Transposing and justifying measures |
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Transposing measures [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
It can be useful to transpose a melody, chords or a whole
score, for example with a transposing instrument or simply to
transpose a melody which appears several times in a piece.
- Start from a new document and fill in the first two
measures to obtain:

- Duplicate this melody with a copy/paste by dragging the
first two measures to the third measure:

- We will transpose the second melody. Therefore, we first
need to select the two measures to transpose. Use the
selection tool to obtain:

- Now select the Transpose item from the Edit
menu or from the contextual menu appearing when you click
in the score with the right mouse button (or Option-click
for Macintosh). The transposition dialog box appears:

The selection of the transposition interval may be defined in
three different ways.
- The upper part of the dialog box is used to specify it in
terms of transposing instruments. Select the instrument
in which the score is now written and the instrument for
which you want to transpose the score. Pizzicato will
then display the correct interval in the second part of
the dialog box. The Adjust MIDI playback for
transposition check box will add a MIDI
transposition to the staff, so that Pizzicato will play
the transposing instrument correctly.
The second part of this dialog box is used to specify the
transposition interval directly.
- The Value of interval (from the unison to the
octave) specifies the transposition interval with a menu.
The unison corresponds to the distance separating a note
from the same note, i.e. no transposition. The second is
the distance separating two consecutive notes, a
transposition of one note,
and the octave
corresponds to a 7 notes displacement. Select the fourth
which corresponds to a displacement of 3 notes.
- The Type of interval more precisely
characterizes the interval content used to transpose the
melody. The diatonic choice simply moves the notes of the
specified interval. No checking will be done to be sure
that the sound effect remains the same. For example, if
you transpose a C a second higher, you get a D note. If
you transpose a B a second higher, you obtain a C. The
interval is however not the same: it is a two half tones
interval in the first case and a one half tone interval
in the next case. If you want the transposed melody to
keep the original sound effect despite the pitch change,
take one of the other choices (Diminished, minor,
perfect, major or augmented). Each one of these will give
you a different pitch. Select Perfect.
- The Direction specifies the transposition
direction: Up (higher pitch) or Down (lower
pitch).
- The Octave transposition adds or subtracts one
or more octaves to this interval.
You can also define the interval as a number of half tones on
a slider and Pizzicato will compute the corresponding definition
of interval.
Three check boxes specify what must be transposed: notes,
chord symbols and/or key signatures.
Click Transpose. The score becomes:

The melody was transposed a perfect fourth higher. Listen to
the result with the space bar.
- Similarly, transpose the last two measures a diatonic
fifth lower. You obtain:

Listen to the result. The second melody resembles the first,
but is slightly different.
- Now transpose the first two measures a minor second
lower. Pizzicato corrected the intervals and added sharps
so as to keep the same melody. You now have:

Listen to the two melodies. They begin both with the same
note, but the melody which was transposed in a diatonic way (the
second) is no more the same than the original one.
Justifying measures [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
We have seen that when creating a new document, the automatic
justification tool is activated. It helps you to distribute the
contents of a measure in a balanced way. As soon as you add,
erase or move an element of the measure, Pizzicato calculates the
measure layout again to take the modification into account. If
you disable automatic justification, you are responsible for the
graphic organization of the measure (only with Pizzicato Beginner
and Professional).
Pizzicato also has a function used to justify a selected block
of measures.

The notes were written without justification, incorrectly
distributed in the measures, with a didactic purpose. Select 2
measures of the first staff with the selection tool and choose
the Justify item from the Edit menu. The first
staff becomes:

The notes are distributed in a more balanced way inside the
measures. As opposed to automatic justification, this function is
a justification on request. It only acts on the selected
measures.
- Select 2 measures of the 2nd staff only and justify them
as above. You obtain:

The notes were adjusted to be more regularly laid out in the
measure.
Observe the contents of measure 1, on staves 1 and 2. Beats
are not aligned together. For example the half note starting on
the third beat is not aligned with the third quarter note of the
upper measure. To read a score, it is much easier to align
rhythms starting at the same time.
When we justified these measures, we did it separately, with
the result that Pizzicato justified each measure without taking
the other measures into account. To force Pizzicato to take into
account the alignment of beats between various staves, you need
to do the operation in one time. Select the 6 measures and
justify them. The score becomes:

The notes played at the same time are now aligned together.
Justification options [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
- In the Options menu, select the
Justification item
The justification dialog box
appears:

- The first Adapt measure width box forces
Pizzicato to adapt the width of measures with each
automatic justification of their contents. Be careful,
this option works only when the horizontal justification
of systems is disabled in the page layout dialog box or
when the page layout is not yet made (linear mode). The
Only Local box forces Pizzicato to do a local
justification, i.e. without examining the contents of the
measures located below or above it.
- The second Adapt measure width box, located
below the Justification function title, lets
Pizzicato modify the width of a measure when
justification is done on request (not automatic). It
calculates the optimal width so that its contents are
balanced, then it multiplies this width by the Scale
factor located in the bottom of the dialog box. Its
default value is to 125 %. If you want more spaced
measures, increase it. The preceding remark about page
layout remains valid.
- The two boxes entitled Optimize stems specify
that Pizzicato will compute the optimum lengths for
stems, as well as for the beams angles and lookout. The
first option applies when you enter or modify the notes
with the automatic justification. The second option
applies when you explicitely call the Justify
function of the Edit menu.
- The Analysis of incomplete voices box is an
indication for Pizzicato. It specifies the way to analyze
a second rhythmic voice.
Let us take the case of a rhythmic voice with 4 quarter notes:

If you add a quarter note, Pizzicato will automatically place
it over the first beat of a second rhythmic voice, and you will
get for example:

The place where you clicked does not matter, the quarter note
is brought back to the beginning of the measure. If you check the
Analysis of incomplete voices box, Pizzicato will place
the quarter note at the nearest place to a note or a rest of the
first voice. In other words, if you place a note below the 4th
note, you will get:

The second rhythmic voice is incomplete because the first 3
beats lack. Thanks to this option, Pizzicato analyzed it.
- The Automatic vertical adjustment of tuplets box:
when checked, the beam (or the hook) of the irregular
groups (Tuplets) will be vertically adjusted by
Pizzicato. Disabled, this box allows a manual adjustment
of irregular groups (default choice).
- The Include rests in beams box is used to
include rests between notes that should be attached by
beams, for example:

Disabled, this option would produce:

- The Beam creation box tells Pizzicato to create
and adjust note beams during justification. The text box
located to the right specifies how to establish them. The
default choice is empty, which means that notes are
beamed per beat in the current measure. By placing for
example "2+1+1", you will obtain 3 connected
note groups: the first 2 beats, the 3rd beat and the 4th
beat. For a 6/8 measure, if you place "3" in
this text box, the eighth notes will be beamed by 3.
- The following menu specifies the way stems directions are
set. The Do not modify choice does nothing. The Adapt
to note height choice adjusts the direction to the
note pitch (on the third line of the staff or lower,
stems are directed upwards). The two following choices (Stems
up and Stems down) fix all stems up or
down. The last choice (Adapt for multiple voices)
is selected by default. Pizzicato takes into account the
note pitch when there is only one voice. If you add a
second voice, stems are adapted for a correct layout of
multiple voices in the measure.
- The next text box adds a shift between 2 voices whose
notes would otherwise be colliding. A value of 8 will
give for instance:

- The Do not justify chords horizontally check box
is used to avoid that a manual adjustment of chord
symbols gets cancelled by the justification of the
measure.
- The Accidentals slider specifies the influence
of accidentals on notes spacing. A value of 0 % will not
take them into account. By placing 100 %, a large space
will be reserved in front of the note for the associated
accidental.
- Similarly, the Mobile clefs slider specifies the
influence of mobile clefs. Pizzicato adjusts their
position so that measure are well laid out. If this value
is set to zero, Pizzicato will never move mobile clefs.
- The Symbols and lyrics slider adjust the
influence of some graphic symbols as well as songs lyrics
added under the notes. If the symbol is placed in front
of or behind a note, Pizzicato gives more space for this
note, according to the value of this slider.
- The Distance/rhythm ratio slider adjusts the
relationship between the distance allotted to two
successive rhythmic values (quarter note and eighth note,
eighth note and 16th note,
). A value of 100 %
allots the same space to each rhythmic value:

All notes are then spaced in the same way. A value of 200 %
doubles the space for 2 successive rhythmic values. The above
measure would become:

- The Grace notes slider is only available in
Pizzicato Professional and adjust the spacing of grace
notes created with the grace note special tool. Pizzicato
adjust their position so that the measure looks
correctly.
Exercise
Create the following score, starting from a new document,
copying/pasting, then using the transposition tool. Finish it by
justifying the whole score.
