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TM MusicEase 4.2 August 1995 Copyright 1993-1995 by Gary Rader All Rights Reserved Worldwide Published by RMH Computer Services PO Box 657 Beech Grove, IN 46107-0657 U. S. A. (317) 782-9903 _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of RMH Computer Services. Portions of this software are copyrighted by The Soft Warehouse, Inc. MusicEase is a trademark of Grandmaster, Inc. muLISP is a trademark of Soft Warehouse, Inc. Hercules is a trademark of Hercules Computer Technology. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. RMH Computer Services is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. MusicEase - Contents i CONTENTS........................................................i 1 INTRODUCTION................................................0 WHAT IS MUSICEASE?..............................................0 SUPPORT POLICY..................................................2 SYSTEM CONTENTS.................................................2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.............................................3 MAKING A WORKING COPY...........................................3 KEYBOARD NOTATION...............................................5 2 FUNDAMENTALS................................................7 STARTING MUSICEASE..............................................7 THE MUSICEASE SCREEN............................................8 USING THE MENU SYSTEM...........................................9 LINE EDITING...................................................11 QUITTING MUSICEASE.............................................12 EXECUTING DOS COMMANDS.........................................12 CHANGING SCREEN COLORS.........................................13 SAVING THE CURRENT STATE.......................................13 TERMINOLOGY....................................................14 3 BASIC EDITING..............................................16 SETTING THE METER..............................................16 SETTING THE CLEF...............................................16 SETTING THE KEY SIGNATURE......................................17 INSERTING A BARLINE............................................18 CREATING A NEW STAFF...........................................18 CREATING A SYSTEM..............................................18 SETTING THE CURRENT NOTEHEAD SHAPE.............................19 ENTERING NOTES.................................................19 ENTERING RESTS.................................................20 SETTING THE CURRENT DURATION...................................21 CHANGING VOICES................................................21 DELETING NOTES.................................................21 CREATING CHORDS................................................22 REPLACING NOTES................................................22 CHANGING THE DURATION OF THE CURRENT NOTE......................22 CHANGING THE PITCH OF THE CURRENT NOTE.........................23 REPEATING A NOTE OR CHORD......................................23 JOINING TWO NOTES INTO ONE LONGER NOTE.........................23 INSERTING INVISIBLE NOTES......................................23 CURSOR MOVEMENT................................................24 ZOOMING........................................................25 THE BLOCK......................................................26 STARTING A NEW PAGE............................................27 CLEARING THE CURRENT WINDOW....................................27 ERASING........................................................27 HORIZONTAL SPACING.............................................28 4 OTHER MARKINGS.............................................29 TIES...........................................................29 SLURS..........................................................29 TUPLETS........................................................30 SYMBOLS........................................................31 MusicEase - Contents ii FONTS..........................................................32 FOREIGN CHARACTERS.............................................33 DYNAMICS.......................................................33 LYRICS.........................................................34 CHORDS.........................................................35 INSTRUMENT NAMES...............................................36 GENERAL TEXT...................................................36 REPEATED MEASURES..............................................37 REPEATED BEATS.................................................37 MULTIPLE MEASURE RESTS.........................................37 MEASURE NUMBERS................................................37 WEDGES.........................................................37 ARPEGGIOS......................................................38 ENDINGS........................................................38 OVERLAYS.......................................................38 5 FINER CONTROL..............................................40 FORCING ACCIDENTALS TO DISPLAY.................................40 BEAMS..........................................................40 DEFINING THE BEAMING PATTERN...................................40 DEFINING THE SCOPE OF A BEAM...................................40 FLIPPING THE DIRECTION OF A BEAM...............................41 BEAM SLANT.....................................................41 STEMS..........................................................41 INITIAL BARLINE................................................42 BARLINE SPACE..................................................42 SHIFTING NOTES AND RESTS.......................................42 INTERSTAFF SPACING.............................................42 STAFF LINES....................................................43 NAMING A STAFF.................................................43 MAKING SOME STAVES INVISIBLE...................................43 QUICKER SCREEN DISPLAYS........................................43 BOOKMARKS......................................................44 SEARCH.........................................................44 REPLACE........................................................44 TEMPO DESIGNATION..............................................44 TRUE WYSIWYG...................................................44 6 TABLATURE..................................................46 SPECIFYING TABLATURE...........................................46 ENTERING TABLATURE.............................................46 TABLATURE OPTIONS..............................................47 SLIDES.........................................................47 NUANCES........................................................47 ADDING STANDARD NOTATION.......................................48 7 STORING SCORES.............................................49 SAVING A SCORE.................................................49 LOADING A SCORE................................................49 MERGING A SCORE................................................51 DELETING A FILE................................................51 SAVING A SCORE AS A MIDI FILE..................................52 SAVING A SCORE AS A TIFF FILE..................................52 MusicEase - Contents iii 8 PRINTING...................................................53 SPECIFYING YOUR PRINTER........................................53 PRINTING A SCORE...............................................53 ENTERING THE TITLE.............................................54 ENTERING THE LYRICIST..........................................54 ENTERING THE COMPOSER..........................................55 PAGE LAYOUT....................................................55 REPAGINATION...................................................66 RUNNING HEADS..................................................56 JUSTIFICATION..................................................57 CAST OFF.......................................................57 STAFF LINE THICKNESS...........................................58 9 SOUND AND MIDI.............................................59 YOUR COMPUTER'S OSCILLATOR.....................................59 MIDI PORT......................................................59 MIDI PLAYBACK..................................................59 MIDI STEP MODE NOTE ENTRY......................................59 MIDI REALTIME NOTE ENTRY.......................................60 MIDI FILES.....................................................61 10 TRANSPOSING...............................................62 TRANSPOSING....................................................62 INVERTING......................................................62 RETROGRADING...................................................62 SHIFTING.......................................................62 ADDING.........................................................63 ERASING........................................................63 DIVIDING.......................................................63 11 WINDOWS...................................................64 OPENING A NEW WINDOW PANE......................................64 CLOSING A WINDOW...............................................64 SPLITTING A WINDOW.............................................64 12 SOME HINTS................................................65 SELECTING MENU ITEMS...........................................65 SPEED KEYS.....................................................65 LYRICS.........................................................65 SEVERAL CHORDS ON ONE NOTE.....................................65 CURSOR MOVEMENT................................................66 SPEEDING UP SCREEN REDISPLAYS..................................66 LONGER SCORES..................................................66 ERROR MESSAGES.................................................67 APPENDIX 1 SPEED KEYS.........................................68 APPENDIX 2 MUSICEASE PROFESSIONAL.............................74 MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 0 What is MusicEase? ----- MusicEase is a music score editor that lets you create, edit, print and play music notation. MusicEase is a Shareware product for creating publication quality music scores. You are free to evaluate the product for a period of 30 days. If you find the program useful, and you continue to use it beyond the 30 day evaluation period, you are legally required to purchase a fully licensed copy. The shareware/evaluation version of MusicEase is not restricted in any way during the evaluation period. However, the registration reminder screens will change after 30 days of unregistered usage, all printing functions will cease to operate after 90 days of unregistered usage, and the program will completely cease to operate after 120 days of unregistered usage. Upon registering the product, you will receive: - a fully licensed copy of the most current version available, - a 25% discount on future upgrades and new releases, - a printed manual including graphic images which cannot be included in the on-disk manual, - an extensive tutorial, contained in the printed manual, - a disk containing samples of works created by MusicEase, - a symbol definition utility, - a symbol file containing many more symbols, - unlimited support via mail, telephone, CompuServe, etc., - update notices for future versions, - removal of the watermark on printed output, - removal of registration reminder screens and time limits, - welcome screen will include "Registered to: <YourName>". And apart from all that, the knowledge that you are helping to support the Shareware concept, a distribution system that brings you quality software at realistic prices. MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 1 MusicEase is a music score editor that lets you create, edit, print and play music notation. In particular, MusicEase is a constraint-based system with a large amount of knowledge of music notation. This allows it to handle intelligently many of the details of scoring automatically. For instance, bar lines are inserted automatically according to the meter. If you change the meter, the bar line placements change automatically. (Of course you can insert barlines yourself wherever you like also.) The result is that you can create professional looking scores easily and quickly. You can enter notes using the computer keyboard or you can enter notes by playing them on a MIDI instrument. You can also create pieces using other music software such as a sequencer and, if they have a MIDI file capability, these pieces can be loaded directly into MusicEase. MusicEase also allows you to transpose, invert and retrograde sections or entire pieces. Philosophy ----- Since many of you are familiar with word processors, MusicEase is designed to work much like a word processing program. For instance, once you are in editing mode (press the Escape key and then the Enter key), pressing the G key enters the note G. Pressing the Backspace key then deletes this note. You press the Enter key when you want to begin a new system. Pressing the Backspace key at the beginning of a system appends it to the previous system. Blocks can be cut from one location and pasted into another location and then everything can be reformatted with just several keystrokes. We have also tried to do everything we can to permit you to specify your notation quickly. In pursuit of this goal, we have included a number of speed keys to minimize the number of keystrokes necessary to issue commands. This in conjunction with MusicEase's constraint-based approach provide for very efficient music score creation. MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 2 In spite of the range of styles of music scores that MusicEase can handle, ease of use has been a primary goal. Reviewers have consistently rated MusicEase in the highest category for ease of use. Finally printed output has been made to correspond as closely as possible to music printed by professional music engravers. For example, beam slants and end positions are correct according to music engraving standards. Note spacing after justification has been applied also corresponds extremely closely to that of professional engravers. In Short ----- The design goal of MusicEase has been to provide you with as much power in as simple and elegant a manner as possible. Please write or call with your comments and suggestions. We are committed to improving MusicEase and reshaping it in response to your musical needs. Support Policy ----- Users are entitled to full product support via mail or telephone for a period of not less than 90 days. Support may also be obtained via Compuserve email. If technical problems in the software are discovered within 90 days of registration, RMH Computer Services will, at their option, either provide a workable solution to the problem or a refund of the registration cost. After the initial 90 days, RMH Computer Services is only obligated to make reasonable effort to supply a revised copy of the software. Support via mail is available at RMH Computer Services, PO Box 657, Beech Grove, IN 46107-0657 USA. Telephone support is available at 317-782-9903 between the hours of 08:00am - 06:00pm EST. Email support is also available via our BBS at 317-784-2147 24 hrs/day. You may also direct email to Richard Holler via CompuServe at 73567,1547, Internet: 73567.1547@compuserve.com, FidoNet NetMail at 1:231/290, and RIME private/routed email at ->5056. System Contents ----- MusicEase consists of the MusicEase User Manual and the following files on the MusicEase Diskette(s) (additional files may be included): * README.TXT Text file with information not included in this manual * ME.EXE MusicEase program file * MUSICEZ.INI Initialization file MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 3 * MUSICEZ.SYM Symbol file * SYMBOL.EXE Symbol defining utility * SYMBOL.INI Symbol initialization file * HERCULES.COM Resident program for Hercules graphics cards * SYSSYMS.SYM System symbol file with laser printer definitions * INV13.MEZ Sample file containing page of a Bach piano invention System Requirements ----- This section lists the minimum hardware and software required to run MusicEase. * An IBM Personal Computer or compatible running PC-DOS or Microsoft Corporation's MS-DOS operating system software, version 2.0 or later. * A color graphics adapter (CGA), an enhanced graphics adapter (EGA), a video graphics adapter (VGA), a Hercules graphics adapter, or a compatible adapter installed in the computer. * A color monitor, an enhanced color monitor, or a multisync color monitor. * A minimum of 640 kilobytes of computer memory. * At least one double sided (360K) 5 and 1/4 inch diskette or one double sided (720K) 3 and 1/2 inch diskette drive. To use MusicEase's MIDI input or output facilities, the following is required: * A Roland MPU-401 or compatible card. Making A Working Copy ----- As a convenience to authorized users, the MusicEase diskette is not copy protected. It can be copied using standard DOS copying commands. In return, we ask that you abide by our copyright and not distribute copies of the fully licensed software to unauthorized users. As a safeguard against the loss, damage, or erasure of the MusicEase diskette(s), you should make a working copy of the diskette(s) before using MusicEase. If the working copy is made on one or more diskettes, the diskettes must have labels bearing the following copyright notice: MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 4 MusicEase Copyright 1991-95 by Gary Rader All Rights Reserved Worldwide In addition to the copyright notice, it is a good idea to put the version number of MusicEase on the diskette label. The version number is displayed when MusicEase starts. Before making a working copy, we recommend write protecting the original MusicEase diskette(s). A 5-1/4 inch diskette is write protected by covering the notch on the right side of the diskette with a write-protect tab or scotch tape. A 3-1/2 inch diskette is write protected by moving the write-protect slide so the window is open. See your computer manuals for details. Hard Disk Procedure ----- If your computer has a hard disk drive for drive C, simply insert the MusicEase diskette in drive A and type A:INSTALL or insert it in drive B and type B:INSTALL To create a floppy disk based version from your hard drive version, if you have 360K disks, copy ME.EXE and ME.INI onto one disk and the remaining files onto a second disk. For any other disk capacity, simply copy all files from your hard disk onto a single floppy. Have the first disk in the current drive when you start MusicEase and whenever you save the state. Otherwise have the second disk in the current drive. Diskette Procedure ----- If your computer has one or two diskette drives but no hard disk drive, you can make a working copy of MusicEase on a diskette using the DISKCOPY command described in the DOS manual. Alternatively, if your computer has diskette drives for drives A and B, you can make a working copy of MusicEase as follows: * Turn on and boot the computer in the ordinary way from a DOS system diskette in drive A. * Insert a blank diskette in drive B. * Format the blank diskette by entering the DOS command FORMAT B: * Insert the MusicEase diskette in drive A. MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 5 * Copy the files from the MusicEase diskette to the blank working diskette by entering the DOS command COPY A:*.* B: * After all the files have been transferred to the working diskette and the DOS prompt is redisplayed, remove the MusicEase diskette from drive A and store it in a safe, cool, and dry place that is physically separated from the working copy of MusicEase. * Remove the working diskette from drive B and place the previously described copyright notice on it. * If you have two MusicEase diskettes, repeat the previous six steps with the second diskette. Keyboard Notation ----- Some keys on computer keyboards may be marked with descriptive symbols instead of names that are spelled out. Throughout this manual these keys are referenced by names printed in bold letters. The following is an alphabetical list of the names and the corresponding symbols used on many keyboards: Manual Keyboard Manual Keyboard Name Symbol Name Symbol ---------- ---------- --------- --------- Alt Alt Ins Ins Backspace - Home Home Ctrl Ctrl PgDn PgDn Del Del PgUp PgUp End End Shift Y Enter ? Spacebar <space bar> Esc Esc Tab Sometimes you need to press two keys at the same time to obtain the desired effect. For example, when the manual says Shift-Tab, hold down the Shift key and press the Tab key. Similarly, Ctrl-H means hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter H, whereas Alt-E means hold down the Alt key and press the letter E. When the manual says to "enter a command", it means to type the command and then press the Enter key. MusicEase - Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION / 6 Ascii codes 128 to 165 yield foreign characters from the PC-8 symbol set. To enter such a character, hold the Alt key down while entering the number code on the numeric keypad. The correspondence between characters and codes can usually be found in your DOS manual or printer manual. MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 7 2 Fundamentals This chapter explains the fundamentals of how to start MusicEase, how to use its menu driven interface, how to execute DOS commands from within MusicEase, how to change the colors, how to save the current state, and how to quit MusicEase. It is essential to understand the information in this chapter to effectively use the system. Starting MusicEase ----- Once a working copy of the MusicEase diskette(s) has been made as described in Chapter 1, it is a simple matter to start MusicEase as follows: * Turn on and boot your computer in the ordinary way from either a hard disk or a DOS system diskette in drive A. * If your working copy of MusicEase is on a diskette, insert the diskette in drive A and enter the DOS command A:ME (or A:MEPRO for Professional version) If MusicEase is on a DOS system diskette, you can boot your computer and start MusicEase from the same diskette. * If your working copy of MusicEase is on a hard disk, enter the DOS command ME (or MEPRO for Professional version) If this does not start MusicEase, you will have to change to the drive and directory containing the file ME.EXE or MEPRO.EXE before executing the command. For example, the command CD \ME changes to the ME subdirectory if one exists. Once you have changed to the correct drive and directory, you must reissue the ME/MEPRO command to actually start MusicEase. Whichever method you use to start MusicEase, there is a short delay while the program loads from the diskette or the hard disk. When the loading is complete, the initial MusicEase screen described in the next section is displayed. If you have a Hercules or compatible graphics card, you must first run the program HERCULES.COM before you start MusicEase. HERCULES.COM is a memory resident program supplied on your MusicEase diskette(s). MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 8 The initialization file for MusicEase is set for CGA displays. If you are using something else, use the Options Display command to select your display type and then issue a Transfer sAve-state command to save this in the initialization file. To issue an Options Display command, first press the O key (for Options) and then press the D key (for Display). If Graphics is not highlighted, press the Spacebar until it is. Then press the Tab key. You should now be in the Resolution field. If High is not highlighted, press the Spacebar until it is. Then press the Tab key again. You are now in the Adapter field and CGA should be highlighted. Press the Spacebar until your adapter type is highlighted. Now press the Enter key. To issue a Transfer sAve-state command, press the T key (for Transfer) and then the A key (for sAve-state). This saves an initialization file MUSICEZ.INI in the current directory with the new specification for your display type. Now each time you run MusicEase from this directory, the display will automatically be set to conform with your selections in the Options Display command. If there is no initialization file in the current directory, MusicEase looks at the directories in the DOS command search path for such an initialization file and uses that if one is found. The README.TXT file contains information not included in the manual. You can either load it into your word processing program and then print it out or you can dump it directly to your printer by typing TYPE README.TXT > LPT1: and pressing the Enter key. The MusicEase Screen ----- When you start MusicEase, the initialization file will be loaded first followed by the symbol file. Then you will see the MusicEase screen: The bottom two lines of the MusicEase screen are called the status lines. They display the current status of MusicEase. Initially they show * the file currently being edited has no name, * the page number of the staff containing the cursor is one, * the number of the staff containing the cursor on the current page is one, * the number of the measure containing the cursor on the current staff is one, MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 9 * the line editor is in insert mode rather than overwrite mode (line editing is discussed in the following section), * the percentage of computer memory space available to store music score (this percentage does not change each time something is added or removed since it is updated only periodically when MusicEase finds it necessary to recycle memory), * that the product name is MusicEase, * the current duration note is a quarter note (this is the duration that notes and rests will have when added at this point), * the current notehead type is the standard musical notehead (this is the notehead type that notes will have when added at this point), * the current voice is one, * notes and rests will be inserted at the cursor as opposed to being replaced, added to (to create chords) or deleted from chords, * there is no vertical shifting of the pitches which correspond to the computer keyboard keys for entering pitches (right now pressing Alt-C would insert a middle C, lower case c would insert the C an octave above and upper case C would insert the C two octaves above middle C --- this correspondence can be shifted up to two octaves up or down), * the current key at the cursor is C, * the current meter at the cursor is 4/4, * and that there is no instrument name for the staff containing the cursor. Immediately above the status lines is the message line. It displays what MusicEase is doing or what you are expected to do next. Initially, this line displays the message Enter option, meaning that you are expected to select a command from the menu of options. (Or you press A to enter edit mode and begin entering or editing music score.) The two lines above the message line are the top-level command menu. The word COMMAND is the command menu title. The words following it on the same and following line are the command menu options. Using the Menu System ----- MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 10 When MusicEase first comes up, you are in menu mode. Pressing the A key (for Alpha) or, in this case, just the Enter key since Alpha is initially highlighted, puts you in edit mode and moves the cursor up to the staff at the top of your screen. Pressing the Esc key returns you to menu mode. One of the menu options is highlighted in reverse video. Each time you press the Spacebar at the bottom of the keyboard or the Tab key, the highlight moves to the next option. Each time you press Backspace or Shift-Tab, the highlight moves to the previous option. To issue a command, first highlight the desired menu option and then press the Enter key. If you are familiar with the keyboard, a faster way to issue a command is to type the capitalized letter in the menu option. This is the first capitalized letter of the option unless there is another option having the same capitalized letter. It does not matter whether you type the letter in upper or lower case. Many commands invoke sub-command menus, which may in turn invoke sub-sub-command menus, etc. For brevity, this manual refers to a sequence of commands entered from successive menus by concatenating the menu option names. For example, this manual uses the phrase "issue the Options Display command" instead of the phrase "issue the Options command and then issue the Display sub-command". After looking at a sub-command menu, you can return to the top- level command menu by pressing the Esc key. Esc is also used to abort computations that are taking too long. Some menu option commands display one or more selection fields, each with its own name, followed by a colon and a list of two or more selections. For example, if you issue the Options Display command, it displays DISPLAY: Mode: Text Graphics Resolution: Medium (High) Adapter: MDA (CGA) EGA MCGA VGA Hercules AT&T These lines consist of three selection fields: Mode, Resolution, and Adapter. Initially, the current display mode (either Text or Graphics) is highlighted. The highlight indicates that the mode field is the active selection field. The current selections in the other fields are parenthesized. The parentheses indicate that these fields are inactive. Press the Tab key to move the active field right. Press Shift- Tab to move the active field left. (Chapter 1 describes how to type shift keys such as Shift-Tab.) To make a selection, press Spacebar or Backspace to highlight the desired selection or type the first capitalized letter in the selection's name. The latter method of making a selection also moves the active field right. Press Enter to invoke your selections. Alternatively press Esc to abort the command without making any changes. MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 11 Some menu option commands display one or more data entry fields, each with its own name, followed by a colon. Some commands display both selection and data entry fields. Tab makes the next field be the active field while Shift-tab makes the previous field active. If you press a key for which there is no command, MusicEase produces a short error beep. If you find the beep annoying, use the Options Mute command to turn it off. Now is a good time to start MusicEase if you have not already done so. You will probably find it easiest to learn by interactive participation while reading this manual. Alternatively, you may want to skim through the manual once to get an overview of MusicEase before starting to use the system. Line Editing ----- Often while using MusicEase, you will need to enter or edit a line of text. For example, try issuing a Transfer Save command by pressing Enter when the Transfer menu option is highlighted and then pressing Enter when the Save menu option is highlighted. A blinking cursor should appear and the system will wait for you to type a line of text. Try typing your whole name on the line, but do not press Enter. If you make a mistake, press Backspace or Ctrl-H to delete the mistake and then type the correction. (Chapter 1 describes how to type control keys such as Ctrl-H.) Try deleting the last few characters of your name and then retyping them. To make a change near the beginning of the line without deleting the characters at the end, use Ctrl-S to move the cursor to the left without erasing characters. If you move the cursor too far to the left, use Ctrl-D to move the cursor to the right. A token is a string of letters or numeric characters terminated by a space, by the end of the line, or by some other type of character. Use Ctrl-A to move the cursor left a token or Ctrl-F to move it right a token. Use Ctrl-Q S to move to the left end of the line (i.e., press Ctrl-Q and then press S). Use Ctrl-Q D to move to the right end of the line. Use Ctrl-U or F3 to insert the previously entered line of text at the cursor. If the cursor is within a sequence of characters, use Del or Ctrl-G to delete the character at the cursor. Use Ctrl-T to delete the token at and to the right of the cursor. If you have so muddled the line you are editing that you would like a fresh start, use Ctrl-Y to delete the whole line. Use Ctrl-Q Y to delete the right end of the line beginning with the character at the cursor. Use Ctrl-Q Backspace or Ctrl-Q H to delete the left end of the line. MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 12 The effect of typing characters when the cursor is positioned within a text edit line depends on the current entry mode. In insert mode, characters under and to the right of the cursor are moved right to make room for a new character. In overwrite mode, the character under the cursor is replaced by a new character. In insert mode, the word Insert appears on the top status line. This word is absent from the status line in overwrite mode. The cursor is also slightly taller in insert mode than in overwrite mode. You can toggle between the two entry modes by pressing Ins or Ctrl-V. Try toggling between modes and typing digits in both modes. Press Esc to escape from the Transfer Save command and return to the top-level command menu. Cursor keys can also be used for moving the cursor while in a text edit line. Quitting MusicEase ----- Use the Quit command to terminate MusicEase and return control to DOS. To issue this command, press Spacebar to highlight the Quit menu option and press Enter, or simply type the letter Q. If you have made any changes to your score, before quitting, MusicEase waits for you to respond to the message Abandon edited music (Y/N)? If you type the letter Y for yes, MusicEase is terminated and the DOS prompt is displayed. Otherwise, the program continues as before. Executing DOS Commands ----- This and the remaining sections of Chapter 2 can be skipped until they are actually needed. Use the Options Execute command to execute a DOS command while running MusicEase. It displays the current DOS drive and directory followed by the > prompt character. If you type a DOS command and press Enter, the command is executed just as if it were entered following the DOS prompt. For example, the command DIR displays the files in the current DOS directory. After the command is executed, press any key to return to the top-level command menu. If you want to execute several DOS commands, issue the Options Execute command, then press Enter without typing any text. MusicEase is temporarily suspended so you can execute any number of DOS commands. When you want to return to MusicEase, enter the DOS command MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 13 EXIT When MusicEase is suspended it still occupies some computer memory while the DOS commands are being executed. Thus DOS commands that require a large amount of memory (such as MusicEase itself) should not be executed during the suspension. Before executing such commands, use the Quit command to terminate MusicEase. Warning: Do not use the Options Execute command to load memory resident programs such as HERCULES.COM. Doing so will abruptly terminate MusicEase. The file COMMAND.COM must be located in order for the Options Execute command to execute a DOS command. If the file cannot be located, the command displays the warning message Cannot find COMMAND.COM. Changing Screen Colors ----- You can change the colors of the music and its background using the Options Color Work command and the colors of the menu lines, border lines, message line and status lines using the Options Color Menu command. Once you have done this, save the state using the command described in the following section. Then whenever you invoke MusicEase, it will come up with these color settings. Saving the Current State ----- As described in this and subsequent chapters, there are many system control settings in MusicEase that you can change. They include: * the print page layout and other print options, * the display mode, * the foreground and background colors, * default fonts, * MIDI values, * and display variable values. Collectively called the current state of MusicEase, these settings can be saved as an INI file (initialization file). Use the Transfer sAve-state command to save the current state in the file MUSICEZ.INI. When MusicEase starts, it automatically loads the state initialization file MUSICEZ.INI if there is such a file in the current directory or if it is in a directory on the MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 14 DOS command search path. The directories in the search path can be ascertained by issuing a PATH command at the DOS prompt (see your DOS manual for details). When you first start MusicEase, the initialization file is set for a CGA display. If you want something else, use the Options Display command to select your display type. Your screen should change to the new display type. Then use the Transfer sAve-state command to save this new specification so it is automatically loaded in the future when you start MusicEase. If you want a particular state each time you start MusicEase, use the various state setting commands (e.g., Options Display, Options Color, Options Font, Print Options, Print Layout Page, Print Layout Options, and View Options) to set the desired initial state. Then save the state. Terminology ----- In order to make clear exactly what we're talking about when describing the various features of MusicEase, we first define the following terms: Current voice The current voice is either 1 (the upper voice) or 2 (the lower voice). The blinking cursor appears high on the staff if you are currently editing voice 1 and low on the staff for voice 2. Current page The page on which the cursor lies. Current system The system on which the cursor lies. Current staff The staff on which the cursor lies. Current note The note or chord or rest in the current voice on the current staff vertically aligned with the cursor. If the cursor lies at the right end of a staff, there is technically no current note. However we will often speak as if there is one there and call it the end of the staff. Current key The key in effect at the current note. Current clef The clef in effect at the current note. Current meter The meter in effect at the current note. Current window The scoring window which contains the cursor. Generally you have only one of these visible at a time unless you use the Window Split command.) MusicEase - Chapter 2: FUNDAMENTALS / 15 Current notehead shape The shape of the notehead used when notes are entered. The value of this shape is displayed on the right side of the status lines. It can, of course, be changed at any time. Current duration The duration used when notes are entered. The value of this note is displayed on the right side of the status lines. It can be changed at any time. Block A region of the score. You define the start of the block by pressing Ctrl-K B and the end of the block by pressing Ctrl-K K. Many commands can be restricted so they apply only to the block. Often when we use the term note in the following, we mean either a single note, a chord or a rest. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 16 3 Basic Editing As you enter a piece, occasionally the screen will not accurately reflect the music. For instance when you enter eighth notes. After entering the first eighth note, it is displayed with a flag. When the second eighth note is entered, instead of erasing the first and displaying both with a beam, MusicEase just displays the second with a flag. This speeds things up a lot as the first does not have to be erased and redisplayed. When these notes are redisplayed later or printed, they will be beamed. Similarly for ties, slurs, and wedges which are only displayed when the note on which they start is displayed. So the point is, if something looks wrong to you on the screen and you are uncomfortable with it, redisplay the staff using the speed key Alt-O or the system using Ctrl-O or the whole window using just capital O. Or set true-view to "yes" (see View Options true-View command) in which case everything will always be displayed accurately but more slowly. Setting the Meter ----- The meter can be set by using the command Insert Meter. Initially the current meter is displayed. To specify a new meter, enter two numbers separated by a slash. The first number can be any integer from 1 to 100. The second number can be from a whole note to a 64th note. To specify common meter, enter COMMON and for cut time, enter CUT. Enter NONE if you don't want any meter. The new meter appears in front of the current note, replacing any other meter which might be there. A meter change extends up to the next meter change or the end of the current staff, whichever comes first. You should only specify a meter change at the beginning of a measure. Changing the meter automatically changes the locations of barlines on the current staff. You can make the meter invisible by selecting Yes for the second field. This is useful when a piece has been split across several files and the first system in the file being edited is not really the first system in the score and also when you have a repeat to the middle of a measure. When editing, you can access the Insert Meter menu directly by pressing m. Setting the Clef ----- The clef can be set by using the command Insert Clef. You can select either Treble, Bass, Alto or Tenor. The new clef appears in front of the current note, replacing any other clef sign which might be there. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 17 A clef change extends up to the next clef change or the end of the current staff, whichever comes first. Notes on the current staff following the new clef will be moved to conform to the new clef specification. When editing, you can access the Insert Clef menu directly by pressing L. To obtain a clef with a transposition indication (with a small numeral above or below the clef sign, first enter the desired clef as specified above. Then use the View Heading command to add the numeral. Choose either 4 or 5 for the font (italics or bold-italics) and select "Yes" as the value of the Repeat field so it is repeated on following staves/systems. You must shift this numeral appropriately. Suitable values are * for above the treble clef: vertical shift of -22 and horizontal shift of 39, * for below the treble clef: vertical shift of 23 and horizontal shift of 32, * for above the bass clef: vertical shift -15 and horizontal shift of 30, and * for below the bass clef: vertical shift of 15 and horizontal shift of 30. MusicEase does not take this numeral into account when calculating the vertical spacing between staves. Occasionally this numeral may be partially erased by the screen redisplay function but it is still there. Occasionally you may have to increase the spacing between staves using the View StaFf command so it does not overlap the treble clef in a following staff. You can make the first clef of the current staff invisible using View Clef. Setting the Key Signature ----- You can set the key signature by the command Insert Key. You can select any key from 7 sharps to 7 flats. You can also select whether you wish the previous key to be canceled with natural signs. The new key appears in front of the current note. You should only insert a new key at the beginning of a measure. A key change extends up to the next key change or the end of the current staff, whichever comes first. Notes following the new key are redisplayed as they appear in the new key. When editing, you can access the Insert Key menu directly by pressing k. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 18 Inserting a Barline ----- Normally MusicEase inserts barlines automatically in the right places according to the meter. However there are times when you are beginning a staff with a partial measure or you need to insert a double barline or some other sort of barline. To do this, use the Insert Bar command. You can select from 6 different barlines. The new barline is inserted in front of the current note, replacing any barline that might already be there. MusicEase then adjusts the location of any following barlines on the current staff except for any that have been inserted manually by the user. When editing, access Insert Bar directly by pressing | (vertical bar). Creating a New Staff ----- To create a new staff, press Ctrl-Enter. This breaks the current staff at the current note and starts a new staff immediately after it. All notes from the current note to the end of the current staff are moved to the new staff. The meter, key and clef at the beginning of the new staff are taken from the current meter, current key and current clef. The current note remains unchanged but now is positioned at the beginning of the new staff. To reverse this operation and append two staves, press Ctrl-Backspace or Ctrl-_ (control underscore) while the cursor is at the beginning of the second staff. Or, if the staves are not connected (i.e., they are one staff systems), you can just press Backspace (see the following section). Creating a System ----- To create a system, first create the staves you want in the system. (How to do this is defined in the previous section.) If there are too many staves to fit on the screen all at one time, the screen will scroll up so that the current staff is always visible. Or use the Zoom command to see more on screen at once. Make sure you have the desired clefs and keys specified. Now press - until the cursor is on the staff you want to be the first one in the system. Issue the View Connect command. (You can reach this menu quickly by pressing lower case o.) Select if the current and the following staves are to be connected at the first barline, at all interior barlines, and/or at the last barline. Also if you want a bracket and/or a brace to begin at the current staff, enter the number of staves the bracket is to extend and/or the number of staves the brace is to extend. When back in edit mode and until you have incorporated all the staves you want into the system, press - to make the next staff the current staff and repeat the above process. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 19 Once you have created a system, pressing Enter will break the current system vertically just to the left of the current note and create a new system just after the current system. To reverse this operation and append two systems, press the Backspace key while the cursor is at the beginning of a staff. Setting the Current Notehead Shape ----- The current notehead shape can be set to normal, "X" or diamond. The X is sometimes used for things like spoken text or certain types of percussion. Diamonds can be used to indicate harmonics. Initially its value is normal. Alt-X changes to the next value. The current notehead shape is displayed at the right end of the status lines. Entering Notes ----- The keys a, b, c, d, e, f and g enter notes with the corresponding pitches near the center of the current staff. Upper case letters enter notes an octave higher. Alt letters (Alt-A, Alt-B, etc.) enter notes an octave lower. To enter a sharped note, precede it by pressing the # key. For example, to enter G#, first press # and then press g. To enter a naturaled note, precede it by pressing the $ key. To enter a flatted note, precede it by pressing the % key. To enter a doubly sharped note, precede it by pressing Alt-#. To enter a doubly flatted note, precede it by pressing Alt-%. Because of the way MusicEase is optimized for efficient screen displaying, some accidental signs may not appear correctly immediately after being entered. If you are in doubt and want to see things as they really are, issue the reDisplay command. Or pressing upper case O will redisplay the current window, Ctrl-O will redisplay the current system and Alt-O will redisplay just the current staff. Notes are entered with a duration equal to the current duration. Several sections after this section we describe how to change the current duration. You can shift the entire note entering scheme up or down either 1 or 2 octaves using the Options Key-shift command. To quickly shift it 2 octaves up while editing, press upper case U. To shift it down 2 octaves, press Alt-U. Pressing lower case u returns it to normal. Notes are only entered when you are in edit mode. You get into edit mode by invoking the Alpha command. Pressing Escape returns you to menu mode. Pressing Escape followed by pressing Enter generally insures that you are in edit mode. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 20 When notes are entered, they are entered with a default horizontal width directly proportional to the notes' durations. Thus a quarter note will take up the same amount of horizontal space as two eighth notes. This is because the proper horizontal spacing for a staff cannot be determined until all the notes have been entered for it and any other staves in the system along with any lyrics, clef changes and so forth. The Justify command is used to create this proper horizontal spacing. As you enter notes on unjustified staves within a system, notes that sound simultaneously will line up vertically as you would expect. Only when you have entered all notes and lyrics for a system should you justify it. Then the spacing for notes will be set so they line up properly vertically and the staff/system extends from the left to the right margin. If the system extends past the right margin, you have several options. You can change the margins, reduce the printout size if you will be printing on a laser or inkjet printer, or make the system shorter by breaking it up. This last option can be done manually or by using the cast-off command. If you enter notes on a staff which has already been justified, say, for example, in the opposite voice, the notes will not line up correctly vertically. This is because the old notes have their justified spacing while the new notes do not. To remedy this, use the Justify command to unjustify the system (select "Unjustify" for the value of the Operation field), add the new notes, then justify the system (select "Justify" for the Operation field.. When lyrics are entered on an unjustified staff, some words may overlap. Justification will cure this problem as it takes lyric widths into account when calculating the note spacing. Similarly, accidentals or even notes themselves if they are short may overlap. Again this condition is corrected by justification. The speed key to justify the current system is 7, Alt-7 will unjustify it. Entering Rests ----- You can enter a rest by pressing lower case r. Rests are entered with a duration equal to the current duration. The next section describes how to change the current duration. To enter a rest positioned high on the current staff, press R. To enter a rest positioned low on the current staff, press Alt-R. To enter a whole note rest which fills the measure no matter what the meter is, use w, W and Alt-W instead of r, R and Alt-R. You can further refine the placement of rests by issuing a View Shift Rest command. Setting the Current Duration MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 21 When notes are entered, their duration equals the current duration. To set the current duration, press a digit key. New settings result as follows: 1 = whole note 2 = half note 3 = 32nd note 4 = quarter note 6 = 64th note 8 = 8th note 9 = 16th note Preceding the digit by pressing the period key yields a dotted duration. Pressing the period key twice yields a doubly dotted duration. The current duration is displayed as a small note in the bottom right corner of the screen. Changing Voices ----- Pressing lower case v toggles the voice being entered. For instance, if the current voice is 1, pressing v makes the current voice 2. The cursor sits high on the staff when the current voice is 1 and low on the staff when the current voice is 2. The bottom status line also displays the current voice. When there are two voices on a staff, the stems of voice 1 notes are up while the stems of voice 2 notes are down. Use voice 1 for staves with only one voice. When changing voices, MusicEase tries to keep the cursor as close as possible to the same horizontal position. How well it can do this of course depends on the durations of the notes on the current staff to the left of it. If there are no notes yet entered in the new voice, the cursor will move to the beginning of the staff. If the staff has been justified (see the Justify command), newly added notes will not line up vertically with old notes. To see how notes really line up vertically, use the Justify System command (and set the Operation field to "Unjustify") to unjustify the system. When finished adding notes, rejustify the system (remember to set the Operation field back to "Justify"). Deleting Notes ----- You can delete the current note by pressing the Del key or Ctrl- G. If the current note is not the first note on the current staff, pressing Backspace or Ctrl-H deletes the previous note. If the current note is the first note, Backspace or Ctrl-H appends the current system to the previous system. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 22 You can also delete several notes at a time. Ctrl-T deletes all notes from the current note through the last note in the current measure. Ctrl-Q T deletes from the first note in the current measure up to but not including the current note. Alt-Y deletes the current staff. The command Transfer Clear deletes all notes in the current window and leaves only the single starting staff. Pressing Ctrl-K Y deletes the block. Creating Chords ----- Pressing the + (plus) key allows you to create chords. After doing this, each time you enter a note, it will be added to the current note (chord). To move to the next note, press R. Press n to return to insert mode. Notice that all notes in a chord have the same duration. You can press Alt-O to redisplay the current staff if you like. You can selectively delete notes from a chord by first pressing the - (minus) key. Notes are then deleted from the chord. Pressing the n key returns to insert mode. The current mode is displayed on the bottom status line. Replacing Notes ----- You can replace the current note with another note by entering replace mode and entering the new note as normal. The cursor then moves to the right. To enter replace mode, press upper case N. To return to insert mode, press lower case n. The current mode is displayed on the bottom status line. This operation throws off justification and generally necessitates that the justification command be invoked on this system at some later time. Pressing the left parenthesis key shifts the current note up one octave. Pressing the right parenthesis key shifts the current note down one octave. Afterwards the cursor moves one note to the right. Changing the Duration of the Current Note ----- To change the duration of the current note to the current duration, press Alt-N. The cursor then moves one note to the right. This operation throws off justification and generally necessitates that the justification command be invoked on this system at some later time. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 23 Changing the Pitch of the Current Note ----- To change the pitch of the current note, press Ctrl-N to enter pitch mode and enter a note as normal. Only the pitch of this note is used. A note with this pitch but with the duration and all other attributes (e.g., lyrics, dynamics, spacing, etc.) of the current note replaces the current note. The cursor then moves one note to the right. To return to insert mode, press lower case n. The current mode is displayed on the bottom status line. In addition, pressing the left parenthesis key shifts the current note up one octave. Pressing the right parenthesis key shifts the current note down one octave. Afterwards the cursor moves one note to the right. Repeating a Note or Chord ----- You can repeat the previous note (chord) by pressing ' (the single quote key). This inserts a new note or chord whose pitch(es) equal those in the previous note and whose duration equals the current duration. You can copy the previous note (chord) with any duration by first changing the current duration. Note that pressing t does the same thing but also ties the two notes or chords. Joining Two Notes into One Longer Note ----- If the current note is not the last note on the staff and the sum of the duration of the current note and the following note is a valid amount of duration, pressing Alt-J extends the duration of the current note by the duration of the following note and then deletes the following note. This operation is useful, for example, when you have two notes which are tied and want to combine them into a single note. Position the cursor on the former note and press Alt-J. This operation generally necessitates that the staff be rejustified at some later time. Inserting Invisible Notes ----- Sometimes you want 2 voices in a staff, but only for part of a staff. For instance, if you want 2 voices but only in the last measure of a staff, MusicEase requires that you use invisible notes in the previous measures so that there are notes for both voices for the entire staff. You can enter an invisible note by pressing the lower case i key. The note is entered with the current duration but is not displayed. It can be deleted just like an ordinary note. And you can position the cursor on it. Lyrics and chords can be attached to invisible notes. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 24 Examples of cases where you might want to use invisible notes are * Keyboard music where the piano part is specified using two connected staves (treble and bass staff). Of course, you could use rests when no notes are sounding in one staff but often the preference is to leave the staff blank. * Keyboard or guitar music where the line consists of just single notes or chords for a while and then the line splits into several parts which sound simultaneously but have different durations. Again the alternative is to use rests but often the preference is to use nothing that shows. * Generally chords appear directly above a note. But if a chord is to occur on the second beat, for instance, of a note, in order that it be positioned correctly after justification, it often works best to use invisible notes in the other voice with an invisible note occurring right when the chord is to occur. This way the chord will be positioned correctly after justification. Cursor Movement ----- The cursor always lies on a note or at the end of a staff. At least you should think of it that way. It may actually lie slightly above or below the current note with which it is vertically aligned. Various keys move the cursor in the following ways: R Jump to next note. - Jump to previous note. - Jump up to note in previous staff. - Jump down to note in next staff. Ctrl-- Jump to previous measure. Ctrl-R Jump to next measure. Ctrl-A Jump to previous measure. Ctrl-F Jump to next measure. PgUp Jump up about a window's worth. PgDn Jump down about a window's worth. Ctrl-PgUp Jump to start of first staff. Ctrl-PgDn Jump to start of last staff. ^ Jump up a system. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 25 & Jump down a system. Home Jump to start of current staff. End Jump to end of current staff. Ctrl-Home Jump to top staff in current window. Ctrl-End Jump to bottom staff in current window. F1 Jump to next window. F2 Jump to next pane of current window. Ctrl-Q B Jump to start of block. Ctrl-Q C Jump to start of last staff. Ctrl-Q D Jump to end of current staff. Ctrl-Q E Jump to top staff in current window. Ctrl-Q K Jump to end of block. Ctrl-Q P Jump to previous position. Ctrl-Q R Jump to start of first staff. Ctrl-Q S Jump to start of current staff. Ctrl-Q 0 Jump to bookmark 0. Ctrl-Q 1 Jump to bookmark 1. Ctrl-Q 2 Jump to bookmark 2. Ctrl-Q 3 Jump to bookmark 3. In addition the jUmp command allows you to jump to the Start or End of the piece. If you select Measure and enter a measure number, you can jump directly to the beginning of that measure. Or you can jump to the Previous position. By selecting sTaff, you can specify a staff number and page number and select a voice and jump directly to the specified staff and voice. Zooming ----- You can zoom out and in by issuing the Zoom command. It allows the screen to be displayed at 100%, 80%, 60%, 40% or 20% of its original size. Just press the first digit of the percentage you want. If you zoom out, it is possible to see many more staves at a time. Full MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 26 editing capabilities are available no matter how much zooming has occurred. The speed key for zooming is lower case z. The Block ----- The block is the name of a section of the score being edited. It can be the entire score but usually it is a subsection of the score. The block can be deleted, moved to another position, copied to another position, saved to a file and then merged into another score, modified through transposition, shifting, or inversion (see the modiFy command), and so forth. Casting off (see the Cast-off command) and justification (see the Justify command) can be restricted just to the staves in the block. Only one block can be defined at a time. To define the start of the block, position the cursor to the note which is to start the block. Then press Ctrl-K B. To define the end of the block, position the cursor to the note that is to lie immediately after the end of the block. Then press Ctrl-K K. The end of the block must lie after the beginning of the block. If it does not, the beginning of the block is moved to the block's end. You can jump to the start of the block by entering Ctrl-Q B and to the end of the block by entering Ctrl-Q K. To delete the block, press Ctrl-K Y. If you mistakenly delete the block, it can be recovered using the uNdelete command or by pressing Ctrl-U. In fact you can cut the block using Ctrl-K Y and then move the cursor wherever you wish and paste the deleted block at that point by pressing Ctrl-U. To move the block, move the cursor to the position to which you want the block moved and then press Ctrl-K V. This deletes the block from its original position and inserts it in front of the note at the cursor. You can copy the block by entering Ctrl-K C. It works just like moving the block except the block is not deleted from its original location. To write a copy of the block to a file, press Ctrl-K W. When you do this, you are first prompted to enter the name of the file. You can then later on merge this file into the score at the cursor by pressing Ctrl-K R and entering this file name at the prompt or issuing the Transfer Merge command. The Ctrl-K commands described above treat the block in a system sense. Generally this is what you probably want. I.e., the beginning of the block cuts vertically through the system at the beginning of the block. Similarly for the end of the block. For example, suppose the current system contains 3 staves and the MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 27 beginning and end of the block are both located on the second staff in the current system. If we now press Ctrl-K Y, deleting the block, we actually delete sections from all three staves. These sections start and end at vertical durational locations equal as close as possible to the start and end of the block. To have the block treated in a contiguous sense so that in the above example only a section from the second staff is deleted, use instead of Ctrl-K. That is, to delete the block as a contiguous section, press . To move it, press Ctrl-P V. To copy it, press Ctrl-P C. To write a copy of it to a file, press Ctrl-P W. To merge a file in a contiguous sense, press Ctrl-P R and enter the file name at the prompt or issue a Transfer mErge- contiguous command. Starting a New Page ----- Normally MusicEase fits as many staves as it can on a page. You can specify a new page is to begin with the current staff by issuing the Insert New-page command. Pressing p also does this. Page separations determined by MusicEase are shown by a dashed horizontal line while those due to the user issuing a new page command are shown by a solid horizontal line. MusicEase repaginates automatically before printing and several other operations. To invoke repagination directly, issue a Print Repaginate command. After this is done and the screen has been redisplayed, all page separations will be visible on screen. Clearing the Current Window ----- Sometimes you wish to delete everything in the current window so it appears just like when you invoked MusicEase. Transfer Clear does this. But if you haven't saved the score in that window since it was last changed, you will first be asked if you really want to abandon your score. Erasing ----- You can erase barlines, changes of meters, key signatures and clefs, new page specifications and many other items by moving the cursor to the note to which the item is attached and issuing an Erase command for the item. For bars, meters, keys and clefs, move to the note just after the item and issue Erase Bar, Erase Meter, Erase Key or Erase Clef commands. For a new page, move to the staff just after the new page and issue an Erase New-page command. Of course, when you delete a note, everything attached to the note is erased also. This includes symbols, lyrics, dynamics, chords, text, endings, any wedge, tie, slur starts or ends, tuplets, etc. The speed key to get you directly to the Erase menu is upper case X. MusicEase - Chapter 3: BASIC EDITING / 28 Horizontal Spacing ----- Since the correct horizontal spacing of notes cannot be determined until all notes, lyrics, etc., have been entered for the entire system, the horizontal spacing of notes as they are entered (before the current system is justified) is directly proportional to the their duration. If notes of short duration are overlapping, you can increase this proportion from its initial setting using the Option entry-Width command. This is useful when entering 32nd and 64th notes which otherwise might overlap. This does not affect justified staves. MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 29 4 Other Markings This chapter describes how to add ties, slurs, tuplets, symbols, dynamic marks, lyrics and other text, chords and chord frames, instrument names, repeat signs, wedges, overlays, endings, multiple rests, and measure numbers to a score. Ties ----- To add a tie between two notes, move the cursor to the first note and issue an Insert tIe command. A quicker way to do this without moving into the menu system is to press upper case T. The quickest way to enter tied notes is as follows: Enter the first note (or chord) as normal. Then if the second (tied) note or chord is to have a different duration than the first, change the current duration. Then press lower case t. This will copy the previous pitches with the current duration and add tie lines all with a single keystroke. Changing the Looks of a Tie ----- If the automatic positioning of a tie is unsatisfactory, you can change it by positioning the cursor on the first of the tied notes and issuing a View Shift Tie command. This allows you to flip the direction of a tie's arc, alter its height and flatness and change its starting and ending locations, and make it invisible. However this should not be done until all notes have been entered and the staff justified because notes in another voice, for instance, might effect the positioning of the tie. Occasionally it is necessary to add a tie when only one of the notes being tied is there. This can happen, for instance, when an ending begins with a tied note. Or when a long score is divided into several files and a note at the beginning of the first system in a continuation file is tied with the last note in the same part in the previous file. The symbols up-tie and down- tie are available for such situations. (See the section on symbols later in this chapter.) They can be inserted with the first note and then shifted (using the View Shift Symbol command) so they lie to the left of the note. The up-tie symbol arcs up and the down-tie symbol arcs down. To get an idea of how much this shift should be, the space from one staff line to a next is 5 while the width of a notehead is 10. If you are entering several of these for a chord, insert and shift the first one, then insert and shift the second one, and so on. To figure out how much to shift, use the following: the distance from one staff line to the next is 5, and the width of a notehead is 12. Slurs ----- MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 30 To specify the note where a slur is to end, move the cursor to it and issue an Insert slUr End command. Then to specify the note where the slur is to begin, move the cursor to it and then issue an Insert slUr Start command. If you do this in reverse order, you may see a slur extent from the start note to the end of the staff. Since the corresponding slur end has not been entered, MusicEase thinks the slur is extending to the next system and displays it accordingly. When the slur end is inserted and the staff redisplayed though, the same result is be obtained. A quicker way (and the recommended way) to enter a slur while you are entering notes is to press Alt-S after you have entered the note on which the slur is to end. You are then prompted for the number of notes backwards on which the slur is to begin. It is assumed the slur is to end on the previous note. After this number is entered and Enter pressed, the slur is created extending between the specified notes. Note that this only works for slurs that are completely contained on a single staff. This menu also allows you to enter the text and font for a label which will be attached to the slur. Such labels are useful in tablature notation for specifying hammer-ons, pull-offs and so forth. Changing the Looks of a Slur ----- If the automatic positioning of a slur is unsatisfactory, you can change it by positioning the cursor on the note which begins the slur and issuing a View Shift sLur command. This allows you to flip the direction of a slur's arc, and alter its starting and ending locations and the two interior points which define its shape. Slurs are displayed using bezier curves. A bezier curve is defined by 4 points: a point at the beginning and another point at the end of the curve, and two interior points which control the shape of the curve. The two interior points do not lie on the curve --- moving them changes its shape but does not change its endpoints. Each point is defined by X and Y coordinates. A point's X coordinate refers to its horizontal position while its Y coordinate refers to its vertical position. Thus these points are defined by two fields each --- one for the X coordinate and one for the Y coordinate. This command also allows you to add, delete, or edit a label and font for the slur and to vertically and horizontally shift it if its automatic placement is unsatisfactory. If a slur is split with part at the end of one staff and part at the beginning of another, you can change the shape of the latter part by positioning the cursor on the note which ends the slur and using View Shift slur-eNd. It works just as the above described command except it does not allow any flipping. Tuplets ----- To specify a tuplet, first enter the notes to appear in the tuplet as usual. For example, to create an eighth note triplet, MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 31 first enter the three eighth notes. Then move the cursor to the first note of the tuplet and invoke Insert Tuplet. You are then presented with 2 data entry fields and 2 selection fields. First you generally enter the number of notes in the tuplet. For a triplet enter 3. Then enter the normal number of notes this tuplet spans. For a triplet enter 2. (You will have three notes in what is normally the duration of two notes.) Now select the unit of duration. For eighth note triplets select 8. Then if the unit is dotted, select the number of dots. The fifth field is for an alternate numeral to be displayed with the tuplet instead of the number in the first field of the menu. If the number in the first field is satisfactory, leave this fifth field blank. Or if you want something like "3:2" to display, enter it in this field. If you enter a dash ("-"), no numeral or bracket will be displayed. Then press Enter. There are several faster ways to specify tuplets without going through the menu system. After you have entered the last note of the tuplet, press ; (semicolon). Enter the number of notes to the left with which the tuplet is to begin and then press Enter. Now the Insert Tuplet menu appears and you proceed as above. Or you can move the cursor to the first note of the tuplet and press lower case p. This invokes the Insert Tuplet menu. Again proceed as above. Changing the Looks of a Tuplet ----- If a tuplet can be beamed to the exact length of a tuplet and the tuplet number lies on the same side of the noteheads as the beam, no bracket is displayed. Otherwise a bracket is used in addition to the number. Moving the cursor to the note which starts the tuplet and issuing a View Shift tUplet command allows you to flip the position of the tuplet vertically, inhibit or require that a bracket be used, and change the vertical locations of the ends of the bracket. Symbols ----- MusicEase provides a number of symbols which you can attach to the current note. MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 32 To add a symbol to the current note, issue an Insert Symbol command. The symbol menu works slightly different from other menus. This is because there are too many symbols to see them all at once. You can use the cursor keys to move through the symbols which are arranged alphabetically. Vertical scrolling will occur when necessary. Pressing a letter key moves the highlight to the first symbol starting with that letter. Pressing the Space bar moves the highlight to the next symbol. Once the desired symbol is highlighted, press Enter to complete the process. To reach the symbol menu quickly while editing, press lower case s. To repeat the last Insert Symbol command, press Ctrl-Z. This is useful, for instance, when you want to create a number of staccato notes. Position the cursor at the first, press s and insert the first occurrence of the symbol, then continuously press Ctrl-Z until done. Changing the Location of a Symbol ----- Symbols are positioned automatically by MusicEase around the note to which they are attached. You can override this positioning by issuing a View Shift Symbol command. You first select the symbol of the current note to be shifted. Then you can shift it horizontally and vertically. If you have several of the same symbol inserted at a note, the one shifted is the last one you inserted. The speed key for the View Shift command is Alt-V. Fonts ----- For dynamics, lyrics, the title of the piece and many other things MusicEase provides several different fonts. These fonts are generally presented as numbers in menus with the user being able to select the desired font. The correspondence between numbers and fonts is displayed below. 1 8.5 point lineprinter 2 12 point Times Roman 3 12 point Times Roman bold 4 12 point Times Roman italic 5 12 point Times Roman bold italic 6 20 point bold (dot matrix printer) 6 18 point Times Roman bold (laser printer) MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 33 Sometimes the choice Default is included. Default fonts are available for lyrics, dynamics and chord names. They can be changed using the Options Font command. If you have a laser printer, you must insure that it has the appropriate fonts listed above before you print out a score. If you have a LaserJet III or 4, they are built into the printer. Otherwise you must download the appropriate soft fonts or plug in the appropriate font cartridge. Foreign Characters MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 34 ----- The following foreign characters are available: CueaaaaceeeiiiAAEaAooouuyOUc#Y__aiounN These characters correspond to ascii codes 128 through 165. To insert one, hold the Alt key down while entering the 3 digit code on the numeric keypad of your computer. For example, holding down Alt and pressing 128 yields the character "C". MusicEase expects your laser printer to be using the PC-8 symbol set to print foreign characters. If you are printing on a dot- matrix printer which does not support the PC-8 character set, the field in the Options Printer-font command should be set to "No". MusicEase will then print these characters instead of using the printer's character definitions. Dynamics ----- Dynamic markings are attached to notes. You should attach a dynamic to the note nearest to it. Issuing an Insert Dynamic command brings up a menu which allows you to enter the text of the dynamic, the location of it, the font to use and whether or not to enclose it in a rectangular box. If the text you enter is something like mf or sfz or ppp, MusicEase uses special graphic characters for the dynamics. Otherwise it uses the font you specify. For position you can choose to have the text located either above or below the staff centered horizontally with the current note. Or if you select Special for the position, you can also specify that the text be vertically centered with the current staff or flush with the current note along with any vertical shift. For horizontal positioning you can choose among having it centered over the current note, flush with the current note, centered between the left and right margins, positioned at the left or right margins, or positioned at the first barline preceding the current note. You can also specify any extra horizontal shift. To reach the Insert Dynamic menu quickly while editing, press y. Lyrics ----- Lyrics are attached to notes. You can add a lyric to the current note by issuing an Insert Lyric command. You will be prompted for the text, the lyric number (from 1 to 9) and the font. If you select the default font, the lyric default font is used. Lyrics are centered under the notes to which they are attached. If you end a lyric with a hyphen ("-") and there is a lyric for the next note with the same lyric number, the hyphen will be centered between the two lyrics. View Shift Hyphen allows you to MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 35 shift a lyric hyphen horizontally if necessary. The command should be issued with the note that occurs after the hyphen. If the lyric consists solely of an underscore character ("_"), an underline is made to extend from the end of the lyric with the same lyric number on the previous note to the current note. View Shift Underscore allows you to change the starting and ending locations of an underscore if necessary. You can invoke the Insert Lyric menu quickly while editing by pressing l. Creating Lyrics for an Entire Staff ----- You can enter an entire lyric line at once for the current staff by issuing the Insert lYric-line command. When you do so, you are first prompted for the verse number (lyric number). After you select the verse number and press Enter, the entire current lyric line is displayed (no matter where the cursor is) with periods appearing for notes and rests which do not have lyrics. You can edit this using normal text editing commands (See Chapter 4). You can also select the font. In particular, hyphens act as word separators as do spaces. A solitary period (surrounded by spaces) results in no lyric for the corresponding note. Hyphens and solitary underscores yield the same results as described for individual lyric words above. When lyrics are entered, some words may overlap. Justification will cure this problem as it takes lyric widths into account when calculating note spacing. Invoke the Insert lYric-line menu quickly while editing by pressing Y. Verse Numbers ----- To insert text which is not directly centered under notes but is horizontally aligned with lyrics such as verse numbers, you can use the Insert teXt command. The height of 12 point lyrics is 10. To enter text horizontally aligned with the second lyric line, shift it vertically down 10 (using the "Below" general vertical placement), for the third lyric line, shift it 20, and so forth. Chords ----- To insert a chord connected with the current note, issue the command. You enter the text for the chord (e.g., "Am"), whether a chord frame is desired, which beat of the current note the chord is to be horizontally centered at, the font and any vertical shift. If you specified that a chord frame be created, a second menu will appear after pressing Enter. MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 36 To enter a chord name containing a flat sign, use the % key. For example, for B flat, enter B%. And for a natural sign, use the $ character. MusicEase then knows that it should use its internal symbols for these signs. E.g., instead of a % character, it displays and prints a flat sign. Instead of a $ character, it displays and prints a natural sign. And instead of a # character, it displays and prints a sharp sign. If you use a lower case b character instead of the % character, chords using this character will not be transposed correctly. Otherwise there is no problem. Chord Frames ----- For a chord frame you specify 1) the fingerings, 2) the location of any barring, and 3) any text to appear beside the chord (e.g., "5th fret"). A chord frame can have from 2 to 9 strings. The number of strings is equal to the number of characters you enter for the Fingerings field. Entering B means leave the string blank, O means leave the string open (and place a small circle above this string of the chord frame), 1 means place a small filled-in circle above the first fret, 2 means place a small filled-in circle above the second fret and so on. These characters can be upper or lower case. If you want a curved line to appear between the circles on 2 strings (indicating the player is to bar across these strings), for the Bar field enter the number of the left string where the bar starts and then the number of the right string where the bar ends. For instance for an F major chord on the guitar, you would enter "16" --- the bar extends from the first through the sixth string. You can invoke the Insert cHord menu quickly while editing by pressing lower case h. You can repeat an earlier chord specification quickly by pressing and entering the same text for the chord (e.g., "Am") as previously. The same chord specification including any chord frame will be added to the current note. If you are inserting several chords at the same note and using only a single voice, the recommended method is: Enter the chord sounding simultaneously with the note as usual. Then go to the other voice and insert invisible notes so that there is an invisible note sounding at the same time as the other chords and insert the other chords at their corresponding invisible notes. This guarantees that after justification, the chords will appear at their proper locations. Accidental Signs Above Notes ----- MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 37 You can use the Insert Chord command to display solitary accidental signs above a note: the chord text should be # for a sharp, $ for a natural, and % for a flat symbol. Instrument Names ----- You can attach an instrument name or any other text to a staff by issuing a View Heading command. You enter the text, the font, any vertical and horizontal shifting of the location of the text and whether this instrument name should be included when new staves and systems are created from this staff (by pressing Enter or Ctrl-Enter). The text is then positioned to the left of the current staff. The start of the staff is shifted right far enough to accommodate the longest instrument name in the system. You can erase an instrument name by replacing its text with blanks. General Text ----- You can in general place text anywhere on the page by invoking Insert teXt. This text is saved with the current note. MusicEase's redisplay algorithms do not take into account such arbitrary text when clearing the screen since it can be located anywhere. Thus you may see such text only momentarily during editing. However during printing and print preview it will be there. The Insert teXt menu allows you to specify the text, position, whether the text is to start flush with the note or be centered vertically with it, font and whether or not a rectangular border should appear around the text. For position you can choose to have the text located either above or below the staff centered horizontally with the current note. Or if you select Special for the position, you can also specify that the text be vertically centered with the current staff or flush with the current note along with any vertical shift. For horizontal positioning you can choose among having it centered over or flush with the current note, centered between the left and right margins, positioned at the left or right margins, or positioned at the first barline preceding the current note. You can also specify any extra horizontal shift. To get an idea how much to shift, staff lines are spaced 5 apart and the width of a notehead is 12. Repeated Measures ----- You can enter a repeat measure sign by issuing an Insert repeAt command. You are prompted to enter a number which will be placed above the repeat measure sign indicating how many times the measure is to be repeated. This sign can be deleted just like an ordinary note. MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 38 Repeated Beats ----- You can enter a repeat beat sign (a large slash extending from the second to fourth staff lines) by pressing the / key. The duration of this slash is the current duration. It can be deleted like an ordinary note. This notation is sometimes used in popular music. Multiple Measure Rests ----- To insert a multiple measure rest, issue an Insert Rests command. You are prompted for the number of measures the rest should extend This sign can be deleted just like an ordinary note. Alt-M is the speed key for the Insert Rests command. Measure Numbers ----- Measure numbers can be automatically inserted by invoking View nUmbers. Numbers can be inserted or deleted via this menu. They can be located at the beginning of the first staff of every system, at every measure, every 5 measures or every 10 measures. You specify the font and whether the measure numbers should be enclosed in a rectangular box and the number of the first measure. Measure numbers are added as dynamics. If the automatic positioning of a number is unsatisfactory, it can be shifted using the Insert Dynamic command after moving the cursor to the first note in the measure. Wedges ----- Crescendo and diminuendo wedges can be gotten using the Insert Wedge command. It must be issued twice, once for the note at which it begins and once for the note at which the wedge ends. When specifying the note at which it begins, you also specify the direction in which the wedge is to point, and whether it is to lie above or below the staff. You can quickly insert a wedge by pressing the > key just after you have entered the note nearest the right end of the wedge. You first enter the number of notes backwards where the wedge is to start. The wedge will extend from that note to the note just before the current note. You can also specify the direction and general vertical location of the wedge. If the left end of a wedge starts with the current note, you can use the View Shift Wedge command to shift either end horizontally and to shift the whole wedge vertically. If a wedge extends from the end of one staff into the beginning of another, the View Shift wedge-enD command can be used to shift the second part of the wedge if the wedge ending note is the current note. MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 39 Arpeggios ----- You can insert an arpeggiation symbol to the left of the current note with the Insert + Arppegio command. The Erase + Arpeggiatio command erases any arpeggio attached to the current note. To shift an arpeggio attached to the current note horizontally, vertically or to extend its height, use the View Shift Arpeggio command. Endings ----- To create first and second endings and so forth, issue an Insert Ending command. Endings must be an integral number of measures long. If the ending is only one measure long and the right end should have a corner, you should select Both in the Part field. In that case the ending will extend through the current measure only and have a corner at the right. If you select One-measure- start, there will be no right corner. For an ending which extends for several measures, select Start while in the starting measure and then invoke the Insert Ending command again when you are in the ending measure but this time select End. When you specify either Both, One-measure-start or Start for the Part field, you must specify the number(s) of the endings and optionally any vertical shift for the ending. Ending heights are set to appear above any notes, chords, symbols, etc. that occur under them. Alter the height by specifying a vertical shift for an ending. 0 (zero) is the speed key for the Insert Ending command. Overlays ----- Overlays consist of items like trills, crescendos followed by evenly spaced dots, or 8va sections where you have an extended leader which can be either solid, dashed, dotted, jagged or wavy. The overlay starts with the current note. You reach the overlay menu by issuing an Insert Overlay command. For each overlay you specify its length (in notes), any starting and ending text and associated fonts, the leader and the vertical position (either above the staff or below it). For any overlay whose leader is to end with a corner, enter CORNER as the value of the End-text field. If the overlay is positioned above the staff, the corner will point up. Otherwise it will point down. You can alter the positioning of the text and leader and the spacing of the leader for any overlays associated with the current note by issuing a View Shift Overlay command. To change the length of the leader, shift the End-text field horizontally. This works even if there is no end text such as in a trill. Trills ----- MusicEase - Chapter 4: OTHER MARKINGS / 40 To create a trill overlay, fill in the overlay menu as follows: enter either TR or TR2 for the Start-text field and select Wavy for the Leader field. Then enter the length of the overlay (the number of notes it covers). If you want an accidental sign to appear after the TR or TR2, enter #, $, or % (for sharp, natural or flat) after the TR or TR2 in the Start-text field. E.g., TR2% would result in a flat sign being displayed. Octave Transpositions ----- To create an octave transposition overlay, fill in the overlay menu as follows: enter 8VA for the Start-text field, select Line or Dashes for the Leader field, and enter CORNER for the End-text field. Then enter the length of the overlay (the number of notes it covers). MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 41 5 Finer Control This chapter describes how various automatic placements and other decisions made by MusicEase can be overridden. It also describes how to set bookmarks and jump to them, and search for and replace notes. Forcing Accidentals to Display ----- You can display a precautionary accidental by issuing a View Accidental command. If you select Yes in the Display field, the sign of the current note will always display, even if it lies within the current key. If you select Automatic, MusicEase will decide if the accidental should be displayed. You can optionally specify that the accidental be enclosed by parentheses. This menu also allows you to shift the accidental horizontally. Capital K is the speed key for working with this menu. It is usually issued after inserting the note or chord it is to act on. If the note before the cursor is not a rest or an invisible note or a chord and does not have its sign forced to be displayed, pressing K will force it to be displayed. Otherwise the View Accidental menu will be invoked on this previous note. Beams ----- Initially MusicEase is set to use beams instead of flags when possible. You can force that only flags are ever used by issuing a View Options Beam command and selecting No. Defining the Beaming Pattern ----- MusicEase knows what the standard beaming pattern is for many meters. However there are some meters such as 7/8 which can be beamed differently at different times. You can define the beaming pattern to be used for the current meter by issuing a View beaming-Pattern command. You enter the beat numbers on which beams are to begin separated by spaces. For example, if the current meter is 7/8 and you want it broken into a 2 + 3 + 2 beaming pattern, you would enter "1 3 6". Beams are to begin on the first, third and sixth beats. Defining the Scope of a Beam ----- You can change the number of notes that are beamed together by positioning the cursor on the first note to be beamed and issuing a View Beam command. You then enter the number of notes to beam together starting with the current note. This is often useful when creating tuplets. MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 42 Entering 0 for the number results in the current note being displayed using flags. To return control of determining the length of the beam to MusicEase, set the value of the field to a blank. You can access the View Beam menu quickly while editing by pressing the _ (underscore) key. MusicEase also automatically determines which notes to beam together and the direction of the beam. Flipping the Direction of a Beam ----- You can flip the direction of a beam by pressing the Alt-! key when the current note is the start of the beam. Repeating the operation removes the flip directive. Beam Slant ----- You can specify the maximum amount of slant for beams using the View Beam command. It is initially set to its maximum allowed angle of 100%. You can specify the new maximum as a percentage of this original maximum if beams are too slanted for you. To alter the slant of only a specific beam, see the section on stems later on. Stems ----- MusicEase initially is set to alternate note stems in staves with only one voice. You can override this behavior by issuing a View Options Alternate command and selecting No. You can force a change in the direction of the stem of the current note (if it is not connected to a beam) by pressing the exclamation key !. This also makes the next note the current note to facilitate changing the stem directions on a number of adjacent notes. Pressing ! a second time with the same current note removes this forced change of direction. MusicEase automatically determines the proper length for a stem. In the rare case you wish to change a stem length, you can use View Shift steM. If the current note is not beamed, entering 5 in this field will extend the stem length by a staff space. A value of 10 increases it by 2 staff spaces. If the current note lies at the beginning or end of a beam, a value of 2 changes the stem length by a staff space. If Yes is selected for the "All" field, all stems in the beam will be changed by the specified amount. Otherwise just the one end will be changed while the other end will remain as it was. Stems lying in between will be altered as necessary to remain touching the outermost beam but not extend through it. Note that this can be used to change the beam slant. To cancel stem extension, set the value to zero. MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 43 Pressing Ctrl-I makes the notehead of the current note invisible. It then makes the next note the current note. Pressing Ctrl-I a second time with the same current note makes its notehead visible again. Pressing Alt-I makes the stem and any flag in the current note invisible. It then makes the next note the current note. Pressing Alt-I a second time with the same current note makes its stem and any flag visible again. If the current note is the first note of a beamed group of notes, Alt-I makes the beams and stems of all the notes in the beamed group invisible. Pressing = makes any flags in the current note invisible. It then makes the next note the current note. Pressing = a second time with the same current note makes its flags visible again. If the current note is the first note of a beamed group of notes, = makes the beams invisible. Initial Barline ----- MusicEase is initially set to display a barline at the beginning of each staff. In some instances such as a score for an extracted part, you don't want this initial barline. Issuing a View Options Initial-barline command and then selecting No will insure that no barlines are displayed at the left end of any staves. Barline Space ----- You can alter the amount of horizontal space MusicEase places after barlines via the View Options baR-space command. Shifting Notes and Rests ----- To shift the current note horizontally, issue a View Shift Note command and enter the amount of the shift. This menu also allows you to specify that a tablature note number be enclosed in parentheses which can be used to specify things like a tied note on which a slide begins. Rests can be shifted similarly using the View Shift Rest command. They can also be shifted vertically. Interstaff Spacing ----- When MusicEase repaginates a score, it determines the vertical spacing between the various staves on a page so that they fill the page (unless it is the last page and you have specified that the last page not be filled using Print Layout Options). Dynamics, chords and lyrics are included in calculating the height of a staff. Text (from the Insert teXt command) is not. Thus you can position text anywhere on the page and it will not affect the spacing between staves. MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 44 You can change the amount of spacing between the current staff and the following staff using View sTaff. MusicEase will adjust the spacing between other staves on the page to accommodate this change. Alt-T is the speed key for View sTaff. Use Print preView to see what the interstaff spacing is for the current page. Staff Lines ----- You can make individual lines of the current staff invisible using View sTaff. Using this feature allows, for instance, a percussion staff in which all staff lines are invisible except the middle (third) line. Naming a Staff ----- You might want to name a staff for use with View Visible Names. If so, you can do this through View Name. If you name the staves in the first system, then when you create new staves from it (for instance, by pressing Enter), the new staves will have the same names in the corresponding positions. Making Some Staves Invisible ----- You can make some staves invisible using View Visible. This can allow you to see more of certain staves on screen at a time. Or you can save a version of the score with only the visible staves in it (see Transfer Save). In particular, this can be used for part extraction. Or using MIDI playback, you hear what just the visible staves sound like when played together. The View Visible menu provides 4 selections. If you select All, the entire score is made visible. If you select Current, only the current staff and corresponding staves in other systems are made visible. The rest of the staves will not be displayed (but they are still there). If you select Names, you can list the names of the staves to be visible. And if you select nUmbers, you can list the numbers of the staves in each system to be visible. Quicker Screen Displays ----- Normally when the score in the current window is edited, MusicEase checks the height of effected staves and then redisplays entirely any staves whose new heights differ significantly from their old heights. You can turn this checking off most of the time by issuing a View Options Quick command or by pressing a lower case q while editing. The price you pay for this speeding up of redisplaying the screen is that some notes and other items may temporarily be clipped or overlap something on a neighboring staff. Printing will not be MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 45 effected. When this quick display mode is active, an upper case Q appears at the beginning of the second status line. Bookmarks ----- You can set up to four bookmarks and then later jump to them. These bookmarks are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3. To set a bookmark at the current note, press Ctrl-K followed by the number of the bookmark. To jump to a bookmark, press Ctrl-Q followed by the number of the bookmark. Search ----- You can search for a note using the Search command. You select the note and any accidental, e.g., A#. The cursor then jumps to the next A#. The octave does not matter. To get to the search menu while editing, press Ctrl-Q F. To repeat a search command while editing, press Ctrl-L. Replace ----- You can search for a note and then replace it with another note using the Replace command. You select the note and any accidental, e.g., Ab, just as with search and then select the note and accidental to replace it with, e.g., G#. The cursor then jumps to the next Ab. The octave does not matter. It then replaces it with the nearest G#. Optionally the replacement can be global. That is, all occurrences of the search note are replaced by the replace note. To get to the replace menu while editing, press Ctrl-Q A. To repeat a replace command while editing, press Ctrl-L. Tempo Designation ----- To create a tempo designation first insert the appropriate tempo note symbol using Insert Symbol. Then use the Insert teXt command to add the text (e.g., "= 120") and select the Special option to shift the text horizontally. To get a tempo note which is dotted, start the text with a period. True WYSIWYG ----- To speed up screen displays, when staves have been scrolled horizontally so the initial notes of the staves do not show, MusicEase begins displaying with the first note in each staff which will appear on the screen. Beams, slurs, ties, tuplets and so forth that begin before that note do not appear even when they include the note. This can make it difficult when entering complex music involving overlapping slurs, tuplets, symbols, and etc. to get the positioning of everything right if you must change the positioning MusicEase automatically performs. Using View Options true-View, you can get MusicEase to go through the display of everything. The result is that all beams, slurs, MusicEase - Chapter 5: FINER CONTROL / 46 ties, tuplets and symbol placements will display exactly as they will print out. It does slow down the redisplay process when staves have been horizontally scrolled to the left. MusicEase - Chapter 6: TABLATURE / 47 6 Tablature This chapter describes how to create tablature notation for stringed instruments. Specifying Tablature ----- To specify that the current staff is to be displayed using tablature notation, use the View Tablature menu. If you select "Yes" for tablature, you must also indicate the number of strings (from 1 to 14) and the tuning of each string. However for guitar, banjo and mandolin with standard tunings, you can just select the appropriate instrument. Otherwise select "Special" and enter the MIDI pitch numbers for the strings starting with the highest (the thinnest string) and moving downwards. Insert a space between each number. The number of these numbers determines the number of strings. The MIDI pitch number for middle C is 60. The B one fret (half step) down is 59. The Bb one fret (half step) down from that is 58, and so on. The D two frets (two half steps or one whole step) above middle C is 62. If a staff has been entered as tablature and you then change the staff to display as standard music notation, it will be displayed as standard music notation. However the reverse will not work unless the staff was originally created using tablature. Options Tablature provides a quick way of turning all tablature staves into standard notation and vice-versa. Entering Tablature ----- To enter tablature numbers, you must first specify the string and then the number. The strings are specified by the letters "a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F" and "G" in that order from top to bottom. If there are only 6 strings (as with a guitar), the letters "a" through "f" would be used to specify the first through sixth strings. After specifying the string, there are several possibilities: * If the number for the string consists of a single digit, just press the key for that digit; * If the number for the string consists of several digits, press the letter X (for "extended"), enter the number and then press the Enter key when done; * If a slide has been entered for the current note and it is a chord, you can make the line invisible for the string by entering the letter S. Repeating the operation makes the line visible again. MusicEase - Chapter 6: TABLATURE / 48 Other things work the same as with standard notation. To delete the previous note (i.e., tablature numbers), press the Backspace key. To create chords, press the + key. You can delete the number associated with a particular string by entering a blank for that string. Tablature Options ----- View Options tabLature allows you to specify whether or not tablature numbers should have stems, if fret numbers are to be displayed above their respective strings instead of on them, the width of single bar lines (these are 1 in standard notation), and if the word TAB should be displayed at the start of tablature staves in the first system, in all systems, or not at all. Slides ----- The Insert + Slide menu inserts one or more slanted lines at the current note. If "Up" is selected, the line slants up going to the right. Otherwise it slants down. If "Between" is selected, the line extends from the current note to the next note (if both are sounded); if "Left" is selected, the line lies to the left of the current note; if "Right" is selected, the line lies to the right of the current note; and if "left-And-between" is selected, it is as if a combination of "Left" and "Between" has been selected. There is one line for each tablature number or notehead (if standard notation is being displayed) in the current note. Optionally these lines can be labeled just as with slurs by specifying text and a font. If there is a label, it can be shifted both horizontally and vertically using the last two fields. NOTE: For slides between chords, there should be the same number of pitches in each chord. The speed key for slides is the backslash "\". It allows you to quickly add slides. You first enter the number of notes backwards where the slide is to be inserted. Then you proceed just as if the cursor was on that note and you had issued an Insert + Slide command. To erase the slide line for a particular pitch in a chord, specify the string and then enter "S" instead of a number. This will make any slides for that pitch invisible. Repeating the operation makes the slide visible once again. Erase + Slide deletes all slides associated with the current note. Nuances ----- MusicEase - Chapter 6: TABLATURE / 49 For hammer-ons and pull-offs, use labeled slurs. For fretboard tapping, insert labeled slurs after justifying with the label "t" or "+". For certain types of slides, use a combination of a labeled slur and Insert + Slide. Tremelos can be obtained via the Insert Symbol command. For vibrato use Insert Overlay with leder equal to "wavy". For shake or exaggerated vibrato, use Insert Overlay with leder equal to "jagged". For muffled strings, use an "X" notehead (Alt-X switches between ordinary notes or numbers, X's, and diamonds.) View Shift Note permits the enclosing of tablature numbers within parentheses. This can be used for tied notes on which, for example, a slide begins. Adding Standard Notation ----- If you have defined a piece solely using tablature and want to precede each tablature staff by its equivalent in standard notation, use the modiFy eXpand-tablature command. It does just that and justifies the result. To reverse this operation and return to tablature only staves for perhaps some editing, use the modiFy Contract-tablature command. MusicEase - Chapter 7: STORING SCOR / 50 7 Storing Scores This chapter describes how to save a score to a file and how to load a score saved in a file plus several other commands dealing with files. Saving a Score ----- You can save the score in the current window by issuing a Transfer Save command. You are prompted for the name of the file. The name can be up to 8 characters long. Optionally you can follow this by a period and up to 3 more characters (this is called the "extension" of the file). If you don't include an extension, MusicEase automatically adds the extension "MEZ". If you don't want any extension, just include the period. If you enter the name of a file that already exists and is not the name of the file you loaded most recently into the current window, you will be asked if you want to overwrite the file that currently has this name. Respond by pressing Y for Yes if you want to overwrite the old file. Otherwise press N for No. A quick way to invoke Transfer Save when you are editing is to press V. Autosave automatically saves the current piece as it is being edited. Options Autosave allows you to turn this off and/or change the minimum number of keystrokes and the number of seconds after which the current piece is automatically saved in the current directory under the name MUSICEZ.ASV. If a catastrophic error occurs, the autosaved piece can be recovered using this name with the Transfer Load command. Initially the number of keystrokes is set to 10 and the number of seconds to 5. Thus the current piece will be autosaved whenever a minimum of 10 keystrokes have been entered after the last autosave and there is a pause of 5 seconds. Loading a Score ----- To load a score which has previously been saved in a file, issue a Transfer Load command. First you must enter the name of the file you want to load. If you don't include an extension, MusicEase assumes you want the file with the extension "MEZ". Or you can press the F1 key to have a list of all files with extensions of MEZ displayed. The cursor keys move the highlight from one file name to another. Pressing Enter loads the highlighted file. If there are too many files to all appear at once, pressing PgDn and PgUp will scroll a windowful at a time. Directories are displayed with a vertical bar in front and a backslash at the end. Pressing Enter when a directory is highlighted changes the current directory to that directory. To MusicEase - Chapter 7: STORING SCOR / 51 have files displayed with an extension other than MEZ, for example, "MID", first enter *.MID as the file name and then press F1. To get all files starting with the letter "S" and with an extension of "MID", first enter S*.MID as the file name and press F1. And so forth. If no such file exists, you will hear an error beep and the cursor will be positioned at the beginning of the name you entered. Either enter the name of an existing file or press Esc to back out of this command. If you want to see the names of the files you have in the current directory, exit temporarily to DOS (see Executing DOS Commands in Chapter 2) and issue a DIR command or a DIR *.MEZ command. If you have edited the score in the current window, you will first be asked if you want to abandon the edited version of the score in the current window. You can respond either Y for yes or N for no. Responding N returns you to the initial Transfer Load menu. Loading a MIDI File ----- You use this same Transfer Load command to load a MIDI file. (MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.) MusicEase detects automatically that it is a MIDI file. In this case loading will usually take longer because MusicEase must convert the representation used in the MIDI file to its own representation. You will receive feedback on such conversion on the message line near the bottom of your screen. MIDI files come in several varieties. MusicEase reads and writes both format 0 and format 1 MIDI files. If the file being loaded is a format 0 MIDI file, each channel is placed on a separate staff. If it is a format 1 MIDI file, each track is placed on a separate staff. After loading a MIDI file, you will have a single (usually quite long) system in the current window. No system breaks have been inserted yet. Before you do anything else, you should save this score (in case anything goes wrong later) and then perform the following steps: * Place any brackets and braces on this system (see the View Connect command). This is so that when this long system is broken up into a number of systems (using the Cast-off command), the systems will have braces and brackets in the right places. Otherwise you must add them later on to each system individually. * If the score starts with a partial measure, insert barlines in each staff at the end of the partial measure. If you don't do this, when MusicEase later divides notes up, they will be divided up incorrectly. (For instance, MIDI file MusicEase - Chapter 7: STORING SCOR / 52 notes are stored without knowledge of barlines. Thus a note whose duration extends across a barline must be divided into several notes which are tied together.) * Define the beaming pattern for the meter if necessary (see the View beaming-Pattern command). If the beaming pattern is incorrect, notes may be divided up incorrectly. * Issue the Cast-off Full command to divide up notes that extend across barlines and to break this system up into page-width sized systems. * Optionally invoke the Modify Divide command with the last option in the menu set to Yes to divide up notes and rests that extend across beat boundaries. * Optionally if the piece is in a minor mode and the wrong note equivalents occur a lot (e.g., Ab appears instead of G#), try transposing (using the modiFy Transpose command) the piece up 3 steps (to its relative major) with the Inharmonic field set to Yes and then back down 3 steps. Then use the Replace command to search for and change any remaining "wrong" notes to their proper equivalents. MusicEase expects the music in MIDI files loaded into it to have been created with a steady tempo. It also should have been quantized. Merging a Score ----- You can merge a score from a file with the score you are currently editing using the Transfer Merge command. You must first enter the name of the file to be merged. Or press F1 to have a list of files displayed (see Transfer Load). If the file exists, it will be inserted just before the current note. This insertion will be in the system sense described in the block commands. That is, it will be like pressing Ctrl-K V where the block is the file in this case. To merge a score from a file in a contiguous sense (see the description of the block commands), use the Transfer mErge- contiguous command. This acts like pressing Ctrl-P V where the block is the file in this case. You cannot merge a MIDI file. To get around this, first load the MIDI file and then save it using the Transfer Save command. It is now a MusicEase file and can be merged. Deleting a File ----- To delete a file, use the Transfer Delete command. This will delete the file which has the name that you enter at the prompt or that you select after pressing F1 (see Transfer Load). MusicEase - Chapter 7: STORING SCOR / 53 Saving a Score As a MIDI File ----- You can save the score in the current window as a standard MIDI file by using the Transfer saVe-midi-file command. Besides the name, you select the MIDI format in which it is to be saved. A number of other music software products such as sequencing programs can utilize MIDI files. Thus you can create pieces with other programs and then load them into MusicEase to obtain scores relatively quickly and painlessly. You can also use MIDI files to move MusicEase scores into other software products. Note however that MIDI files capture basically just notes as far as scoring is concerned. There is no standard way of saving other information such as information regarding chords and chord frames, lyrics, slurs, clefs, and so forth. Thus when you save a MusicEase score as a MIDI file and then load it back into MusicEase, much of the information in the original may be lost. Saving a Score As a TIFF File ----- You can save a page of the score in the current window as a TIFF file by using the Transfer save-Tiff command. The page saved is the first page to be printed as specified in the Print Options menu. Thus to save an entire piece which is 2 pages long, you must run save-Tiff twice. Note however that, as MusicEase does not have its own fonts, no text is saved in the TIFF file. A number of other software products such as word processing and graphics programs can import TIFF files. Thus you can create pieces with MusicEase, save them as TIFF files and have the scores displayed as part of documents or other graphics items. MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 54 8 Printing This chapter describes how to print out a score contained in a MusicEase window and how to set parameters dealing with printing such as the page margins and page size, the printer type, the amount of indentation for the first system, previewing printed pages and the formatting of the systems themselves. Specifying Your Printer ----- The menu contains a field for selecting your printer type. MusicEase supports 5 printers (and compatibles). You can select either a 9 pin Epson dot matrix printer, a 24 pin Epson dot matrix printer, an HP LaserJet II laser printer, an HP LaserJet III or higher laser printer, or an HP DeskJet inkjet printer. Score formatting varies slightly depending on the printer. Thus if you change the printer, you should rejustify (see the Justify command) a score before printing it. Foreign Characters on Dot Matrix Printers ----- If you have a dot matrix printer and it prints foreign characters using the PC-8 symbol set, the menu in the Options Printer-font command should be set to "Yes". Otherwise it should be set to "No". Then if you are printing foreign characters and your dot matrix printer cannot print them using its own character definitions, MusicEase will use its own bitmaps for such characters. Printing a Score ----- Before you print out a score, you might want to see how your score looks by issuing the Print preView command. Selecting pgUp and pgDn allows you to see previous or following pages. This way you can see if staves are too wide to fit on the page. Certain things like the title lines and composer and "text" (see the Insert teXt command) can generally only be seen using print preview. Select Exit to leave print preview. To print the score in the current window, invoke Print Printer. It also contains a field in which you can specify if the file should contain a printer initialization command at its start. Normally the answer to this should be Yes so it will be in a known state. However, if you want to include some MusicEase output in a text document, some word processing files allow you to import a "print file". In such a case you don't want the printer initialized (if it is a laser printer, initialization causes all temporary soft fonts to be erased and an eject page command to be issued). The No value also causes the last eject page command to be skipped. If you are including this print file in a document being printed on a dot matrix printer, define the MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 55 page size for this music to be the same size as the space left for it in your document. If including it in a document being printed on a laser printer, you must increase the MusicEase page top margin enough so that the music is printed at the specified position down the page. It is easiest if you arrange things so that it prints out at the top of the page, in which case you want the MusicEase top margin to be the same as your document's. Printouts can be either draft or final copy quality. You select the quality in the menu. For dot matrix printers, the difference in the two qualities lies in the quality of many of the curved and slanted lines. Draft mode prints faster but some lines (such as ties and slurs and slanted beams) are drawn more crudely. For laser and deskjet printers, ties, and slurs are not printed in draft copies. Otherwise the printouts are the same. Printing the curved lines from ties and slurs is slow on laser and deskjet printers relative to the speed of printing other things. It is highly recommended to first print out your score in draft mode. Once it looks satisfactory, then print out the final copy. When printing to a laser or deskjet printer, MusicEase uses the default symbol set. If your scores are printing with the wrong fonts, make sure that the default symbol set is available in Times-Roman. To print only a specific page range of the score, select Pages for the Range field in the menu and then enter the numbers of the first and last pages to be printed. Entering the Title ----- To enter the title, invoke Print Layout Title. It can consist of any number of lines of text. You first must select the line number. Initially since there are no lines yet entered for the title, the only choice is 1. Select No in the Delete field since we do not want to delete this line of the title and press Enter. Then enter the text for this line and select the font to be used for it. Title lines are placed at the top of the first page. They are either centered or left adjusted depending on the value of the Title field in the menu. Entering the Lyricist ----- To enter the lyricist, use the Print Layout Lyricist command. The lyricist can consist of any number of lines of text. You first must select the line number. Initially since there are no lines yet entered for the lyricist, the only choice is 1. Select No in the Delete field since we do not want to delete this line of the lyricist. Then press Enter. MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 56 Now enter the text for this line and select the font to be used for it. The lyricist text is placed as a block at the left margin on the first page generally under the title. Its exact vertical position can be changed in the Lyricist field of the menu. The lines within this block of lyricist text can have several different alignments. A line can be left adjusted so it starts at the left margin. It can be centered under the longest lyricist line or right adjusted under the longest line. The selection in the Alignment field determines which is used. Generally you want to make all lines have the same alignment. A value of a period is displayed as a blank. This allows the addition of more space before the first staff via the last field in Print Layout Options. Entering the Composer ----- To enter the composer, use the Print Layout Composer command. The composer can consist of any number of lines of text. You first must select the line number. Initially since there are no lines yet entered for the composer, the only choice is 1. Select No in the Delete field since we do not want to delete this line of the composer. Then press Enter and enter the text for this line and select the font to be used for it. The composer text is placed as a block at the right margin on the first page generally under the title. Its exact vertical position can be changed in the Composer field of the menu. The lines within this block of composer text can have several different alignments. A line can be right adjusted so it ends at the right margin. It can be centered under the longest composer line. Or it can be left adjusted under the longest line. The selection in the Alignment field determines which is used. Generally you want to make all lines have the same alignment. A value of a period is displayed as a blank. This allows the addition of more space before the first staff via the last field in Print Layout Options. Page Layout ----- The menu resulting from issuing the Print Layout Page command allows you to specify the values of the page length, page width, left margin, right margin, top margin, bottom margin, footer margin and the print orientation. The footer margin is the distance from the bottom of the page at which to position any footer (bottom positioned running head --- see Print Layout Running-head). The print orientation is only meaningful for laser printers. It specifies whether to print in the normal direction (portrait) or sideways (landscape). You can generally print fewer but wider lines in landscape mode. MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 57 You can specify horizontal measurements in inches, centimeters, or points. For vertical measurements you can also use lines. Use the following abbreviations: " or In Inches Cm Centimeters Li Lines Pt Points If the margins are too large for the page size, an error will result and the highlight will be positioned on the margin field it was processing when the error was detected. Measurements will be displayed in the default unit which can be set using the Options Unit command. The default unit can be either inch, centimeter or printer's point. Repagination ----- The score in the current window will be repaginated when Print Repaginate is invoked. It is also automatically repaginated by several other commands such as the Print Printer command and the Print preView command. MusicEase will fit as many staves as it can on a page. It uses the page length and top and bottom margins to calculate the area available for this. A dashed line will appear wherever it has determined a new page should start. Solid lines appear above staves where the user has invoked Insert New-page. Systems are automatically spaced evenly vertically so that they fill the page except possibly for the last page. In Print Layout Options, you can specify whether or not to fill the last page in the Fill field. If you specify Yes, you can specify how much space in addition to the bottom margin to leave at the bottom of the page by entering a vertical measurement in the Last-page field. Running Heads ----- A running head is a header or footer that appears either at the top or the bottom of a page, usually in the margin. The default running head is positioned at the bottom of all pages. It prints the page number centered and the date at the right margin. To create a running head, issue the Print Layout Running-head command. Select the position (Top or Bottom of the page) and on which pages this running head is to appear. You can specify it is to appear on All pages, just the First page, all-But-first page, just Even pages or just Odd pages. If several running MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 58 heads are applicable to the top at the same time, the more specific is used. Similarly for the bottom of the page. Once you have selected the position and pages for the running head, another menu appears which allows you to enter the text and font for the running head. The fields are initialized to the current running head with the same position and pages if there is one. You can enter text that is to be left adjusted to the left margin, centered between the margins, and right adjusted to the right margin. The words "(Page)" `` (File)'' and "(Date)" stand for the page number, file name and the date. When the running head is printed, the current page number, file name and date will be substituted wherever these strings appear. The default running head uses both page and date. To delete the date printout from the default running head, press Ctrl-Y when the cursor is in the Right field. Justification ----- Usually you want to justify a staff so that it extends from the left margin to the right margin. (The exception is the first system which is often indented slightly.) This can be done by using the Justify command. You can justify the entire score, just the systems in the block or just the current system. You can also unjustify staves with this command. This is useful when you need to edit a justified system. Newly entered notes usually will not have the same horizontal spacing as notes that existed when a staff was justified. If the value of the Method field is "Equal", extra space is distributed "evenly" among all notes on a staff. If the value is "Linear", extra space is distributed more in proportion to notes' durations. This method may be more appropriate for instrumental music whereas the Equal method may be more appropriate for music with lyrics. It may happen that a justified staff will extend past the right margin. You can see this using the Print preView command. If such is the case, you should fix this before printing. One way to fix it is to make the staff shorter by inserting a staff break at a measure before the end. If you want to change the spacing of notes, you can force a note to take up more width using the View note-Width command (speed key is Ctrl-W). This allows you to increase the width given to a note or rest. You should then justify the staff to see the new spacing. During justification this additional space will be taken from other notes on the staff if possible. Increasing a note's width in this way is taken into account during cast-off (see following). Cast Off ----- MusicEase - Chapter 8: PRINTING / 59 Casting off is the term used for breaking systems into short enough systems to fit between the horizontal margins. If you have too few measures on a staff when it is justified, it will look too sparse. If you have too many, it will extend past the right margin. There are additional considerations. You want the last staff to have the same density of notes as previous staves. You may want the last page to be "filled". The Cast-off commands do much of this for you. The Cast-off Quick command divides the staves up in either the block or the entire score so that each contains the same number of measures. You specify how many measures this is to be. This casting off is done regardless if all the resulting staves will fit between the margins or not. Often popular and folk music scores lend themselves to 3 or 4 measures per staff formatting. The Cast-off Full command yields results that are closest to those described in the initial paragraph of this section. You can optionally specify the maximum number of measures per staff to appear. The Cast-off Page-breaks command only determines page breaks. It will insure that a specified number of systems occur on each page if possible. Cast-off will not join systems with different numbers of staves. If you want the first measure of the current system to always be the first measure of a system after cast-off is invoked, you can press . If the first measure of the current staff is so set, the letter B will appear in the second column of the bottom status line. Staff Line Thickness ----- For laser and inkjet printer scores, the thickness of staff lines can be varied from 2 to 5 using the View Options staff-Line command. The default thickness is 4. MusicEase - Chapter 9: SOUND AND MIDI / 60 9 Sound and MIDI In this chapter we describe how to play scores using the computer's oscillator and how to enter notes and playback scores via a MIDI instrument. Your Computer's Oscillator ----- Your computer has a single oscillator that can be used to play back one note at a time. You do this through the plaY command. You can select whether to play the entire score, the block or just the current staff, whether to play the upper or lower voice, the tempo, and the top or bottom note of chords. Pressing any computer key cancels playback. You can quickly invoke this playback by pressing upper case S while editing. The most recent settings of the plaY menu are used. MIDI Port ----- If you have a MIDI card in your computer compatible with the MPU- 401 and a MIDI instrument (MIDI In) attached to it, you can hear your scores played back using as many voices as your MIDI instrument can handle. Before you do so though, you must specify the port your card uses if it is different than the default port of hex 330. To change the port, issue a Midi Options command and enter the port number. MIDI Playback ----- Be sure your MIDI instrument is turned on. Then issue the Midi Playback command. The entire score, the block, the current system or the current staff can be played. You specify the tempo and whether or not you want the playback to be continuously repeated (until you press any computer key). Only visible staves are used. If you want to hear what two specific staves sound like when played together, just make the other staves invisible. The speed key for Midi playback with its most recent settings is } (right curly bracket). MIDI Step Mode Note Entry ----- MIDI step mode note entry is supported through the Midi Step command. The pitches come from the MIDI instrument (MIDI out) while the durations come from the current duration. Thus you can enter several notes at once (i.e., chords) by playing several pitches at once on your MIDI instrument. You can change the duration of notes being entered using the digit keys on your computer keyboard (see the description of the current duration in Chapter 4.) You can enter rests and invisible notes, system MusicEase - Chapter 9: SOUND AND MIDI / 61 (Enter) and staff (Ctrl-Enter) ends and redisplay the current staff or entire window without leaving step mode entry. You can have the screen updated as you enter notes, but you must wait until the screen has finished updating before entering the next note. The speed key for Midi step mode note entry with its most recent settings is { (left curly bracket). MIDI Realtime Note Entry ----- MIDI realtime note entry using the Midi Realtime command lets you play notes on your MIDI instrument. They are inserted before the current note with both the pitch and duration of notes being taken from the MIDI instrument. In order for this to work, you must play some count-in notes which are used to determine the tempo. You must play at a steady tempo throughout the entire realtime entry procedure. You can use a metronome. Often there is one built into MIDI synthesizers. You can also play more slowly than normal. This usually increases the likelihood that durations are interpreted correctly because your playing will be more accurate relative to the longer time span. Count-in Notes ----- You can select from 2 to 10 count-in notes. Then select the duration of the count-in notes where 1 means all are a whole note in duration, 2 means they are a half note in duration, 4 means quarter note, 8 means eighth note and so on. The count-in notes are not included in the resulting score. Quantization ----- The notes you play in are quantized using the duration you select in the Quantize field. This duration can be from a whole note to a sixty-fourth note. Best results are obtained by choosing the duration which equals the duration of the shortest note you will play in. If the shortest note in your piece is an eighth note, you should select to quantize using an eighth note. Any notes shorter will be interpreted as eighth notes. Thus your playing does not have to be quite as accurate duration-wise as if you chose to quantize using a sixteenth note. The quantization duration must not be longer than the count-in duration. Two Staves ----- The MIDI input will be placed on either one or two staves depending on the value you select for the Staves field. If you select two staves, you must enter the pitch at which to split the notes. All the notes with pitches higher than the Split-at pitch are placed on the current staff while the other notes are placed on the staff immediately below and connected to the current staff. For example to have the notes played onto a treble staff MusicEase - Chapter 9: SOUND AND MIDI / 62 which has a bass staff connected to it directly below it, set the first staff to the correct meter, key and clef sign. Then press Ctrl-Enter and do the same to the resulting staff. Then connect the two staves using the View Connect command. Lastly move the cursor back to the first staff. Now you are ready. MIDI pitches are specified by positive integers. Middle C is 60. The B just below it is 59. The Bb below it is 58. The octave above middle C is 72. When You Are Done ----- When you have finished with realtime MIDI note entry, the notes you have entered reside in one long system. Before continuing, you might want to save the score (see the Transfer Save command) just in case something goes wrong later. If it is to begin with a partial measure (i.e., there are some pickup notes), enter the appropriate bar line now on each staff. Then either use the Cast-off command to divide this system up into page-width systems or manually position the cursor to where you want the breaks and press the Enter key. MIDI Files ----- MusicEase both reads and writes MIDI files of format 0 or 1. When you load a file, MusicEase automatically detects if it is a MIDI file. If so, it converts the MIDI data to its own representation after it reads it in. This can take a while. To save a score as a MIDI file, use Transfer saVe-midi-file. Besides entering the name, you can select the type. Generally you should specify 1 unless the software with which this file will be used only reads format 0 MIDI files. With format 0, all staves are merged into a single MIDI track. With format 1, there is one track for each voice in each staff. The preferred file extension for MIDI files is "MID". For format 0 files, only visible staves are saved. MIDI files save just information about notes. Lyrics, chords, symbols and etc. are not saved. You should never save a score as a MIDI file if you want to read it back into MusicEase later on with no loss of information. SMPTE time codes are not supported. MusicEase - Chapter 10: TRANSPOSING / 63 10 Transposing In this chapter we describe how to transpose, invert, retrograde, shift by a specified number of half steps, add notes a specified number of half notes away and divide notes up so they do not extend across bar lines or beat boundaries. Transposing ----- To transpose a score or block, invoke modiFy Transpose. You must enter the number of half steps by which to transpose, the direction (up or down) and whether inharmonically equivalent notes are to be used when possible. For example, the note A double flat is inharmonically equivalent to G. If you selected Yes for using inharmonic equivalents, any A double flats which occur in the transposition would be replaced by G's. When executing a Transpose command, MusicEase first checks if the resulting notes would lie within the range of notes that MusicEase handles. This range extends from approximately three octaves below middle C to four octaves above. MusicEase changes chord names correctly when transposing but not chord frames. Inverting ----- You can invert the entire score about a note or just the block. The inversion occurs about the first note in the invert region. If this note is a chord, the bottom most note is used. To invert, use the modiFy Invert command. It works similar to the transpose command. You first select the region to invert, the voice to invert and whether the inversion is to remain in key or be a strict inversion. Retrograding ----- You can retrograde the entire score or just the block. To retrograde, use the modiFy Retrograde command. It works similar to the transpose command. You first select the region to retrograde, the voice or both to retrograde both voices, whether the resulting notes are to remain in key or not (the key pattern is not reversed) and whether inharmonic equivalences are to be used. Shifting ----- To shift notes up or down by a specific number of half steps (like transposition but the key remains unchanged), issue the modiFy Shift command. You can shift either just the block or the entire score. You specify the direction to shift, the voice to shift (or both voices if you like) and whether the result is to remain in key or the shift is to be strict. MusicEase - Chapter 10: TRANSPOSING / 64 Adding ----- You can add a note to each note or chord in the block or entire piece. This is, for instance, a quick way to double notes at the octave. The modiFy Add command permits this operation. You specify the number of half steps above or below the top note in the desired voice at which notes are to be added, whether added notes are to be forced to remain in key or not, and whether inharmonic equivalences should be used. Erasing ----- Erasing is the inverse of adding. It can be used to delete a note from each chord in a range of the score. To erase, invoke modiFy Erase. In addition to the range, you specify the number of the note from the top of the chord to erase. You also select either the top or bottom voice or both from which to erase. If only one note exists in the chord at any point, no erasure is performed. Dividing ----- The dividing operation replaces notes that extend across barlines by several tied notes which add up to the same duration as the original note but which do not extend across bar lines. Optionally it will do the same to notes which extend across beat boundaries. It can also be used to force notes into the current key and to replace notes by their inharmonic equivalents. ModiFy Divide can be applied to the entire score, the block, the current system or just the current staff with respect to one or both voices. Dividing is useful, when notes have been entered using MIDI realtime note entry or MIDI files. In the MIDI world there is no concept of a tied note --- a note is either on or off. MusicEase - Chapter 11: WINDOWS / 65 11 Windows We now describe how the windowing system works. Windows can be used to work with several different scores at the same time. The window in which the cursor currently resides is the "current window". If there is more than one window (a result of the Window Split command), each window will have a border and in the upper left corner will be a number. This is the name of that window. The name of the current window is highlighted. Windows can be split either horizontally or vertically. You can also create new window panes which reside conceptually on top of or underneath of the current window using the Window Open command. Window panes act otherwise just like another window. The only difference is that only one pane in a window is visible at a time. Opening a New Window Pane ----- To open a new top window pane, issue a Window Open command and then select Score. This creates a new window pane which is the same size as the current window and resides in the same place. An empty staff will appear in the upper left corner of the new window pane. To move from one window pane to another, use the Window Flip command or press the F2 function key. Closing a Window ----- To close the current window, issue a Window Close command. If the score in this window has not been saved since last changed, you will first be asked if you really want to close the window and lose the edited score. Splitting a Window ----- You can open a new window by splitting the current window. The window can be split either horizontally or vertically. One of the new windows will contain the score in the old window while the other window will be empty except for the initial staff. To split the current window horizontally, issue a Window Split Horizontal command. You will be asked at which line to split the window. Windows have a minimum height of 6 lines. To split the current window vertically, issue a Window Split Vertical command. You will be asked at which line to split the window. Windows have a minimum width of 22 columns. To jump from one window to another use either the Window Goto command with a window number or the or Window Previous command. The F1 function key can also be used. MusicEase - Chapter 12: SOME HINTS / 66 12 Some Hints This chapter describes some techniques for shortening the amount of time necessary to create scores and other things. One technique we focus on is to minimize the number of keystrokes. Selecting Menu Items ----- When you have an option field from which you need to select a value, do not use the Spacebar to move the highlight to the desired value. Instead press the capital letter in the value instead. If this is the only field in the menu, this selects the item and also acts like you have pressed the Enter key to boot. Speed Keys ----- When you are editing a score, it is time consuming to escape to the command menu, press one or more keys to get to the desired menu, and when you are finished with the menu, press Enter to return to editing. Whenever possible, use a speed key to get directly to the menu. For instance, to change the clef, press upper case L. This saves 3 or more keystrokes in each instance. Especially make use of the following speed keys: * To copy the previous note or chord, press ' (single quote), * To create a note tied to the previous note or chord, press t, * To insert a slur for the immediately preceding notes, press Alt-S, * To insert a wedge for the immediately preceding notes, press > (right angular bracket), * To insert a tuplet for the immediately preceding notes, press ; (semicolon), * To beam the immediately preceding notes, press Alt-_ (Alt underscore), * To enter a chord frame entered previously, use Alt-H. See the Appendix for a complete list of speed keys. Lyrics ----- Use the Insert lYric-line command as much as possible. When repeating identical lines of lyrics onto different staves in a system, use the F3 key. Several Chords On One Note ----- MusicEase - Chapter 12: SOME HINTS / 67 If you are entering several chords to appear at different points in a single note's duration and if there is only one voice at this point in the current staff, you might insert invisible notes in the other voice and attach the chords to them. Each invisible note should have a duration equal to the duration of the chord attached to it. When this staff is justified, the chords will be positioned appropriately. Notice that if this staff is the only one in its system, you could use the chord Beat field to specify the chords' positions. However if this staff is only one of several, different beats may justify to different widths depending on various factors. Then the invisible note technique would yield correct positioning whereas the beat method might not. Cursor Movement ----- For movements of more than several notes, use the keys which move you larger distances. Use Home to move to the start of a staff, End to move to the end of a staff, Ctrl-F or Ctrl-R to move to the start of the next measure, Ctrl-A or Ctrl-- to move to the previous start of measure, Ctrl-Home to move to the top staff in the window, Ctrl-End to move to the bottom staff in the window, Ctrl-PgUp to move to the start of the score, and Ctrl-PgDn to move to the start of the last staff in the score. To move to a specific staff on a specific page, use the jUmp command. Speeding Up Screen Redisplays ----- Edit with Quick set to Yes as much as possible. Also Zoom when you can. This saves both horizontal and vertical scrolling. Sometimes splitting a window in half or less so only one staff shows at a time can also significantly speed up the redisplay time. If you are working with systems with more than one staff and are entering one part completely (for the whole score) before moving to the next, use the View Visible command so that only this staff of the system appears. Avoid very long staves when possible. (The redisplay routines calculate from the beginning of staves.) Longer Scores ----- Long scores can be created with MusicEase by creating them as a number of shorter scores (files). If the amount of free memory falls below 30%, you should save your score and continue the score with a fresh file. Each shorter score should end on a page boundary as print outs come in pages. If you are using a running MusicEase - Chapter 12: SOME HINTS / 68 head with page numbers, set the starting page number for each short score appropriately using the Print Layout Options command. Leave the title, composer and lyricist blank for each score but the first. Error Messages ----- If an error message appears, please save the song and send us the disk along with a description of where the error occurred. We will try to fix the problem for you. To stop the error message from reappearing, delete the thing added which caused the error. If all else fails, delete the note or notes at that point. MusicEase - Index / 69 Appendix 1 Speed Keys In this appendix we list all the speed key definitions in one place. Ctrl-A Jump left to measure start. Ctrl-C Page down. Ctrl-D Cursor right. Ctrl-E Cursor up. Ctrl-F Jump right to measure start. Ctrl-G Delete current note (same as Del). Ctrl-H Delete note to left (same as Backspace). Ctrl-I Make the notehead of the current note invisible and the next note the current note. Ctrl-J Insert staff start (same as Ctrl-Enter). Ctrl-L Repeat Replace or Search command. Ctrl-M Same as Enter. Ctrl-N Set Pitch mode. Ctrl-R Page up. Ctrl-S Cursor left. Ctrl-T Delete notes to next measure start. Ctrl-U Undelete command. Ctrl-V Toggle field edit insert mode. Ctrl-W View Note-width menu. Ctrl-X Cursor down. Ctrl-Z Repeat most recent Insert Symbol command and move cursor 1 character to right. Ctrl-_ Same as Backspace except if at the start of a staff, it is the opposite of Ctrl-Enter. MusicEase - Index / 70 Alt-H Quick repeat chord command. h Insert Chord menu. H View heading menu. Alt-I Make stem of current note and flag or beam invisible and next note the current note. i Insert invisible note. Alt-J Join two notes by duration. j Insert Slur Start menu. J Insert Slur End menu. k Insert Key menu. K Fast View Accidental for previous note. l Insert Lyric menu. L Insert Clef menu. Alt-M Insert Rests menu. m Insert Meter menu. Alt-N Replace duration of current note with current duration. n Set Insert mode. N Set Replace mode. + Set Add-to mode. - Set Delete-from mode. Alt-O Redisplay current staff. Ctrl-O Redisplay current system o View Connect menu. O Redisplay current window. Alt-P Insert Staff-break for cast-off. p Insert Tuplet menu. P Insert New-page menu. q Toggle "quick" and full redisplay. MusicEase - Index / 71 Alt-R Insert low rest. r Insert rest. R Insert high rest. Alt-S Quick define slur command. s Insert Symbol menu. S Invoke Play menu. Alt-T View Staff menu. t Quick tie notes command. T Tie current note to next note. Alt-U Shift note entry 2 octaves down. u Set note entry to normal. U Shift note entry 2 octaves up. Alt-V View Shift menu. v Toggle current voice. V Transfer Save menu. Alt-W Insert low whole measure rest. w Insert whole measure rest. W Insert high whole measure rest. Alt-X Cycles current notehead shape between normal, X and diamond. x Insert Text menu. X Erase menu. Alt-Y Delete current staff. y Insert Dynamic menu. Y Insert Lyric-line menu. z Zoom menu. Alt-- Quick View Beam. _ View Beam menu. MusicEase - Index / 72 [ Shift note 1 octave up. ] Shift note 1 octave down. { Invoke MIDI Step-mode menu. } Invoke MIDI Playback-mode. / Insert repeated figure measure. \ Quick Insert Slide command. 0 Insert Ending command. 7 Quick Justify system command. Alt-7 Quick Unjustify system command. Alt-! If at beam start, flip beam direction ! Flip direction of current note stem. & Jump to next system. ^ Jump to previous system. | Insert Bar menu. > Quick Insert Wedge command. ; Quick Insert Tuplet command. = Make flags or beams of current note invisible. Home Jump to staff start. Ctrl-Home Jump to top staff in window. End Jump to staff end. Ctrl-End Jump to bottom staff in window. PgUp Jump up about a screenful. Ctrl-PgUp Jump to start of score. PgDn Jump down about a screenful. Ctrl-PgDn Jump to start of last staff. Ctrl-Q A Replace menu. Ctrl-Q B Jump to block start. MusicEase - Index / 73 Ctrl-Q C Jump to start of last staff. Ctrl-Q D Jump to staff end. Ctrl-Q E Jump to top staff in window. Ctrl-Q F Search menu. Ctrl-Q K Jump to block end. Ctrl-Q P Jump to last position. Ctrl-Q R Jump to start of score. Ctrl-Q S Jump to staff start. Ctrl-Q T Delete from start of measure to just before current note. Ctrl-Q X Jump to bottom staff in window. Ctrl-Q 0 Jump to bookmark 0. Ctrl-Q 1 Jump to bookmark 1. Ctrl-Q 2 Jump to bookmark 2. Ctrl-Q 3 Jump to bookmark 3. Ctrl-P C Copy contiguous block. Ctrl-P R Merge file as contiguous block. Ctrl-P V Move contiguous block. Ctrl-P W Write contiguous block to file. Ctrl-P Y Delete contiguous block. Ctrl-K A Transfer Clear menu. Ctrl-K B Set block start. Ctrl-K C Copy system block. Ctrl-K D Transfer Save menu. Ctrl-K K Set block end. Ctrl-K Q Transfer Clear menu. Ctrl-K R Merge file as system block. Ctrl-K S Transfer Save menu. MusicEase - Index / 74 Ctrl-K V Move system block. Ctrl-K W Write system block to file. Ctrl-K Y Delete system block. Ctrl-K 0 Jump to bookmark 0. Ctrl-K 1 Jump to bookmark 1. Ctrl-K 2 Jump to bookmark 2. Ctrl-K 3 Jump to bookmark 3. MusicEase - Appendix 2 / 75 MusicEase Professional ---------------------- MusicEase Professional is an expanded version of MusicEase which contains the following additional features: - Perhaps the most significant added feature is the ability to reduce or enlarge scores from 10% to 190% of normal size (laser and inkjet printers *only*). This allows, for instance, the reduction of lead sheets (e.g., melody, chord names, and lyrics) so a whole song can fit onto a single printed page. Ensemble and band scores often need to be reduced to about 70% to produce a pleasing result that fits nicely onto normal 8-1/2 by 11 inch pages. Such reduction usually allows two systems per page. For orchestral works, an even larger amount of reduction can produce an entire system on a single page for use by conductors or for just printing the entire piece. For school age children, enlargements allow for music that is easier to read. Cast-off, Justify and Print Preview take any such scaling into account when deciding where to break staves/systems, and how to justify and display them. - Grace notes with several different characteristics can be created out of normal notes to appear before, on or after the beat. You can specify the direction of the stems and if a slash should appear through the first stem. Slurs, symbols, and everything else that can be attached to normal notes can also be attached to grace notes. They can also be deleted, copied and moved the same way. - Cue notes can be created which work just like ordinary notes. You can make all stems point up or down if you like. - Phrase marks can be added over slurred groups and in general work and look just like slurs. - Fingered tremelos can be created out of paired notes as follows: enter the 2 notes with half the desired duration - e.g., for a half note fingered tremelo enter 2 quarter notes. Then press the speed key for fingered tremelos and select the number of bars, any change in vertical spacing, any vertical shifting, and any horizontal shifting of the left and right ends. Otherwise the pair of notes are treated exactly like normal notes as far as justification and the attachment of slurs and other things is concerned. - A "Print to File" feature permits changing the destination of print to a file. The file can then be copied to an alternate printer port (i.e. LPT2), or taken to another physical location, MusicEase - Appendix 2 / 76 perhaps where a suitable laser printed is located, where it can then be sent to a printer using the DOS "PRINT" command or the DOS "TYPE" or "COPY" command lines. For example: TYPE filename > LPT2: COPY filename PRN COPY filename COM3: PRINT /D:LPT3: filename - Another feature permits erasing a voice through the entire piece. This can be useful when performing part extractions in ensemble pieces. MusicEase Professional costs $99 and is available from RMH Computer Services. All MusicEase files are upwardly compatible with MusicEase Professional.