it is no longer implied by the first. Because
this melody probably wouldn’t sound too great, we’ll remove the sharp
and the double-flat.
- Click
on the Eraser tool .
- Click
the Sharp and the double-flat to remove them. These items disappear
as you click.
Chords
Building chords is a snap with Simple Entry.
To add notes with the mouse, just select the same duration icon as the
note already entered, then move the cursor above or below a note. Notice
vertical lines appear above and below the note as shown to the right.
This indicator tells you that a click will add a note to the chord. While
entering with the Simple Entry Caret, simply press the number that corresponds
to the interval above or below the selected note to add it to the chord.
Let’s try entering and adding chords to the left hand.
- Click
the Selection tool . First, we’ll clear a measure to use for this
example.
- Click
and drag over measures 7 and 8 in the bottom staff so they are highlighted,
and then press .
- Click
the Simple Entry tool ,
and double-click the Quarter Note tool 5.
- In measure
7, click on the A (top line) in the left hand.
- Move
the cursor down a third to the F line and click. Now, click the middle
line D. A chord with D, F, and A are added to the measure.
- Press
to activate the caret. The caret appears.
- Type
D to enter a D on beat 2. Now, you can type an interval to add
additional notes in a chord.
- Type
4 on the number row above the QWERTY keyboard. PrintMusic adds a note
of the same duration a fourth above the D (G). Notice the G is now selected.
To add another note a third above G, you would type 3. You can also add
notes to a chord using note names.
- Hold
down and press E. PrintMusic places an E in the chord.
Note holding down
and pressing 3 would have also added the E. PrintMusic automatically moves
the D notehead, as an interval of a second, to the left of the stem. Now,
the caret should appear at the beginning of measure 8 on the bottom staff.
- If you are
using a MIDI device, play the triad D3, F3, and A3 simultaneously to enter
the next chord, then play C3, F3, and A3 to finish the measure.
You can play up to 12 notes at once to add a chord.
While entering chords, hold down and type an interval to
add notes lower than the selected pitch.
- If
you are not using a MIDI device, type the following (use the number row
for numbers): D, 3, 3. Then C, 4, and 3 to complete the measure.
Tuplets
Tuplets are any irregular grouping, including
triplets, quintuplets, and so on. We’ll cover tuplets briefly here; see
Tuplets in Tutorial 1b for a more in depth lesson. Let’s enter a triplet
to the second beat of measure 7, and then learn how to change existing
entries to a triplet.
- Click
on the Eraser tool , then click on the last two notes in measure 7 in the top
staff. First, we’ll place the caret in the staff as if we were
entering this music for the first time.
- Hold
down and click the middle line B
in measure 7. The note is selected.
- Press
. The Caret appears on beat 2.
- Type
numeric keypad 4 and then A to add the first eighth note.
- Press
numeric keypad 9 (or QWERTY 9) to begin a triplet. PrintMusic adds
a triplet bracket and automatically fills out the triplet with rests as
shown in the image to the right. The note you just entered is the first
note of the triplet. Now, you can type the letter names to fill the triplet
with notes.
- Type
F and E to complete the triplet. The cursor advances to the next
measure. You can also use the mouse to change an existing note to a triplet.
To click a tuplet onto the staff with your
mouse, choose the rhythmic duration and the Tuplet tool in the Simple
palette, and click to create the tuplet. Then, simply click the rests
to fill in the tuplet. PrintMusic will ignore attempts to create a nested
tuplet with the Simple Tuplet tool. If you want nested tuplets, ratios,
or other fancy tuplets, see the Tuplet
tool.
Now, we’ll change the first three eighth notes
in measure 2 to a triplet.
- Double-click
the Tuplet tool on the
Simple Entry palette. Only the Tuplet icon should be highlighted in the Simple palette.
- Click
the first beat on the top staff, measure 2. The existing eighth
notes are now enclosed in a triplet bracket.
To enter more advanced tuplets, hold down and press numeric keypad 9 when using
the caret. Or, hold down and click the score. The Simple Entry Tuplet Definition
dialog box appears where you can specify more advanced tuplets such as
quintuplets, septuplets, and the like. See Simple
Entry Tuplet Definition dialog box for details.
Changing
the Key Signature, Time Signature, and Clef
While entering with Simple Entry, you can
use keyboard shortcuts to change the key and meter.
- Hold
down and click on any note in measure
1. For this example, we’ll select a note with the mouse. In the
future, you can use this method at any time while entering with the Simple
Entry Caret, or whenever a note is selected in the score. The key and
time signature change appears at the beginning of the measure you are
editing (unless specified otherwise in the Key or Time Signature dialog
box). Clef changes appear at the position of the caret, or to the left
of a selected note.
- Hold
down and press K. A “Waiting for
input” message appears that tells you PrintMusic is ready to enter a key change.
The Key Signature dialog box appears.
- Click
Select. The Key Signature dialog box appears.
- On
the scroll bar to the right of the key signature display, click the up
arrow twice. We’ll change the key signature to G major.
- Click
OK. The key change appears at the beginning of the first measure.
You’ll learn more about the Key Signature dialog box in chapter 2. Now
let’s say we want to change the time signature.
- Hold
down and press T. The Time
signature dialog box appears. Here, you can change the number of beats
and beat duration using the arrows on the right. For now, leave the time
signature set to common time. You’ll learn more about this dialog box
in chapter 2.
- Click
Select. The Time Signature dialog box appears. Here, you can change
the number of beats and beat duration using the arrows on the right. For
now, leave the time signature set to common time. You’ll learn more about
this dialog box in chapter 2.
- Click
OK. Now, let’s say we want to change the clef.
- Hold down
and press C. The Change Clef dialog box appears.
- Click
Select. The Change Clef dialog box appears.
- Select
a new clef and click OK. You return to the score. PrintMusic creates
a clef change at the beginning of the (just to the left of
the barline). You’ll learn more about clef changes in chapters 1c and
5.
Adding Measures
Although this tutorial has the right number
of measures, there will undoubtedly come a time when you need to add more.
This can be done in several ways. First of all, if you are using the Simple
Entry Caret, PrintMusic will automatically add a measure when you fill the
last measure of the score. Therefore, you can simply continue entering
notes and PrintMusic will create the measures for you. You can also use the
Edit menu to add measures at any time. To do this, from the Edit menu,
choose Add Measures. In the Add Measures dialog box that appears, type
in the number of measures to be added, and click OK. To add a single measure,
just double-click the Measure tool.
Note that as you add measures, the final
barline will move to the last measure of the score.
To delete measures, click on the Selection
tool, double-click to select a measure stack, then press Delete.
Changing Views
Before going on, you should get accustomed
to moving around your score.
PrintMusic offers you the choice of three views
of your music. So far, you've been working in Page View, where you see
the music laid out like a page of sheet music. PrintMusic also offers Scroll
View, where the music is displayed as a continuous horizontal
band. Most of PrintMusic's tools work equally well in any view, although you’ll
find that the computer redraws the screen faster in Scroll View.
For now we’ll focus on Scroll View.
- From
the View menu, choose Scroll View. PrintMusic redraws the screen to
show you the music laid out in a horizontal band.
As you can see, the name of the piece has disappeared.
Names, page numbers, and other page-oriented text are visible only in
Page View. You'll also notice that the Page counter you saw in Page View
has been replaced by the Measure counter, indicating the number of the
leftmost measure currently visible.
- Click
the scroll box (the small square box) in the horizontal scroll bar (and
hold the mouse button down). Watch the Measure counter in the lower-left
corner of the window. As you slide the scroll box left or right, this
counter changes, telling you the number of the measure you’ll see if you
let go of the mouse button.
- Drag
the mouse all the way to the left, until the Measure counter says 1.
Release the mouse button. You’re back at the beginning of the score. Note that the scroll box in the horizontal
scroll bar represents your position.
If you click to the right of the scroll box,
PrintMusic moves your view of the music to the right by one screenful; if
you click to the left, your view shifts to the left. You can also advance
one measure at a time by clicking the right and left arrows.
Depending on your monitor, you might not be
able to see very much of the music right now. It might help if you “zoomed
out” by selecting a smaller view size.
- From
the View menu point to Zoom and select Zoom to 75%. The
screen picture redraws at 75% of its original size.
You haven’t actually reduced the printed size
of the music. You’ve simply changed the way it’s displayed on the screen.
The music will still print at full size.
Now you have a good overview of your piece.
In certain cases you’ll need the music to be large enough for you to maneuver
with precision.
- From
the View menu, choose Zoom, then choose Zoom to 200%. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut +2 to switch to 200%. Use +1) to quickly return to 100% and +3) for 75%.
Saving Your Work
When you opened this document, the computer
transferred the song from the hard disk into its memory; at this moment,
all the changes you’ve made to “Simple Gifts” exist only on the screen.
If someone trips on the computer’s power cord at this moment, all of your
work will be lost, and you’ll be left with the original, incomplete “Tutorial
1a” document.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to save
your work back onto the disk at regular intervals—perhaps every 15 minutes
or so. To save your work on the disk:
- From
the File menu, choose Save or press +S). Your changes have now been saved on the hard disk.
(You still have a fresh, untouched copy of this document, however; it’s
on your original PrintMusic disc.
If you’re afraid you might forget to save your
work and run the risk of losing some of your changes in the event of a
power or system failure, consider using PrintMusic’s automatic backup feature.
See Program Options dialog box.
When
You’re Ready to Continue
- From
the File menu, choose Close to close the active document and all open
windows on that document. Or, choose Close All
(or +Close)
to close all open documents. If you haven’t saved your work, PrintMusic
lets you know, and gives you the option of saving the changes or leaving
the document as it was when it was last saved.
A diagram showing which keys correspond to
which rhythmic values or commands appears on your Quick Reference Guide.
If you want to take time out for some experimentation before proceeding
to Tutorial 1b, choose Default Document from the New submenu of the File
menu. PrintMusic will open a new “Untitled” document.
If you’re ready to move on, go right ahead
to the next tutorial. If you’ve had enough for one lesson, choose Quit from the File menu.