Dear
Musicians,
This is
issue #105 of the Pizzicato musical newsletter. It is intended to
help you to better know and use Pizzicato. You will find in it
various articles about Pizzicato, its use and aspects, but also
references to the music course and links to other music related
sites.
You may
send us any information to publish about music (performances,
festivals, exhibitions, music training sessions, Internet
links,...). You may also tell us any difficulty you have with
Pizzicato so that we can explain the solutions in the next issue.
This letter is for you.
We hope
you will enjoy reading it.
Musically,
Dominique
Vandenneucker,
ARPEGE-Music
29, rue de l'Enseignement
B-4800 VERVIERS
Belgium
Phone ++32
- 87.26.80.10
Support ++ 32 - 87.55.23.60
Fax ++32 - 87.26.80.10
info@arpegemusic.com
Visit our site: http://www.arpegemusic.com
Copyright
2012, Arpege Sprl, all rights reserved.
Editorial
Read all previous
editorials on page http://www.arpegemusic.com/editoriaux.htm
A new tool is
available, for programmers (beginner and professionals
alike!).
It consists of a
software library that helps to add music features to a
program written for Mac or Windows. You can easily add a
display area showing music notation, as well as play the
score with real time following.
Your program can also
import and export MIDI files, musicXML files as well as
Pizzicato files and it has access to all music information
(notes, pitches, rests, clefs, symbols,...). It can also
modify these information and structure a brand new score from
scratch.
This developer tool
(called "Music Notation SDK", SDK
= Software Development Kit) is quite unique, enabling to
develop Mac and Windows applications with many music
capabilities. With it you can easily develop specific
software for education applications and to help musicians and
composers.
The big advantage is
that you can use this kit to handle music scores information,
without the need to write tens of thousands of lines of code
just to display, play, modify or create music scores.
It runs smoothly with
the developer tool xCode on Mac as well as with Microsoft
Visual C++ Express 2010. Accessing the library is done in C
through a DLL or a Dylib. Three types of licenses exist: for
personal use, for commercial use and for education. You will
find the detailed specification, as well as a demo program
and pricing and conditions on our new site dedicated to this
product:
www.music-software-development.com
Feel free to ask any
question to me at info@arpegemusic.com
++++++++++++++++
Let us continue our
discovery of the basics of counterpoint.
As an extension to the
technique explained in the last article, we can now arrange
four notes against one note.
Third species
of counterpoint
We still work with two
voices, in the context of two melodies played together.
Three cases can be
analysed, with the three following examples.
1 - When all notes
follow each other (with no skip of notes):
Listen to the example...
The first,
third and fifth notes form
a consonant interval with the other voice and the second
and fourth notes form a dissonant interval.
In other words, the notes forming a dissonant interval are
surrounded by notes with a consonant interval, exactly as
explained in the second species of counterpoint.
2 - The third note can
be dissonant if the others are consonant. Here is an example:
Listen to the example...
More precisely here,
the third note forms a fourth (dissonant interval) with the
bass note and it is surrounded by two notes forming a
consonant interval with the bass.
3 - A more specific
case is also proposed, when the second note, being dissonant,
is followed by a skip of a third to arrive on a note making a
consonant interval. Here is an example:
Listen to the example...
This case may seem
slightly arbitrary (as well as the rest in fact...). Let us
remember that these articles about counterpoint are based on
the book from Johann Joseph Fux, Gradus Ad Parnassum
(1725), one of the first books explaining counterpoint, that
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven have studied with attention.
In most treatise on
harmony and counterpoint, the original reasons and
motivations often seem to be lost or neglected, which gives
the student the feeling that these rules are simply strict
and authoritative, without a full understanding of the real
why. There is also the liability that, from one generation to
the other, the authors - not understanding themselves the
real original reasons for the rules - may add and/or alter
the rules arbitrarily according to their personal music
perception (willingly or not).
The result is that the
original information is lost and that this area of knowledge
becomes more authoritative than logical, which makes it more
difficult to study. Maybe some did it in the past on purpose,
so as to keep knowledge for themselves and keep an advantage
and control over others, as this has been (and unfortunately
still is...) often the case in the various fields of
knowledge of man. However, this attitude is not shared by me
in my search for making music and music composition more
available to everyone.
I presently work on a
research project to find these "original reasons"
and their logical and natural explanations. By reading
several books of various authors of different periods, it is
more and more obvious that these reasons are related, much
more than believed nowadays, to the mathematical
proportions not only between notes but also between their
respecive overtones (harmonics). Pythagore already expressed
ideas in this direction. If you are interested, an nice book
is the one from Paul Hindemith, The Craft of Music
Composition). Another one is the first part of Fux's
book, which concerns itself with the various types of
proportions between numbers. Another possible source of
information that I did not yet investigate is the Italian
theorist Prosdocimus de Beldemandis and his treatise
on counterpoint from the year 1412. I sure will keep you
informed of my discoveries in that field, which will permit
Pizzicato to evolve toward a more and more intuitive music
composition, but based on the solid ground of a natural and
inherent logic, cleared of a maximum of arbitrary rules.
While waiting for a
more fundamental understanding of them, the rules of
counterpoint form a sure way to build a music composition
that will sound good (not necessarily express something, but sound
good...). It is the case of the three examples above.
The lesson to learn from this is that rules do not define
precisely the exact reasons behind their existence and that
one must use them with care and listen to the result obtained
when one uses them (or when one doesn't use them either) and
let our musical taste take the final decision.
As an example, if you
analyse a few simple scores of Mozart or Bach, you will
observe that composers have always done that. Take the
example of the Horn duets of Mozart (you can find the scores
freely here: http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/MozartWA/KV487/no1/no1-a4.pdf ) and you will see that a few
times, Mozart does not respect all the rules explained so far
in these articles and meanwhile the music sounds good (as we
could expect from Mozart...). You will also find that most of
the time he does respect the rules. The art is then to
know the rules thoroughly and be able to break them whenever
they are more a limitation than a help.
Here is a practical
example, where several combinations explained are mixed
together:
Listen to the example...
By adding more and
more combinations, the richness and rhythm independency
improves. This is the way that counterpoint study works. By
studying one type of combination with exercises, one can then
combine them together when composing and progressively
improve the melodic aspects of the music.
In addition to what we
have seen here and in the last article, it is also possible
to combine three notes with one. In this case, if the three
notes are consecutive (with no skip), the middle note can
form a dissonant interval.
Remember that the
numbers written between the two staves are the interval
formed by the two melodies. The consonant intervals are 3, 5,
6, 8 and the dissonant intervals are 2, 4, 7.
To prepare this kind
of composition exercises, you can simply:
- Choose two
instruments that you like
- Write the first
measure freely
- Complete the
other staff by using the rules already explained and
listen and edit them until you like the result
- Fill in a few
more notes in one of the melodies and find out with
the rules how the other voice could be completed
- Go on that way up
to reaching a conclusion and ending the two melodies.
- If you feel
unable to go on at some point, then go back a few
notes before and delete them and restart again from
that point, as you probably went into a difficult or
impossible combination.
This exercise then
gives you a structure that you can arrange in a style that
you like. Here is for instance what the above example could
be in a jazz style:
Listen to the example...
The transformation was
done as follows:
- Modification of
the instruments to fit the style: acoustic bass and
vibes
- Application of
the "swing" effect, that consists of
playing two eighth notes as a triplet of (quarter
note + eighth note) which is typical in jazz (this is
done in Pizzicato by selecting the measures and then
calling the Edit, Data modification article,
then by checking Swing in the left part and
setting the 100 value in the right part, then by
validating; only the playback is changed, the graphic
aspect stays the same).
- Splitting the
half notes of the bass into two quarter notes with
some octave changes, so that the regular beat is kept
active.
- Adding two
percussion instruments with a slight rhythmic.
As you can see (and
hear) counterpoint is not only useful to write for a
classical 4 voices choir. It can embellish all types of
music. The trick is to build a solid melodic structure with
the rules of counterpoint, and then add a specific character
to orient it in a more personal style.
I invite you to play
with it. Read again the previous articles and do the exercise
and then transform it into your own style. Composing music
produces joy in life and I propose to share it with you so
that you can experiment it yourself. See you next month for
the next example of this practical tutorial on
counterpoint...
Dominique
Vandenneucker
Designer of Pizzicato.
Pizzicato in US and Canada
You can always contact Blair
Ashby, at Broadlands Media, Inc. for any information you need
on Pizzicato and the way to use it.
Located in Denver,
Colorado, Blair is the official representative of Pizzicato
for the United States and English speaking Canada.
You can visit the site
and buy Pizzicato directly at www.music-composing.com
email: info@music-composing.com Phone 303-252-1270
Aspects
and applications of Pizzicato...
Discover
the various aspects and applications of Pizzicato
Methodology
to create a score
To
create a score, here is an effective method to get a correct
page-setting and avoid making certain symbol adjustment
operations twice. You can adapt it according to your needs.
If you often use the same kind of score, you can create a
template where several of these operations are already done
and start from there.
- Start
from the score template called "One linear
measure", located in "Templates ==>
Templates". Work in linear mode (popup menu in
the tool bar of the score view).
- Add
the number of measures and staves as needed.
- Fill
in the instrument view, specifically the instrument
names and select the sonorities to be played.
- Fill
in the characteristics of the instruments (double
click in front of the staves), specifically the
measure numbers, the braces…
- Always
in linear mode, introduce the contents of the
measures: notes, rests, accents, symbols but not the
symbols which extend over several measures (slurs
over several measures, crescendo…). Use the
automatic justification for the notes encoding
("J" check box in the tool bar of the
score). If the measures have several voices, use the
voice menu if those are too complex (popup menu on
the left of the score tool bar). Add comments in text
blocks, but only those related to the measures.
- Place
the chord symbols if there are any as well as the
lyrics.
- Select
all measures of the score (Edit menu, Select all)
then justify all (Edit menu, Justify). The measure
widths are adapted to the content of the measures.
You can specify a scale factor to modify the density
of the score. It is accessible via the Option menu,
Justification.
- Set
the spaces between staves in an optimal way. This
spacing will be used for all pages, therefore check
if it is appropriate to all measures of the score.
- Switch
to the page mode. If the page setup dialog does not
appear, call it with the Page setup item in the File
menu. Select the print scale (Pro version only),
adjust the margins and disable the measures per
system and systems per page check boxes. Pizzicato
will optimize by taking the measure width into
account. Check the "Calculate" box and
validate.
- Review
the pages and adjust the number of measures per
system and systems per page as necessary by using the
layout tool. Arrange so that the score is well
distributed on all pages and that no a half empty
page stays at the end.
- Once
this is done, you can review measures and adjust
symbols and add the symbols relating to several
measures (large slurs, crescendo…). Add the
title, the page numbers and any useful comment which
must be fixed on a page. You can then print your
score.
This
method contains the main steps. Adapt it to your needs.
Tips and
advices for Pizzicato...
Frequently asked
questions about Pizzicato
Switching
between documents in Windows with Pizzicato
If you open several
documents with Pizzicato, you can switch between them with
the following shortcut : CTRL + TAB key. It is indeed a
standard shortcut applicable to any program.
Getting the tablature from the chords
progression
When you add chords,
Pizzicato suggests you a chord diagram that represents the
chord for the guitar. By clicking on the diagram, you can
select another one or create a new one (Pizzicato Beginner or
Pro).
Starting with a chord
progression, you can ask Pizzicato to create the guitar
tablature for it. Here is how to do it.
- To create a
tablature staff, add one staff and double-click just
in front of it.
- In the Tablature
frame of the dialog that shows up, select for
instance the Standard guitar, corresponding
to the 6 strings guitar, with the most common tuning.
Click OK.
- Select the
measures of the tablature staff where you want to get
the notes. Select the menu item in Edit, Chords,
Convert chords into notes... Then click OK in
the dialog.
You will then see the
chords displayed as notes on the guitar tablature. Notice
that you have a rhythmic option in the dialog. By default,
Pizzicato will add a chord position at any change of chord,
but you may select a position at every beat or every two
beats,...
You can also see at www.arpegemusic.com/manual34/EN545.htm for more details about the
guitar tools, tablature and chords diagrams.
Playback
of virtual instruments - Interrupted sound
According to the
number of instruments playing together and the density of
notes in the score, the processing power of a given computer
may not be enough to play it all in real time. To avoid this
problem, Pizzicato has a buffered playback function. This
means that the sound of measures may be computed by Pizzicato
in the background and stored in memory buffers. When
Pizzicato plays the score, it plays the measures back from
the buffers. You can in fact combine real time playing with
buffered playing and select which instruments play in real
time or not. You can of course also combine these virtual
instruments with standard MIDI instruments.
Even if your computer
is slow and does not have too much memory, you will be able
to create an audio WAV file with the quality of the sound
library. In future versions of Pizzicato, we will work on the
speed and optimization of the audio playback functions in
real time, so that more and more computers will be able to
play all instruments in real time.
To
select the audio playing mode, click on the "..."
button in the score window tool bar. The dialog that appears
show a popup menu called Audio playing mode. This
menu has three possible choices:
- Audio
playing per measure - In this mode, Pizzicato
will prepare the playback sound and store it in a
memory buffer. This preparation is done for each
measure of the full score. This mode may sometimes
take a few seconds before the score starts to play,
as Pizzicato must prepare at least the first measure
before starting to play. While playing measure 1, it
already computes measure 2, and so on. In this mode,
it is the preparation of the audio buffers that take
much processor time. Playing the buffers does not
take many processing power.
- Real
time audio play - In this mode, Pizzicato
creates the sound in real time, as notes are played.
When several instruments are played together with
much notes, your computer processor may not be enough
at some point to make the sound continuous. In case
you hear a jerky or interrupted sound, you should use
the first mode, with audio buffers per measure. You
can also remove one or more virtual instruments and
use their MIDI equivalence that will not need so much
power.
- Play
all in MIDI - In this mode, the virtual
instruments are simply ignored. They are not deleted
from the score, but Pizzicato plays all staves with
the MIDI synthesizer. You can use this mode for
instance when the sound is irregular with the real
time mode or if Pizzicato is too slow while playing
with audio buffers. This may for instance be the case
for large orchestral scores. You can work them with
MIDI and when the score is ready you can export it to
a WAV audio file in good sound quality.
The
beginner's corner...
Musical
basics and access to the Pizzicato music course
The scale
and the musical keyboard
We
have seen that there are 7 notes named C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
The next note is again called C and the sound generated
vibrates exactly two times faster than the sound generated by
the first C. This interval from the first to the second C is
called an octave. In a more general way, an octave is the
interval separating a note from the next note bearing the
same name, such as for example from G to the next G. Here is
an example with C:
This
series of notes from C to C is called the scale of C. As this
diagram is repeated higher and lower, we will limit ourselves
to explain the contents of the notes from C to C. The same
explanation is valid between two successive C.
These
notes correspond to the white keys of a piano or organ
keyboard. You can easily locate them by observing that the
black keys are laid out by groups of 2 and 3 between the
white keys. The C are the keys which are just to the left of
a 2 black keys group. Here is an illustration:
The
white keys located between the 2 C follow the same order as
on the staff:
The
black keys of the keyboard are also notes that can be played.
They are located between specific white keys. With 7 white
keys and 5 black keys, you thus get 12 different notes. The
thirteenth note is again a C and the same diagram is
repeated...
...To
read the full lesson, see the lesson
on music The scale and the accidentals on our site...
The
commercial page...
EarMaster
5 - Interactive Ear Training Software
Have
you ever thought about what might be the difference between a
good musician and a REALLY good musician?
The
answer is very likely to be Ear Training!
Ear
training is the process of connecting theory (notes,
intervals, chords, etc) with music (the sounds we hear). The
more you will exercise to recognize this connection, the more
you will appreciate playing music, because you will learn
to understand what you play.
For
more information, go to www.arpegemusic.com/earmaster.htm
You
can buy EarMaster at https://arpegemusique.com/acheteren.php
Bandloot -
Manage the band money together as a band
You
already know that we care about your ear training skills -
now we also care about your band! We are thrilled to
introduce you to our brand new release: BandLoot.com
What
is BandLoot?
BandLoot.com
is a website where bands can manage their band money
together, as a band, in complete transparency and very
easily. What more? It's completely free!
BandLoot
enables you to:
- Find
out instantly who owes what to whom
- Split
bills and revenues between band members
- Manage
a band kitty (a shared pool of money for band use)
- Receive
and send email notifications when transactions are
added
- Access
your account from anywhere, as it's in the cloud
- Never
argue about band money ever again
Why
use BandLoot?
Money
issues have always been a tedious aspect of being in a band.
From remembering to pay back small amounts to your band
mates, to chipping in on time to pay for the rehearsal room,
money issues in a band are always one too many... Enters
BandLoot, a free web app made by EarMaster that will help you
get a grip on your band money!
The
story behind BandLoot
BandLoot
was originally an internal project for our own needs, as we
are all active musicians at the EarMaster office. After
conducting a survey on EarMaster.com, we have found out that
60% of all 2000 responding bands have had money issues, and
that 5% even split up because of that. Musicians should not
have to turn into accountants to make things work. This was
enough motivation for us to share BandLoot with you and make
it available for free.
"Anyone
can easily learn how to track money using BandLoot thanks
to its
user friendly design." - AppAppeal.com, 5 stars
out of 5
"[BandLoot]
is a great place to start out especially for tracking
basic
expenses and shared financial responsiblities."
- Hypebot.com
BandLoot
is currently available in ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN,
SPANISH and DANISH.
You
can create a free BandLoot account today and invite your band
mates on www.bandloot.com
Pizzicato
on Facebook
Join us on Facebook by
clicking here.
Pizzicato
upgrades
The upgrade to
Pizzicato 3.6 is available for download on page:
www.arpegemusic.com/clients3.htm
We
regularly release corrective fast upgrades on the same page.
If you
have an old version of Pizzicato, a series of upgrades are
available for Mac OS X and Windows, according to the version
you presently have.
If you bought
Pizzicato 3.4 or 3.5, you may download Pizzicato 3.6 for
free. The reference is the license number. All users whose
license number is greater or equal to 19000 can upgrade for
free by going to the upgrade section on our website and
download version 3.6. See page www.arpegemusic.com/clients3.htm. Install it and validate it
with your original license/serial numbers.
Otherwise,
to know the prices and possibilities, see the upgrade order
form on our site:
https://arpegemusique.com/achetermajen.php
In the
menu "You have", select the version you
presently have. The page will be redrawn and
will show the possible upgrades and their prices. To buy an
upgrade, fill in the form and validate it.
We
are at your disposal.
Our
purpose is to place music in everybody's hands
and
to bring people to more musical creativity
Use
Pizzicato and make music!