Monster Media 1996 #15/Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO/personal/nw201.zip/NW2.TUT

Text File | 1996-03-29 | 24KB | 643 lines

NoteWorthy is  a music  word-processor.   It does not aim to be a music-playing
program, but provides output to printer in a very high quality.

It is  strictly WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get, so that what you see on
screen is - pixel for  pixel  -  exactly  what  you  would  see in a draft mode
printout.   The  full  resolution  format  merely  smooths  out  the   screen's
dottiness.

The WYSIWYG format means that what  you  see on the screen isn't the full-width
of the  printed music,  there's a left side and a right side  and  the  program
flips between them as you need to. The screen is about 2/3 of the paper width.

By the  way, if  you've not  run the  NWSETUP program  you should  do so before
attempting to print from this program.  It defines all sorts of printer formats
as well as screen types and which are saved in the file NW.INI.

Anyway the  purpose of  this tutorial is to get you up and running, so pin your
eyes back and follow instructions:



                                GETTING STARTED

You're reading  this tutorial  just now,  but you can return at any time to the
music screen and then return to the same page you left. Just press Escape to go
back and then Alt-F1 again to return. Why not try it?

See how you come back to the place you left?  Intelligent software, I call it,
but then I'm biased.

OK let's get started.

First a few fundamentals.  Back  at  the  main  screen  if you press Escape you
bring up the menu bar.  (I bet you've found that already.  It's a standard  key
to press when you first meet a new program). Press it again and it goes away.

On the menu you find seven headings.  You can select these in the usual way and
then submenus drop  down.   Select  with  the  highlighted  key  or arrow keys.
Again, press Esc if you don't want them and they go away.

Actually  you  can  use a mouse too if one is running, but this tutorial is for
everyone so we'll not be using the mouse here.  Once you've got the hang of the
program the mouse just helps you get around.
Next page please....
                                    SYSTEMS

In  this  tutorial  we're going to put down a well-known tune and some harmony.
It's actually "Frere Jacques", and we're going to put it  on  two  staves  just
like a piano part.

Now first we're going to throw away whatever you have on the screen.  If you've
been messing around already (tut-tut) I dread to think what rubbish you've  got
on it, but whether or no, we're going to start with a clean sheet.

We  need  to  select the NEW FILE option which under the File menu.  So the key
sequence is Esc, then F and N. Go  on,  you  do it - then you can get back here
with Alt-F1 just like you practised.

OK now you should have one single stave.  Frere Jacques needs two staves, so we
need to add another.  The long way to do this is to press  the  Escape  key  to
bring up the menu bar.  Then you can select the Stave option and select the New
option.  The quick way is shown on that menu - it's saying press Ctrl-N. (N for
new).

Pop  back  to  the  music  screen  and make a new stave by any method you like,
again pressing alt-F1 to come back here afterwards.
Next page...


Now these two staves are separated, yes?   We need to bind them together, or in
NoteWorthy terms to bind the first stave down to  the  second.   Your  I-shaped
cursor  will  be  on  the  bottom stave just now so get it up to the top one by
pressing the up arrow key.

OK?  Now you can bind the staves together with the [ key (there's a menu option
too under the Staves menu if you want to go that way). Go bind the staves.

So far so good.  But these staves are bound  like  as  for  a  duet.   You  can
bracket them too like piano music by pressing the [ key again. Go on then.

Now  that gives me the chance to illustrate one of the ways in which NoteWorthy
operates.  If you go back to the  music  screen and press [ AGAIN you will find
the  staves  separated.   So  there  are  3  options:   separated,  bound   and
bound-with-brackets:   pressing [ cycles around these options and operates from
the current stave. Go on - go back and have a play!

OK, OK the program's getting dizzy  now.   Make  sure you left the staves bound
and bracketed, and we can get onto the next section:



                                     CLEFS


Right, so now you've seen the music screen with an empty music stave.  As  with
most music, what we need first is to create a clef for the first stave, so make
sure  the  cursor  (that  funny I-shaped thing) is somewhere on the left of the
stave.  You can press left  and  right  arrow  keys,  or  Home will put it at a
convenient spot over on the left.  To make the cursor move faster you can press
the control key and the arrow keys together.

Got it in place? OK, now back to that clef. The package can manage 4 types, and
they are all created by pressing Alt-S. Once, twice, or as often as you like to
get  the  clef  you want.  Another example of cycling.  Do it now.  I suggest a
treble clef.













Done that?   Now  if your  positioning wasn't  ideal you can move the clef into
place with  the left  and right arrow keys, but the clef doesn't become part of
the music until you confirm it with one of two key presses:


          Space     : fixes the clef and moves the cursor on,

          Enter     : fixes the clef but keeps the cursor where it is


         Exercise:  Put a treble clef on the top stave near the left.








                                KEY SIGNATURES


Now for  a key  signature. Putting  this on  the score is rather like the Clef,
except here you press K (for Key  would  you believe) as many times as you like
to move through the sharp keys, or Shift K to go through the black keys.   When
you're  happy with the key signature and its position (use the left/right arrow
keys) again you can  press  Enter  or  Space  just  as  before  to make the key
signature permanent.


              Exercise: Place the key of one sharp after the clef


Next job: time signature of course. C and ¢ are available by pressing Alt-T but
let's put in a time signature of 4/4: just because it's slightly harder.

Cursor in position?  (if not make it so), press Alt-U (for  the  Upper  number)
three times - it cycles through the digits 0 to 9.  Then you should press ENTER
so  as  not to move the cursor forwards before entering the Lower number in the
same way with Alt-L. This cycles through 4,8,16,1,2 by the way.





        Exercise: Place a time signature of 4/4 after the key signature




















                                    REVIEW


Now we're  ready to  start entering  actual music:  but first let's review some
principles:

     1    Symbols are created with key-strokes and moved into position with the
          cursor keys. This applies to clefs, key-signatures and notes.

     2    They are accepted with Space or Enter (there are others, we'll come
          to those later. Until accepted they are "not yet there" and can be
          changed moved with the arrow keys. They can even be changed to other
          symbols provided you don't "freeze" them with Space or Enter.

     3    Clefs are Alt-S:
          Key signatures are K or Shift-K.
          Time signatures are Alt-U, Alt-L and Alt-T






                             DELETIONS AND CHANGES


If you make mistakes you can alter your work by entering Edit Mode: that's F10.
Do  it   now  and  return  to  this  tutorial.  The  nearest  object  (note/key
signature/time signature/clef  or  whatever)  turns  red  (or  grey  if  you're
monochrome) and  you can  move it left and right (arrow keys of course), delete
it with  Del or  alter it  in other ways as you will see. You can move from one
object to  the next  with Ctrl-right  and Ctrl-left,  and finish your edit with
ENTER, or  abandon it  with Esc.  You can change lots of positions or things in
one edit  session and  then complete  it with a single return. There's specific
help for Edit available by pressing F1 when in Edit Mode.

     Exercise: experiment with Edit mode, F10. Move some of the things around
          that you've put on the screen.

     HINT: If you seem to lose some bits of things when you're editing or
          adding things, you can type F2 for a redraw of the stave, or Shift-F2
          for a redraw of the full screen. It's on one of the Help screens.




                                ENTERING NOTES


For the  convenience of  real musicians (!) notes are selected by their name (A
to G)  once a  clef is  defined. But  there are so many other characteristics a
note can have (length, stick up/down etc) besides this that we have to define a
default, and this is shown  at  the  bottom  left of the screen.  It's Crotchet
Auto when you start the package.

This indicates that notes will be entered as crotchets unless you say otherwise
and that  they will  appear with  tails up or down as the position on the stave
demands.

You can  change the  default note-value by pressing any of the number keys 1 to
8, giving note-values from breve to hemidemisemiquaver, but you rarely need  to
do that as we can enter different lengths by another method.







To force the tail to do what you want, Press

     J    for tails up,

     P    for tails down (looks like a J or a P - geddit?)

     I    for auto-tail

     O    for no tail (useful for adding notes to stems at any old place, such
          as a D on a C's stem, or even chords.


We want to type in a melody  with  tails  up,  so  press J just now and see the
default change.









                           CASE STUDY: FRERE JACQUES


Let's type in the first bar of Frere Jacques in G:

The default should be crotchet, stem up.

     Type      G  space  A  space  B  space  G  space

Watch out,  here comes  a bar  line! Easy - that's / on the keyboard. It's just
like any  other object  - type / and move as you wish. Pressing / lots of types
gives you different sorts of bar lines.

     Type      / space

Observe that you got a complete bar-line for the defined system (both staves).

The second bar is just like the first: type it in.

And the bar-line at the end.



The third  bar is  easy, B  - C  - minim  D. The minim D is easiest produced by
leaving the default at crotchet, but typing Shift-D. If you press the  name  of
the  note  repeatedly (before completing) then the note length shortens, and if
you type it with Shift-letter then it gets longer.


Before we  get embroiled  in those  quavers in the next part of the song, let's
harmonise the  melody so  far. Go  back to  the beginning  of  the  stave  with
Home,  and  now  press Tab to jump from object to object.  Or Shift-Tab to move
backwards.  This is a really useful way  of aligning your notes and works right
across both staves.  It works like the Tab key on an  old-fashioned  typewriter
(if you remember those - they were a form of early computer.  Ahem).

Move  to  the first note of the melody, tell the default to be Stem Down (press
P) and on the next page we'll type it in.









Our harmony  for the  first four  notes is  a sixth lower. Type a B, and before
pressing ENTER, move it down an octave with the down arrow key.

Accept it  with Enter  and then Tab to the next note - you could just have used
Tab to complete it - and add the C,D and B to the next three notes. See how the
crotchet stems line up. Wonderful stuff!

The harmony for the next four notes is the same: put it in.

The harmony for the third bar is in thirds below, so pop in the harmony for the
third bar: G - A - minim B.









                                    QUAVERS


There's no  great difference  here between  quavers and the other notes, except
that quavers  can be  beamed together.  There's only  one rule  in this package
about the  beams, and  that's that  you can't beam one quaver to another unless
they are on the same stave and with the tails in the same direction.

The beam  is "attached" to the second note of the pair as one of its attributes
and is  made or  unmade with  the Backspace  key (that's  the big one above the
Enter key  on your  keyboard. It's  usually marked  with a backward arrow to so
should remind you of its function).

Let's illustrate this with the rest of Frere Jacques.

But first  you should notice that we're getting close to the right-hand side of
the screen (or maybe you've passed it). Anyway when you get there, you will see
the screen jump to the left and a second part of the stave come into view. This
is the  right-hand part  of that  stave (we mentioned this earlier), and moving
across the boundary will make the viewpoint jump around.








Of course it's hard to see  the  whole  picture,  so  we've put in a command to
enable you to see the whole thing, that's F3 (or on the  View  Menu  it's  Full
Screen).   It  toggles the Zoom In and Zoom Out. You can work in either Zoom In
or Zoom Out as it pleases  you  (and  depending how good your monitor is!), and
can even see the whole page view by pressing Alt- F2, although you  can't  work
in this extreme Zoom (we call it Preview Mode).














The  notes required are all quavers just now, and just for the exercise, type 5
to change the basic note to  a  quaver  length.  And let's have their tails all
up so press J.

Right. The notes are D-E-D-C-B crotchet G crotchet.

Type      D E Backspace D Backspace C Backspace

and you should have all the quavers beamed together.

The crotchets are easy:  Shift-B  Shift-G.

Add a bar line to complete.

Now I  guess that  you're getting close to the right-hand of the screen, ie the
edge of  the paper.  Perhaps its  time to  see one of the other features of the
program, the Compress and Justify functions.





If you  need to  squeeze any more bars in, you can compress what you've done so
far either  to right  or to left - usually to the left. Place the cursor at the
right-hand end of the music first (this  is  important)  and  then  select  the
Staves  Menu.  On here you can see System Compress Left.  If you select it then
the menu disappears and the stave has been compressed left from the cursor.

"From the cursor" was an important  phrase:   you  might want to widen a gap in
the music somewhere to insert a missing bar:  then you'd want to compress  left
from a point in the middle of the stave (and maybe compress right too).

The  amout  of  compression  is set at 20%:  you can change this on the options
menu.

Alternatively if you've finished a bar rather short of the right-hand side then
you can  place a  bar line  in its natural place (NOT at the right-hand side of
the screen),  take the  cursor back  to (say)  just after the key signature and
then select Justify from the Staves menu and bingo!  the notes are re-
spread out so that the bar  line  you  ended  with is nicely placed against the
right side of the stave.  Cunning stuff, this software.

Another bar line and you can repeat the whole sequence.



                           FILLING THE SECOND STAVE


Moving to  the second  stave is simple. Press PgDn and the cursor jumps to that
stave. In  fact PgDn will cycle between all the staves visible on the screen at
one time, and of course PgUp reverses the motion.

You'll need to add a bass clef, key signature and time signature.  I'm going to
leave you to do that:  Here are some useful keys:

Home       Cursor to left
Tab        Cursor lines up on next object
Alt-S      Define clef
K          Define key signature
Alt-U      Upper number of time signature
Alt-L      Lower number of time signature

And I'm going to leave the Frere Jacques bass part for you to fill in.  Off you
go  and  add  a bass part too.  I refuse to be responsible for the way it would
sound.


                              GENERAL PRINCIPLES


Now that  you've created  a piece  of music,  it's time to review a few general
principles:

     1    Symbols are created by a particular key-press, but are not fixed as
          part of the document until accepted by either Enter, Space or Tab
          (Tab jumps to the next defined symbol in the system)

     2    Until that time they can be modified in ways appropriate to their
          nature, or changed to other objects by the appropriate key-press.

     3    In particular they can be moved left or right, sometimes up or down,
          notes can be beamed (Backspace), dotted (.), changed in size (0) and
          other attributes modified. See Help (F1) for a complete list.








     4    Objects (once fixed in the page) can be modified by pressing F10 and
          entering Edit Mode. Common-sense rules apply to modifications and
          key-presses are the same as those for object creation, except that
          the delete key (Del) can be used to delete the object in question.

     5    Bar-lines are something of a special case. While they can be created
          from any stave, as objects they exist only on the top stave of a
          system, and so can be edited only on that stave.

     6    Squeezing in that extra bar, or expanding what you've got to fill the
          whole line is simple once the music is in. Place the cursor in the
          best place and select Compress or Justify from the Staves menu.









                                 OTHER SYMBOLS

Now and  again you'll need a rest (if you see what I mean). This obeys the same
rules for  length as notes, except it's the Z key. (Zzzz=asleep=rest, geddit?).
So you've got Z, and shift-Z. You can move the rest up or down a line at a time
with the arrow keys, the same way as you moved a note through an octave.

There are  in total  over 160  symbols available  in NoteWorthy.  Some  of  the
commonest other ones (like the eyebrow  thing which makes a pause - technically
called a fermata if you're in the know) are available in Symbol  Mode.   Symbol
Mode is fun and obvious: press Ctrl-F12 or select it from the Mode menu.

There's just one thing to be aware of:  EVERYTHING in NoteWorthy is attached to
a  stave,  and the stave a symbol is attached to will be the one the cursor was
on when you entered Symbol Mode.  (If you think about it you want everything to
be attached to a stave so that  it  gets compressed right, or moved up when the
stave moves up).  Consequently you'll find you  can't  move  your  symbol  just
ANYWHERE  on the screen, you're limited to a region around the stave the symbol
will be attached to. Try it and see.

You can always press Esc to abort Symbol Mode.



                              OTHER MODES - TEXT


You will want to add titles and expressive markings to your music.  Pressing F9
takes you to TEXT MODE, and if you've  got colour then you will find the border
colour change to remind you.

Now you  see the  cursor is a small cross: it shows where text will be entered.
Also at  the bottom of the screen you see the letters Text: these show the font
which you will be using. The font can be changed (before you enter any text) by
pressing F9 again.  Do that now, and cycle through the five fonts.  One font is
called "BIG" because it's too big to fit in that little space at the bottom.

Text can  be typed  (and moved  with the arrow keys). As with symbols, it needs
freezing into place with the ENTER key.

Adding text  is easy  - and  due to the WYSIWYG nature of NoteWorthy you can be
absolutely certain  that what  you type appears on your printout in exactly the
same shape and size.






There are  just three special symbols in text mode: press Alt-C for a Copyright
symbol, Alt-N  for a  natural sign and Alt-B for a flat sign. You can also make
special chord symbols which print out normally but change when you transpose by
pressing Ctrl-A to Ctrl-G.

And the  ~ sign  is a bit bigger and meets its neighbour so that you can make a
wavy line  for trill  symbols by typing "tr~~~~~~~~~" in text mode. We think of
everything.

While we're on the ~ key, it  can  also make an arpeggiando (spread chord) sign
when you type it in Enter Mode:  press ~ a few times and manoeuvre your  symbol
into position before freezing it.










                              OTHER MODES - LINES


Straight lines and curves can be drawn.  Press F11 to enter LINE MODE.  Now you
have a large cursor which you should move to the place your first straight line
should  start  at.   When you're there you can press Enter and that's the start
point fixed.  Now as you move the cursor a line stretches out behind you.

Pressing Enter  again fixes  the end of this and the start of the next line, so
that you'll  have to  press Esc  to abort  the LINE  MODE and  the  line  being
defined.

Why not try a decrescendo line? Move to the start, Press Enter.

Move along to the right an inch or two and down a few pixels. Press Enter, then
back to  the left  to a  point underneath the first point (the big cursor helps
here). Press Enter again and then Escape to complete LINE MODE.





                             OTHER MODES - CURVES


You can  draw curves  to indicate  phrases or  slurs.  Enter  CURVE  MODE  with
F12.  (Again colour screens change border  colour).  Now move the cursor (which
is a small box or set of four dots) to the start point and  press  Enter.   The
cursor  moves  slightly to the right now to get you started, so move it further
to the right to define a second point  on the curve.  Press Enter again:  now a
straight line joins the two points defined.  Move to the right again and up  or
down  and  define a third point.  Now you see a curve joining the three points,
you can continue this up for  up  to  20 points, but that's plenty because most
slurs only need 3 points and phrases 4 or 5.

One thing  to note  is that curves are drawn left-to-right so you won't be able
to move left past a previous point but in practice this is no problem.

Why not  make a few slurs on the notes drawn? They also look good when near the
ends of  the stems  of the notes (rather than the heads) and you should be able
to make a good slur using only a rise or fall of about 1 or 2 pixels.





                           OTHER MODES - BLOCK MODE

It's handy  in lots  of places to copy blocks of music or text and so on. BLOCK
MODE is entered with F8, and the instructions are all  at  the  bottom  of  the
screen as you go.

First you move the cursor to one corner of the stuff you want to copy and press
Enter. Then  to the  other corner  and press  Enter (as  the notes  say at  the
bottom). The  stuff you'll  copy is coloured red (grey) to show you what it is.
Now you  can move  to the  target position,  on another stave or the same stave
with the  right/left/PgUp/PgDn keys.

Now you  can press  Alt-C to  copy the stuff, or Alt-M to move it. Or you could
have deleted it with Alt-D. All in the prompt at the bottom of the screen.
              ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

Well that's  the end  of this tutorial now I've got you started. Now off you go
and read  the manual  - or  at best  browse through the Help Screens. There are
some sample files too to have a look at. Off you go. Enjoy!