Dear
Musicians,
This is
issue #64 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, CD publications, 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/Fax
++32 - 87.26.80.10
info@arpegemusic.com
Visit our site: http://www.arpegemusic.com
Copyright
2007, Arpege Sprl, all rights reserved.
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Editorial
In the last two
articles, we used a short melody and gave you some examples
on how to deduce chords, variations and a rhythmic
accompaniment. We will now study the melody itself: how to
structure it, how to develop it?
Often, the melody is
the part of a music piece that is the easiest to remember.
Indeed, we can sing it, aloud or in our mind. When the melody
has lyrics associated with it, the words reinforce the melody
even more as the main musical element, at least as the most
obvious one. The melody may be compared to the plot or
scenario of a film: it consists of what is happening, it is
the element by which attention is attracted. It is the main
discourse.
All music are not
necessarily built on that model. Rhythms, chords, special
effects may also constitute the pillars of a piece of music.
In every case, a finer analysis will help you to discover
that an accompaniment is in fact made of several combining
melodies. The main melody is put forward by various
techniques and this is why it is better perceived. But a well
trained ear will be able to detect several secondary melodies
that together make up the accompaniment. The techniques used
to develop a melody also apply then to create secondary
voices and other accompaniments.
What is a melody? An
elementary observation shows that it is a sequence of notes
played with a given rhythm and that has a beginning and an
end. It forms a unit in a piece of music. It is often used
several times, identical to itself or with variations.
One could set up a
classification system for melodies, based on the starting and
ending notes. A melody may start on any note. It may then go
in the direction of the last note, but it will often
temporarily stop on one or more intermediate notes, so as to
"rest" on them before going further. Here is a
practical exercise: whenever you listen to a piece of music,
locate the starting note, the intermediate notes and the
final note. You will notice that from one piece of music to
the other, the structure of the intermediate notes in
relationship to the first and last notes, will be quite
variable.
One could consider
that when the melody starts, it "knows" where it is
going. The listener who hears the first notes for the first
time does not necessarily know where it is going, but his
interest is attracted by the sequence of notes and he follows
it, each time wondering where the melody is going. When is
the last note reached? How do you know which note to use to
finish the melody you have started?
Harmony (a technique
about sequencing chords) and counterpoint (a technique to
combine melodies) can give you some rules about that, by
taking into account the induced chords of the melody, by the
"tonality" in which the melody is played, etc. But
do not forget that these rules have been in fact deduced from
the observation of the great composer's melodies of the past
and so represent what has been accepted in the past as
"good music". Music preferences change with time
and even at a given time, various musical cultures may have
various opinions on that. Therefore, it may be interesting to
go back to the origin of music, to its perception as
something agreeable or not, which is finally completely
arbitrary and only depends on the personal preferences of the
listener.
When you compose and
listen to a melody, what is the impression you get from it?
Does it look complete or does it create the impression that
something else must follow? Is it conclusive, interrogative
or evasive? It has some similarity as writing a story. At
which point is the story finished? It may be when all asked
questions in the story have been answered. But if you want to
keep the reader waiting for the next chapter, induce some
thinking from him or just leave him in doubt (if it is the
expected effect), then you will not answer every question
presented by the story. It is the same with a melody. But how
do you know if you did ask questions and answer them in a
melody...? The words of a story and the notes of a melody are
not really of the same nature and have no strict
correspondence.
The answer is simple:
just listen to your melody. Listen to it several times. What
is the impression you get? If it stops there, does it look
like an end, or is there still a tendency or desire to hear
one or more notes after it? In the last case, find the notes
that are missing and add them. Then listen again, do it
again, modify,... up to the time when your melody gives you
the impression it is finished and expresses what you want.
You may need some
experience and practice doing that, but when listening,
relax, try to perceive your melody as though you hear it for
the first time. Here are some examples of melodies that give
the impression that something is missing:
Listen...
Listen...
Listen...
And here are the same
melodies, completed so as to produce a more conclusive
impression:
Listen...
Listen...
Listen...
In each case, you can
in fact complete the melody in various ways. The result is
tested by listening.
As a melody starts on
a note and ends on a note, when we select two given notes, we
can construct a melody between these two notes. This may
trouble the classical harmony or counterpoint expert, as the
standard exercises of these disciplines impose a tonality
that rigorously limits the selection of the starting and
ending notes. This viewpoint is valid if we consider tonality
as the main foundation of the music piece. But we can also
take the melody as the foundation and it will then induce the
harmony and the tonalities that will build the piece of
music. The two viewpoints may be justified (if they really
need to be justified...).
It is true that the
choice of the starting and ending notes will have an impact
on the structure of the melody. By taking two notes at
random, there will be cases more easy to handle than others
regarding the way to conduct the melody so that the last note
produces a conclusive and ending effect. The cases used in
practice in classical harmony are indeed more easy to handle
than the general random case. The other cases will require
more practice and trials to find the intermediate notes that
will bring a conclusion with the last note.
Starting with two
random notes, how do you create a melody? How do you go from
Brussels to Paris? The more direct road will be the scale. By
using for instance C and C (octave), the melody will be:
Listen...
But as driving along
the highway, it may be quite monotonous... We will see in the
next article how to select secondary roads, byroads and
explore the lost paths so as to increase the interest and
richness of the melody.
Dominique
Vandenneucker
Designer of Pizzicato.
Aspects
and applications of Pizzicato...
Discover
the various aspects and applications of Pizzicato
Percussion
notation
Pizzicato
Professional includes several tools to write percussion
instruments.
First you
can select the number of lines in a staff. It is common to
write the orchestra percussion instruments on one line. To do
that:
Select
the cursor (arrow tool) and double-click to the right
of the percussion staff
A
combo menu entitled "Number of staff lines"
lets you select between 0 and 16 lines
The
"***" choice of this menu opens a dialog
box with which you can select the staff lines to
draw. You can for instance have a staff with lines 1,
3 and 5, which means 3 lines with larger space in
between, where you can write for example 3 different
percussion instruments.
Click
OK and the staff will be redrawn with the specified
number of lines.
You
can modify the clef using for example the percussion
clef (little rectangle). You can place it using the
clef tool.
If
the other staves of the score have a key signature,
you can remove that key signature for the percussion
staves using the key signature tool. You need to call
the key signature dialog box, select the Major C key
signature and check the "Only for this
staff" box.
Sometimes
the notes heads are modified to write the percussions, to
distinguish each instrument. The cymbal is often drawn with a
cross note. The note head tool can thus be used to
personalize the percussion instruments, for one note at a
time or for all the notes of one or several measures (Edit
menu, Change the notes heads...).
The last
point is important only when you want to hear the score with
correct percussion instruments. Often, in a synthesizer or a
sound card, percussions are assigned to a keyboard key. For
example the cymbal, the snare drum, the bass drum,... have
each one an equivalent note on the musical keyboard with
which to play them. The GM (General Midi) standard assigns in
this way a percussion map to specify the instrument
corresponding to C, the one corresponding to C #,... Maybe
this distribution is practical on the musical keyboard, but
if you write then your percussion part on one staff, the
score is very difficult to read, because the instruments seem
ordered in an arbitrary way (example : a bass drum with 5
additional lines, an instrument with a B flat but very
acute,...).
Pizzicato
includes a tool to reassign each percussion instrument to a
specific line of the staff. In this way, you can specify your
notation conventions: if you want for example a low C for the
bass drum, an high C for the snare drum, you decide. You can
reach the percussion map as follows:
Open
the instrument view and select the "MIDI
Parameters" item in the scroll menu which
appears while clicking in the top left corner of this
window.
The
"Pr" column is Percussion. Check it for the
staff/staves you want to reassign.
A
dialog box appears and you can assign a percussion
instrument to each note of each octave with a scroll
menu.
You can
then write your notes as you want and Pizzicato will play the
percussions correctly.
These
tools help you easily write most percussion parts of a score.
For printing and for listening.
Tips and
advices for Pizzicato...
Frequently asked
questions about Pizzicato
Print your
Pizzicato scores in PDF files
A file
with the "pdf" extension is a document that
everyone can read, print, publish on the Internet and
transfer by email. Would you like to create such a file with
your Pizzicato scores ? It is possible, and even for free. A
user of Pizzicato gave us this information so that you can
all use it, thanks to her! The software allowing this is
called CutePDF. It is free software for Windows that
can be installed as a printer. When you print a Pizzicato
document (or any other document in Windows), select the CutePDF
printer and the software asks a name for the PDF file to
create.
This
small jewel may be downloaded on the software editor site,
which seems to be a light version of a more sophisticated
software, but this light version is already very effective.
The address is:
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
On the
left of that page, you will find two links entitled Free
download and Free Converter. Download and
execute these two files so as to install them. The next time
you restart the PC, it is in order.
Installing a
Pizzicato upgrade on Mac OS X or Windows
When
you want to install a Pizzicato upgrade on Mac OS X, do not
modify the default options of the installer. The too common
error is to select "/Applications/Pizzicato 3" as
the destination folder. As the installer always add
"Pizzicato 3" at the end, you will then have
/Applications/Pizzicato 3/Pizzicato 3. If the preceding
installation was correct, the new files are not installed
correctly and nothing works anymore. Keep the suggested path
: "/Application" and everything will be correct.
On Mac
as well as on Windows, avoid suppressing or moving Pizzicato
folders and files, unless you know exactly what you do, or
Pizzicato will not function anymore. If Pizzicato does not
function correctly, you will see it quickly because it will
quit automatically after a few minutes.
If you think you have
not installed the upgrade correctly, just install the
original program and then the upgrade again.
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:
[image available on the site]
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:
[image available on the site]
The
white keys located between the 2 C follow the same order as
on the staff:
[image available on the site]
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...
Music on
the Web...
Music
related links
- http://intervalictuition.com/index.html An original
CD that brings you through a series of progressive
exercises so that you can recognize and use the various
intervals that make the structure of a piece of music.
The method helps you to learn the musical language:
melodic intervals (from one note to another note) and the
harmonic intervals (notes played together). Discover the
musical language by interactive listening.
The
commercial page...
With the
publication of Pizzicato 3.2, a series of updates are available
for Mac OS X and Windows, according to the version you presently
have. To know the prices and possibilities, see the order page on
our site:
https://www.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.
For users
of Pizzicato 3, there is a free upgrade available: Pizzicato
3.2.3 will soon be available for free on our site, in the
"Customer services" section, under the Free Upgrade
page. Check that page in the following days.
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!