This chapter presents a quick overview of how to use Nightingale.
Chapter Contents:
STARTING NIGHTINGALE
MIDI Drivers - Four Options
Memory Requirements
Opening a New Document
What Is the Insertion Point?
The Selection Arrow
SIMPLE NOTE ENTRY — Part 1
Using the Mac Keyboard and Mouse
Deleting Symbols
Adding More Systems
Single Staff or Double Staff?
Adding New Parts to the Score
Viewing and Listening to a Demonstration Score
MIDI Setup and Playback
More Features of Simple Note Entry
Nighitngale's Sync Lines
MouseShaking™
Inserting Notes with Accidentals
MIDI Feedback During Note Entry/Dragging
SIMPLE NOTE ENTRY — Part 2
Selecting and Editing Several Notes In Your Score
Shift-Click Selection
Command-Click Selection
Editing Functions
Beaming
Triplets and other Tuplets
Ties and Short Slurs
Long Slurs or Phrase Marks
Editing Slurs and Ties
Entering Dynamics
Accents, Articulations, and Othere Note Modifiers
Inserting Lyrics
Closing All Documents
Review
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STARTING NIGHTINGALE:
To start up the Nightingale application, find its icon in the Nightingale Folder on your hard drive. Double click on the Nightingale icon.
As Nightingale is starting up for the first time, it will display the following box:
"Can't find a Nightingale Prefs file in the System Folder; will create a new one"
MIDI DRIVERS - FOUR OPTIONS:
Next, you may see a dialog box displayed offering a choice of three MIDI Drivers: OMS (by Opcode), MIDI Manager, or Nightingale's own built-in MIDI Driver. For the purposes of this demo, please choose the Built-In MIDI Driver. A fourth option is available to you as well, which is to have MIDI Playback (only) going through the internal speakers of the Macintosh using the QuickTime system extension by Apple. This requires that you install MIDI Manager and an special extension called MidiQT (these are provided along with complete instructions in the Nightingale Utilities folder).
MEMORY REQUIREMENTS:
If your Macintosh does not have the required 2200K of memory available to run Nightingale, a message like the following is displayed on your screen when you start Nightingale:
"There is not enough memory to open Nightingale (2200K needed, 1700K available). Do you want to open it using the available memory?"
If you click on the [OK] button, Nightingale can be run, and you can continue this tutorial. However, you are more likely to see frequent “low memory” warnings displayed on your screen, especially as you begin working on large scores. Additionally, as you run Nightingale over long work sessions, it tends to require more and more memory, regardless of what size score you are working on.
OPENING A NEW DOCUMENT:
Once Nightingale has started, the following window is displayed:
"Which score do you want to open?"
• Click on the [New] button
Nightingale will open a new document named “Untitled-1,” consisting of an empty staff (pressing the Return key will automatically “push” the Open button for you).
You will notice that score contains a blinking Insertion Point, and that the Tool Palette is displayed.
Note: If the clef or time signature in the staff of the Nightingale screen appear jumbled, the Sonata screen font has not been properly installed. Refer to the Installation Guide Sheet.
A new, untitled document always contains a piano grand staff (see instructions under “Single-staff or Double-staff”, below).
WHAT IS THE "INSERTION POINT?"
Essentially like the cursor in a word processing program, the insertion point can be placed into your score anywhere you point and click with the black selection arrow. Just like in word processing, the insertion point serves to indicate where new notes will be placed. You can “type in” new notes by recording from your MIDI instrument (see Chapter 3, MIDI Playback and Recording), or you can copy and paste notes from other sections in the score.
THE SELECTION ARROW:
You will notice that Nightingale employs the standard, solid black Macintosh mouse arrow. In this manual, it will be referred to as the Selection Arrow. You can use it to point to and select various items on your screen.
SIMPLE NOTE ENTRY — Part 1 -
USING THE MAC KEYBOARD AND MOUSE:
Selecting symbols from the Tool Palette and inserting them into the score
You can insert any music symbol (such as the 8th or the 16th note) by clicking the mouse on its icon in the Tool Palette, and then clicking again anywhere in the staff to insert that symbol.
Each symbol in the palette has a shortcut key equivalent which you type on the Mac keyboard. Pressing the shortcut key selects the tool in the palette so you can click the symbol into your score.
For example, if you type the letter “q” the black selection arrow turns into a quarter note. Now simply point to a spot anywhere on the staff and click the mouse button. Each time you click, a new quarter note appears on the staff, and automatically shifts into place for proper spacing.
For notes above or below the staff, ledger lines appear automatically while you’re holding down the mouse button— move the cursor up or down to the desired position and release the mouse button.
REMOVING RHYTHMIC GAPS
New notes can be inserted before or after the previous notes. However, it is recommended that you always work from left to right, filling each measure as you go. This will help you keep the notes and rests in the various instruments lined up and synchronized. When working with more than one staff, it is very easy to create an unwanted rhythmic gap in one part by inserting a note in another instrument's part so that not all notes are alligned on the correct beats. A test MIDI playback of the region will reveal when some parts or voices have rhythmic gaps in them. Selecting the region and using the "Resynchronize Beats/Remove Rhythmic Gaps" command (in the Score menu) will compress all notes in the selected voice(s)/part(s) as fa to the left as possible, filling in the beats of the measure from left to right.
CREATING CHORDS
You can also insert notes (of the same rhythmic value) above or below one another, to stack them into chords. (To insert notes with different rhythmic values above or below existing notes, see the entry titled Multivoice Notation in the Commands section of this manual.)
USING THE QUICK KEY SHORTCUTS FOR TOOLS IN THE PALETTE
Here are the shortcut keys for some of the other basic symbols in the palette:
h = half note
e = eighth note
s = sixteenth note
shift - e = eighth rest
shift - s = sixteenth rest
i = barline
period (.) = dotted rhythm — click the dot on any notehead
Note for users who have experience using other notation applications: You can customize Nightingale’s keystrokes to match those of another program.
Many symbols, such as accents, articulations, fematas, and dynamics, can only be entered by attaching them to a symbol already in the score (usually a note):
f = forte = ƒ
shift - f = fortissimo = ƒƒ
p = piano = p
shift - p = pianissimo = pp
^ (shift - 6) = heavy accent = ^
• Try clicking a few notes and barlines into the “Untitled-1” document on your screen....
Special tip: If, while you are entering a symbol, you change your mind while still holding down the mouse button, simply run the cursor off any edge of the screen and release the mouse button; the symbol entry will be cancelled.
DELETING SYMBOLS:
Most symbols in the Tool Palette can be clicked into the score wherever you like. As you first enter a symbol, it remains selected or “highlighted” (it’s color on the screen is inverted and a small box is drawn around it). When a symbol is highlighted, it can be deleted immediately by pressing the Delete key on your Mac keyboard (called Backspace on some keyboards).
To delete a single note, rest, or other symbol that is not highlighted, simply click on it to select it, and then press Delete.
Some symbols, such as articulation markings or chord symbols, must be attached to a note or other object in your score. You may have to delete both the note and the symbol attached to it at the same time, or use the Remove Modifiers command (see its entry in the Commands section for more information).
ADDING MORE SYSTEMS:
A new, untitled document contains only one system on the page (the system contains a piano grand staff). If you wish to create more systems below the first one, move the mouse up to the Score menu and select Add System Below command (for more information, see Chapter 2, Tool, Menus and Commands, or the entry titled Add System After/Below in the Commands section of this manual).
SINGLE STAFF OR DOUBLE STAFF?
If you wish to work with a single staff part instead of piano grand staff, you must first add a new, single staff part to your score, and then delete the old piano staff.
To do this, move the mouse up to the Score menu and select the Master Page command. A new Master Page menu appears at the top right portion of the window. Now move the mouse to the Master Page menu and select the Add Part/Staff at Bottom command. After adding a new part in Master Page, you can select and delete the original grand staff (see “Adding More Parts for Step Merge Recording” in Chapter 3 of this tutorial, or refer to the entry titled Add Part/Staff Above or at Bottom in the Commands section of this manual).
ADDING NEW PARTS TO THE SCORE:
To add several new parts or staves to your score, use the Add Part/Staff at Bottom command as described above. You can have a total of 64 staves in your score. However, using the default staff size and paper dimensions, you can only add around eight new staves. Adding more may require you to change the size of paper using the Page Setup command, or shift to a smaller staff size with the Staff Size command in the Master Page menu (see the entry titled Add Part/Staff Above or at Bottom in the Commands section of this manual).
VIEWING AND LISTENING TO A DEMONSTRATION SCORE:
1) Go to the File menu and select the Open command
Nightingale displays a list similar to the one shown below, asking which score in the Nightingale folder you would like to open. (If you made a mistake and get something other than this “open score” dialog, it means you have selected some other command from the File menu; simply click on the [Cancel] button of whatever dialog box did appear, and then try it again.)
2) Click on the file named “Nightingale Demo Score”
You can leave open the Untitled-1 document if you wish. Its window will remain active, but behind the Demo Score window.
3) Click on the [Open] button
Now you will see the Nightingale Demo Score. You will notice that the Nightingale Demo Score file is a segment of Claude Debussy’s composition Images.
MIDI SETUP AN PLAYBACK:
• To Playback a score at any time, go to the Play/Rec menu and select Play Entire
If your MIDI is properly hooked up, you should now be hearing (and seeing) Nightingale play Debussy Images, and should skip ahead to Playback Options (below).
You can also use the key command equivalents for Play Entire, which is Command-1. Nightingale employs many such key commands equivalents for various commands that are in the menus at the top of your screen. For easy reference, they appear on the menus next to their respective commands.
If you don’t hear any sound, check the following:
1) Is the volume turned up on you amplifier/speaker system?
2) Are all cables to your MIDI instrument/sound source and MIDI interface properly hooked up to the computer?
3) Check the MIDI Driver Setup command (in the Play/Rec menu) to be sure the correct port is indicated
4) You may also need to test that your MIDI interface is working properly. You may use the “MIDI Interface Tester”provided in the Nightigale Utilites folder.
Of course, if you don’t want to worry about MIDI playback or recording at this time, you can forget further MIDI tests and continue on with this tutorial to learn about Nightingale’s many other features.
MORE FEATURES OF SIMPLE NOTE ENTRY:
Using the Mac keyboard and mouse
You may wish to open a new “untitled” document to try out some other features of simple note entry.
• Open a new document
Move the mouse up to the File menu and select New. Nightingale will display a new document called Untitled-2. You do not have to close either the Nightingale Demo Score or the Untitled-1 document.
Dragging up/down as you enter
• Hold down the mouse button as you insert a note, and drag it up/down to any position on the staff
Holding down the mouse button as you place a note (or any symbol) into the staff, allows you to “slide” the note up/down until the desired line or space is reached. Ledger lines are automatically drawn for notes above/below the staff.
NIGHTINGALE'S SYNC LINES:
Whenever you enter notes on two or more staves, you will see a very important feature unique to Nightingale, called “sync lines.” Nightingale will show you whenever the beginning of two or more notes/rests are rhythmically synchronized by drawing a dotted vertical line extending up and down the entire score, so that you will instantly know if you are lining up with other notes in the piece. As you learn more about Nightingale, you will see how important Syncs are to first-class audio playback and easy score layout.
MOUSESHAKING™
To switch back and forth between the black selection arrow and whatever other symbols you use when creating your score, press the Enter key on your Macintosh's number pad or “shake” the mouse from side to side (with it still on the table surface). This action “toggles” between the selection arrow and the tool you were last using, making it very easy to insert a symbol, then select it for editing.
INSERTING NOTES WITH ACCIDENTALS:
• Press the Shift key while you place a note into the score to get accidentals
In the same way you hold down the mouse button and drag a note up/down while inserting it, you can press and hold down the Shift key as you drag up/down, and you will see a choice of accidentals displayed in a small box next to the note. When the exact desired accidental appears next to the note, release the mouse button (before releasing the Shift key).
Rhythmic value selection: alternate method
• Press the Command key while you place a note into the score, and drag sideways to change rhythmic values
In the same way you insert a note and drag it up/down with the shift key pressed to display accidentals, you can hold down both the mouse button as you place a note, then press the Command key to quickly augment/de-augment the note’s rhythmic value. While holding down both the mouse button and the Command key, move the mouse right to increase, left to decrease the value, then release the mouse button (before releasing the Command key).
MIDI FEEDBACK DURING NOTE ENTRY/DRAGGING:
With MIDI Feedback you can hear each note the instant you insert it into the score, or whenever you change a note’s pitch by dragging up or down on the staff.
To turn on MIDI Feedback, go to the Play/Rec menu and select MIDI Preferences (the dialog is shown above). Click the mouse in the little check box next to Feedback on note insert and drag option.
Note: If a MIDI system is not hooked up, do not yet activate this option (it may cause Nightingale’s Playback command to be confused).
Dragging/moving notes in the score
• Type “d” to select the Dragging Tool—drag individual notes up/down/left/right
Typing the letter “d” turns the mouse pointer into an open or hollow arrow called the Dragging Arrow.
The same hollow arrow can also be selected by clicking directly on its icon in the Tool Palette or pressing and holding down the Option key.
Point the dragging arrow at a note (or any symbol) in the score, and then press and hold the mouse button. Now you can drag the notes/symbols either up and down, or left and right.
Note: For notes , rests and ‘c’ clefs, dragging actions are constricted so that they move along one axis at a time only. If you drag a note up or down, you will have to release the mouse button before you can “grab” the note again to move it right or left,
Bass and treble clefs, time signatures, key signatures, and barlines can only be dragged sideways.
For all other symbols in your score, you can drag in any direction you like. If you wish to constrict the dragging motion along one axis only, press the Shift key as you drag.
SIMPLE NOTE ENTRY — Part 2
SELECTING AND EDITING SEVERAL NOTES IN YOUR SCORE:
Dragging across notes with the mouse
The selection arrow lets you drag across a staff, with mouse button held down, to select/highlight notes and other symbols. In this way you select symbols on the staff exactly like the cursor in a word processor selects text. Highlight a region of notes in your score by dragging across them with the mouse button pressed. When you let off the button, the notes and symbols in the region remain selected/highlighted until you click the mouse anywhere in the score. Now you can copy, edit and delete the selected symbols.
SHIFT-CLICK SELECTION:
You can also “shift-click” (as you do in most word and/or graphics programs) to select/highlight an entire region of material — simply click the mouse anywhere into your score to place a blinking “insertion point,” then while holding down the Shift key, click anywhere else in the score. All material between the two places where you click will be highlighted. You can even jump to another page in your score using the scroll bars, and while holding down the Shift key, click somewhere on the new page. All symbols between the two “clicks” are selected.
Another Shift-click function is to let you point and click directly on several individual symbols, and, as long as the shift key is depressed, you will continually add more and more symbols into what is selected. You can also “unclick” a symbol, or deselect it by continuing to press the shift key, and clicking on any symbol already selected, and it will be released from the selection.
COMMAND-CLICK SELECTION:
Command-clicking in Nightingale lets you click on any number of individual, discontinuous symbols in your score, and only those specific symbols are added into the selected group of symbols. Some commands (such as the Cut, Copy, or Clear/Delete commands) require a continuous selection, and are therefore not available for editing discontinuous selections (See Chapter 4, Techniques for Editing for a thorough discussion of continuous/discontinuous selections).
EDITING FUNCTIONS:
Once notes are selected/highlighted, they can easily be edited in a number of ways. Nightingale’s edit abilities include, among many others:
• delete (press Delete/Backspace key or select Clear from the Edit menu)
• cut (under the Edit menu)
• paste (under the Edit menu)
• transpose (under the Notes/Rests menu)
• beam (under the Groups menu)
• flip stem direction (under the Groups menu)
• group into triplets and/or tuplets (under the Groups menu)
• set new rhythmic durations (under the Notes/Rests menu)
• change their appearance (such as special noteheads or stems—use QuickChange™ under the Edit menu)
• enharmonic respell (under the Notes/Rests menu)
• automatic clarify rhythmic notation (under the Notes/Rests menu)
We suggest you experiment freely with all these commands at your own pace. Each of them (with the exception of the last one, “clarify rhythm”) can be reversed or undone with the Undo command found under the Edit menu (or use Command-Z). In other words, its very hard to make a mistake which can’t be fixed, so use these edit commands with confidence!
BEAMING:
1) Select everything in the score by going to the Edit menu and choosing “Select All”
(or simply type Cmd-A)
All notes, time signatures, barlines and clefs are now highlighted.
2) Move over to the Groups menu and pull down to Beam by Beat
If you prefer to have Nightingale beam notes in larger groupings (i.e. four 8th notes beamed together), you can simply select a region of “beamable” notes (that is, 8th notes or smaller) by dragging across them with the mouse button pressed, and then using the Beam Notes command, which is also found in the Groups menu. This command is designed to follow your wishes and beam together any adjacent notes or rests regardless of whether they belong to the same beat.
TRIPLETS AND OTHER TUPLETS:
1) Choose the Selection Arrow from the symbol palette
(or simply press the Enter key, or “shake” the mouse side to side)
2) Drag across several notes to select/highlight them
3) Go to the Groups menu and pull down to “Create Tuplet”
(or simply type Cmd-3)
Nightingale will automatically create a tuplet appropriate to the number of notes you selected
TIES AND SHORT SLURS:
1) Select the tie/slur symbol in the palette
(or simply type “u” )
2) Click once on any notehead
Nightingale automatically ties/slurs the note you click on with the following note. A tie/slur can be selected and its direction flipped with using the Flip Direction command (in the Notes/Rests menu).
LONG SLURS OR PHRASE MARKS:
1) Select the tie/slur symbol in the palette
(or simply type “u” )
2) Click on a notehead (and Hold the mouse button)
3) Drag the slur line across the score (from left to right) to another notehead
Drag only as far as the very left-hand edge of that notehead to “sync” with the very beginning of that note.
EDITING SLURS AND TIES:
You can drag a slur/tie anywhere you like using the dragging tool.You can also edit a slur/tie by double-clicking on it with the black selection arrow or the dragging tool. Four small black shaping boxes appear, which can be grabbed and moved up/down to tilt and reshape the slur/tie into any shape or length, as with a bezier curve.
ENTERING DYNAMICS:
1) Select a dynamic marking symbol from the palette
For example, select f by clicking on it in the tool palette, or by simply typing “f” (or use “Shift-f” for ff, “Option-f” for mf, and “Option-Shift-f” for fff).
The mouse arrow is replaced by f (or whichever dynamic symbol you have chosen), which now serves as the mouse pointer.
2) Move over to the score and click-hold the f pointer on a notehead
(In other words, click on the notehead and hold down the mouse button)
-OR-
2) (optional) While holding the mouse button, drag the f below or above the staff and release the mouse button at the point where you want it to stay
Note: Nightingale will playback any letter dynamic markings so they are heard over MIDI.
ACCENTS, ARTICULATIONS AND OTHER NOTE MODIFIERS:
1) Select one of the “note modifier” symbols from the palette
For example, select a marcato accent ( > ) by clicking on it in the palette, or by simply pressing the “6” key.
The mouse arrow is replaced by a “cross-hairs cursor” which now serves as the mouse pointer.
2) Move over to the score, then click on a notehead
The accent is automatically placed above the note.
If you like, you can click on a notehead (and hold down the button), and drag the cursor up and down to place the accent or note modifier at a special height above or below the note. As you drag the cursor up/down, you can see both a sync line that shows which note you have attached the accent to, and a small black rectangle slipping up and down with the movement of the mouse, indicating the accent’s position above or below the notehead.
INSERTING LYRICS:
1) Choose Flow In Text/Lyrics from the Score menu
The Flow in Text/Lyric dialog is displayed.
2) Type the desired string of text into the dialog
Include hyphens where appropriate to divide consecutive syllables.
-OR-
2) (optional) Import text from a word processor
3) Click on the [Flow] button
The dialog box closes and you view your score again.
4) Click on the first note
The first syllable is attached below the note.
5) Press the Tab key to place each remaining syllable
Each syllable is attached below a note, and hyphens are automatically centered between syllables.
CLOSING ALL DOCUMENTS ON YOUR SCREEN WITHOUT SAVING CHANGES:
Before continuing on to Chapter 2, Tools, Menus and Commands, you should close all documents you have been using for experiments:
To close any document on your screen:
1) Go to the File menu and select the “Close” command.
As with all Macintosh programs, you can also close a document by clicking once on the “close box” in the left corner of the document’s “title bar”
When you go to close a document, a dialog box appears on your screen, asking if you would like to save the changes you have made in the “Untitled” document(s).
2) Click on the [Don't Save] button
If you click on the [Don’t Save] button, the “Untitled” document will be closed without any changes being saved.
If you press the [Cancel] button, the Close command you gave a moment ago will be stopped.
If you press the [Save] button, Nightingale will ask you to give a new name to your “Untitled” document. It will then save all the note entry work you have done as a document with the newly given name.
REVIEW:
You may wish to take a moment to review what you’ve learned about Nightingale:
• Simple note entry on the score by clicking with the mouse
• MouseShaking™
• Selecting various symbols from the symbols palette and inserting them into the score
• Dragging notes up/down or left/right in the score
• Shift-clicking, dragging across and highlighting objects in the score for deleting and other editing
• Placing the insertion point by clicking in the score
• Creating beams using Cmd-b
• Creating triplets/tuplets using Cmd-3
• Creating ties/slurs – type “u” and attach to noteheads
• Inserting dynamics – type “f” or “p” etc. and attach to noteheads
