Sibelius: Tips for Working Effectively

Transcription

1 2012 Sibelius: Tips for Working Effectively Katie Wardrobe Midnight Music

2 About Katie...4 Professional development & training...4 In- person training... 4 Online courses... 4 Free tips, tutorials, articles and news...4 Navigation and score view...5 Useful score navigation shortcuts... 5 Panorama view... 5 Best friends...5 Escape... 5 Undo... 5 Note entry tips...6 Better note entry options... 6 Numeric keypad... 6 Alphabetic and step- time entry...6 Pictorial guide... 6 Flexi- time entry...7 Set- up... 7 Start recording... 7 Note input with the keyboard or fretboard window (Sibelius 6)...7 Visual alternatives... 7 Selecting notes, bars and other objects...8 Selecting single notes or other objects... 8 Selecting non- contiguous objects (objects not next to one another)... 8 Selecting single bars or multiple bars... 8 Selecting multiple staves... 8 Great ways to copy and paste music...8 R for Repeat (great for ostinatos)... 8 Best copy and paste method: Alt (Opt.)- click... 8 Multicopy (fill up lots of bars at once)... 8 Overwriting pitches (whilst retaining rhythm)...9 Re- inputing pitches... 9 Filtering...9 What is filtering?... 9 What can you do with filtering?... 9 Example: filtering lyrics

3 Quick chord symbols (Sibelius 6 only)...10 Play the chord symbol...10 Instant arranging...10 One- click arrangements...10 Custom shortcuts...10 Setting Up Your Own Collection of Shortcuts...10 Creating a New Shortcut...11 Playback tips...12 Quick ways to play your score...12 Plug- ins...12 What is a plug- in??...12 How to Use a Plug- in...12 Some favourite (education- related) plug- ins...12 Tutorial Videos...13 Contact me (I m happy to answer questions )

4 About Katie Katie Wardrobe is a qualified teacher who enjoys helping people of all skill levels get the most out of music software programs. She runs her own business Midnight Music () which specialises in training classroom teachers, instrumental music teachers and students. She also regularly runs sessions for composers, songwriters and arrangers. Katie s sessions are relaxed, informative and relevant. Katie has worked in a variety of music and education- related workplaces, including Sibelius Australia and Orchestra Victoria. In 2011 she was the Project Manager of the Soundhouse Alliance's Music Technology in Education Conference and she has presented at more than 20 other conferences and events. Katie has worked as a freelance copyist, music arranger and transcriber for more than 20 years and is an Executive member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia. She also sings in (and directs) a 5- voice a cappella group called Quintessential. In 2010 Katie set up a tutorials and tips website to support users of MuseScore free open- source notation software ( and in 2011 she released an ebook titled MuseScore: The Essential Beginner's Guide. Professional development & training In- person training Katie runs music technology training sessions at schools, network meetings, conferences and professional learning events in Australia (and beyond!). Courses focus on the application of technology in education, in addition to the nuts and bolts, how- to aspects of software. Training is offered for Sibelius, Acid, Audacity, GarageBand, MuseScore, Interactive whiteboards, ipads, film scoring, podcasting, remixing, teaching composition with notation and more. You can find more information about professional development workshops here: /pd Online courses Katie now offers a range of online courses in Sibelius, Audacity, GarageBand, Acid, Mixcraft, interactive whiteboards, ipads and more. Courses are scheduled to take place after- hours (Australia) and consist of multiple sessions. To find out more, visit: /online Free tips, tutorials, articles and news Sign up for the free Midnight Music newsletter and receive music technology tips, tutorials and news about upcoming courses and events. Newsletter sign- up: 4

5 Essential Tips The tips in this session are all designed to make your Sibelius life easier. Adding just one or two of these techniques to your repertoire could dramatically improve the way in which you use Sibelius. Navigation and score view Useful score navigation shortcuts Page Up/Page Down Home/End Ctrl+Home ( Home) Ctrl+End ( End) Ctrl+= ( =) Ctrl+- ( ) move up or down your score move towards the start or the end of your score jump to the very first page jump to the very last page zoom in zoom out Panorama view Sibelius opens a new score in page view, but it s quicker and easier to work with the score in one long continuous line (known as Panorama view). Switch to Panorama view by doing one of the following: press Shift+P click on the Panorama button on the Toolbar (to the right of the Zoom dropdown menu) You can use either method to switch back to page view again. Best friends The two most important things in Sibelius: Escape Escape is your friend. Press the Escape key (top left hand corner of your computer keyboard) to deselect an object, cancel an action or stop playback. Undo Undo: press Ctrl+Z ( Z on Mac) to undo your last action. Learning to use this shortcut will save you hours of time because it can be used in ANY software program (not just in Sibelius) Windows Mac 5

6 Note entry tips The best thing you can do to improve your Sibelius use is to learn to enter notes into your score without relying on the mouse. Better note entry options Alphabetic Entry (computer keyboard only) Step- time Entry (MIDI keyboard and computer keyboard) Flexitime Entry Numeric keypad Note that the numeric keypad on your computer keyboard maps exactly to Sibelius s on- screen Keypad Alphabetic and step- time entry These two methods use a computer keyboard, or a combination of computer keyboard and MIDI keyboard. Pictorial guide 6

7 Flexi- time entry Set- up Flexi- time allows you to record your playing to a metronome beat. To get the most out of Flexi- time, go to Notes > Flexi- time Options first and customise the settings. Here are the ones I recommend starting with: Start recording Select the rest in the score where you d like to start entering notes Click on the Record button or type the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F or F A metronome will start straight away, giving you a one- bar introduction Start playing on your MIDI keyboard and hit Escape (or press the Spacebar) to stop recording Note input with the keyboard or fretboard window (Sibelius 6/7) Visual alternatives Open either of these windows by going to Window > Keyboard or Window > Fretboard Select a rhythmic value on the Keypad. Your mouse pointer will turn blue Select a note pitch by clicking on the Keyboard or the Fretboard Press Escape twice when you re finished 7

8 Selecting notes, bars and other objects Selecting single notes or other objects To select a single note or other object in your score, just click on it. It should turn blue to indicate that it has been selected Selecting non- contiguous objects (objects not next to one another) Select the first object and then Ctrl- click (Cmd- click) on the other object/s Selecting single bars or multiple bars To select a single bar, click inside the bar where there are no notes on stave line is a good place. You should end up with a blue box around the bar To select multiple bars, click in the first bar as above and then shift- click in the last bar. The blue box should extend around all of the bars Selecting multiple staves Click in the first bar of the top stave Shift- click in the last bar of the bottom stave (diagonally opposite) Great ways to copy and paste music R for Repeat (great for ostinatos) Select a note, bar or group of notes and press R Best copy and paste method: Alt (Opt.)- click Select a bar, group of notes or multiple bars Hold down Alt (Option on Mac) and click at the beginning of where you d like the material to appear Multicopy (fill up lots of bars at once) Select a bar of music (or group of bars) Press Ctrl+C ( C) Select all of the destination bars (select the first one and shift- click on the last one) Press Ctrl+V ( V) 8

9 Overwriting pitches (whilst retaining rhythm) Re- inputing pitches Sometimes you ll find that two instruments play the same rhythm but with different pitches. Sibelius allows you to overwrite the pitch of notes in a section, whilst maintaining the rhythm by using a feature called Re- input pitches. Select the first note of the passage you want to overwrite Go to Notes > Re- input pitches A dotted cursor will appear just before the notes and you can type just the note letter names on your computer keyboard (or play them on a MIDI keyboard) to adjust the pitches Filtering What is filtering? Filtering is the act of selecting just one type of object throughout a passage of music. For example: Selecting just the lyrics (and not the notes) for the entire soprano line Selecting just the dynamics in the Violin I part Selecting just the chord symbols in a Piano/Vocal score What can you do with filtering? Once you have filtered objects such as lyrics, dynamics or chord symbols, you can do the following: Copy and paste them into another part of your score (ie. copy the lyrics from the soprano line into the alto part) Move them all simultaneously (ie. change the pitch of notes up or down; shift text objects) Delete them Example: filtering lyrics Select a passage of music (at this stage everything in the passage should be blue, including all notes) Go to Edit > Filter > Lyrics (the lyrics will remain selected blue and everything else will be deselected) Hold down Alt (Option on Mac) and click at the beginning of where you d like the lyrics to appear (ie. under the first note in the Alto part, for instance) 9

10 Quick chord symbols (Sibelius 6 & 7 only) Play the chord symbol Sibelius 6 gives you the option to input chord symbols by playing the chord on your MIDI keyboard. Sibelius will identify the chord you played and fill in the appropriate chord symbol. Select the note where you want to start inputting chord symbols Press Ctrl+K ( K) Now you can opt to type in the chord, or play the notes of the chord on your MIDI keyboard Press space to move on to the next note The tab key allows you to jump to the beginning of the next bar Instant arranging One- click arrangements The Arrange feature is an excellent time- saving copy and paste method. It allows you to select a passage of music which appears in, say, in a piano part and instantly arrange it for multiple brass parts. Select the passage you d like to arrange Press Ctrl+C ( C) Select the destination bars: click in the first bar of the top instrument (ie. trumpet) and shift- click in the first bar of the bottom instrument (ie. tuba) Go to Notes > Arrange and choose the family of instruments you are arranging for Click OK Sibelius will automatically explode the material across the multiple destination staves. Custom shortcuts Setting Up Your Own Collection of Shortcuts Go to File > Preferences (or Sibelius > Preferences on a Mac) Choose Menus and Shortcuts from the list on the left At the top, click on the Add Feature Set button (Sibelius 6) or choose it from the drop- down menu (Sibelius 5 and earlier). This feature set (set of shortcuts) will become your own personal set of shortcuts 10

11 Give the feature set a name (I usually use my own name) Leave Base on default set checked (this means you will retain all of Sibelius s current shortcuts) Creating a New Shortcut You ll need to have an idea of where the feature (action) is located in Sibelius in the first place, in order to create a new shortcut for it. I ll set up a shortcut for adding a Final Barline as an example: From the Menu or category list, choose the menu in which your item is located. In this case: Create From the Feature list, find the exact item in this case, Final Barline and select it If a shortcut exists for that item, it will be shown in the Keyboard Shortcuts box. If the box is empty, there is no existing shortcut Click on the Add. button A small window opens and whichever keys you press next will become the shortcut for that action. If you happen to choose something that s already being used as a shortcut, Sibelius will tell you Type your chosen key/s and then press OK 11

12 Playback tips Quick ways to play your score Press the spacebar to start or pause playback Select a note and press P to start playback from that point in your score Select a bar and press P to hear that stave (instrument) on its own Ctrl+click ( +click) on multiple bars to hear a selection of staves on their own Plug- ins What is a plug- in?? Plug- ins automate mundane tasks and therefore make life easier for you. Some of the things you can achieve with plug- ins include: Automatically adding note names to note heads Automatically creating an accompaniment to a melody Automatically adding sol- fa to a score Automatically number repeated bars (ie. in a drum part where the same pattern is played over and over) Plug- ins are also useful for tidying up or editing your score, for example: You can round- up rhythmic values for notes or rest to the nearest crotchet, quaver or other value You can respell accidentals throughout your score all at once (ie. change all the A sharps to B flats How to Use a Plug- in Running the plug- in simply involves the following: Select some music in your score Click on the Plug- ins menu and choose the appropriate one from a sub- menu Alter the settings in the window that opens (if necessary) Click OK If you re not happy with the results, just undo! Some favourite (education- related) plug- ins Plug- ins > Text > Add note names Plug- ins > Text > Add tonic solfa Plug- ins > Text > Add brass fingering Plug- ins > Text > Add string fingering Plug- ins > Other > Add note names to noteheads Plug- ins > Composing tools > Add simple harmony (creates a simple accompaniment to a melody) 12

13 Tutorial Videos I ve made a few Sibelius tutorial videos which can be found on Youtube. If you d like to be informed when new videos are made, you can sign up to my monthly newsletter, or subscribe to the Youtube channel. The videos include: Melodic flashcards Rhythmic flashcards Short worksheet questions (intervals questions) Copy and paste to Word How to create drum parts Click on this link to visit my Youtube channel: Contact me (I m happy to answer questions ) Contact me regarding training enquiries or presentations for your school/network/event online courses music technology- related questions katie@midnightmusic.com.au Mobile: Website: Facebook: Twitter: 13