Introduction of notes and rests (3) |
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Introducing chords [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In this lesson, we will continue to study
various aspects of the encoding of notes and rests.
In music, a chord is simply
a set of notes played at the same time. When using Pizzicato as
well as many other musical softwares, the word chord is used in a
more restrictive way: A chord is a set of notes having
the same rhythmic values attached to the same stem. The notes of a chord are thus vertically
superimposed and attached to the same vertical line (the stem of
the chord). Here are some examples: Let us see how to write this measure. Click. A D appears and is attached to the same
stem. You have here a chord containing 3 notes. At this step, you
could wonder why not simply use the half note tool and introduce
the 3 notes in a superimposed way. By using the chord tool,
Pizzicato attaches the notes and they will now behave as a unit. Like most tools, the chord tool also has a
keyboard shortcut. It is the lower case letter 'a'. Let us
complete the measure. To erase a chord note, it is the same as for a
normal note. Select a note or rest tool and use the erase key
with the cursor on the head of the note. Two particular cases require some explanation. First of all, the chord formed with whole
notes. By convention, the whole note is a note having no stem.
How can we then create a chord with whole notes? The principle
remains nevertheless the same. Just place the first whole note
with the whole note tool (shortcut '1') and place the others in
superposition with the chord tool. There will be no stem
connecting them but the notes will nevertheless move together. Do
the experiment: The second particular case is when the chord
has two notes close together, for example G and F. If Pizzicato
would draw the notes one exactly above the other you would get: It is not very easy to read. The convention is
to place one of the two notes on the other side of the stem. On the second measure, place a G quarter note.
Then put the cursor below the G, at the level of F and type the
'a' shortcut. An F appears but the G goes on the other side of
the stem: Pizzicato correctly manages the layout of the
chords in that case. Dotted notes and rests [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] Let us see now how to lengthen the duration
of a note or a silence by adding a dot to it. The shortcut keyboard for this tool is either the dot (.) or
the comma (,). The numeric keypad of a keyboard always has one or
the other, which gives an easy access when you keep your hand
close to the note shortcuts. To use it: To erase a dot, here is the procedure: Exercises Here are two measures to write, so you can put
into practice what you have just learned. Start each time with a
new document. Changing the note head - Reducing notes [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] When writing percussion instruments, it is
common to modify the graphic aspect of the note head. A special
tool enables you to do this. Close the document and create a new one.
Introduce the following measure : The shortcut keyboard is lower case letter 'z'. It lets you
select a special shape for the note. The first multiple choice
indicates if the note is normal (i.e. the note head is related to
its rhythmic value) or special. In this last case, you can click
in one of the 18 boxes of the main table to select the note head
you want. The choice of a shape for the head does not affect the
performance of the note at all. If you want to introduce all the notes of a staff with the
same special shape, open the dialog box for the first note and
check the option Becomes the current note head. All the
notes you will then add in the score will automatically take the
selected shape when you place them. It is sometimes useful to reduce one or more notes in a
measure. The same dialog box can be used for this purpose. Click
on the third note and check the Reduced note option.
Click OK. The measure is redrawn with the third note reduced. Do
the same with the next 2 quarter notes. You get: This notation can be used in particular to create grace notes or for a series of freely played notes, etc.
This reduction does not affect the play of the note in Pizzicato. It is also possible to select one or more
measures and globally modify all the notes found in those
measures. To select measures, see the lesson entitled Selecting measures. Then call the Edit, Change note heads... menu.
The above dialog appears and lets you apply the modification
to all selected measures. Exercise Here is another measure to write, for practice.
tool. It is the
chord tool.
tool.
tool