Watch also the following video:
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.