Always trying to improve Pizzicato, a corrective update 3.4.2 is now available. You can download it from our site. This update corrects various problems that have been signaled by users. If you have already downloaded the full version with the sound library, you may simply download and install the small size version.
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Do you think it is difficult or impossible to compose for a symphonic orchestra if you are not fully acquainted with music theory and orchestration? If yes, the following short exercise should help you to find some hope. Read it, but most important, practice it...
This orchestral composition for everyone example may be done with the demonstration version of Pizzicato Professional 3.4. If you have the license, you will also be able to use the orchestral sound library (not included in the demo version), and this will give you a much better sound rendering.
1. Prepare the orchestral document
Download the Pizzicato document at www.arpegemusic.com/download/orchestral79.piz (click this link with the right mouse button and select "Save target as..." then place it for instance on the desktop). Double click the file or start Pizzicato and go in the File, Open menu item and select the file you have just downloaded.
If you have Pizzicato Light or Beginner, you may have access to the Professional demo version through the menu Options, Program versions/updates... then by selecting the Professional demo version.
Once this document is open, you will see that it contains an orchestral score with a woodwind section (flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon), a brass section (horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba) and a string section (violins, viola, cello and double bass).
If you have a Professional Pizzicato license, you can now select the Edit, Assign virtual instruments to staves menu item. This will load the orchestral sound library so that you will get a more realistic sound result. More realistic and aesthetic sounds can obviously increase and stimulate your inspiration.
2. Explore the sounds
If you want to compose
for an ensemble, take the time to listen and explore the
sounds of the instruments. In order to do that, select the
"Global" mode in the small menu that
appears in the score tool bar (it displays "Linear"
by default). Select the reference mark tool 
on the main palette (in the Tools
menu). By clicking on the name of a staff, Pizzicato displays
a small red square in the area that can be used to play notes
through a MIDI keyboard or by using the piano keyboard window
(in the Windows menu). By clicking on the clarinet,
you get for instance:
Click on each instrument name and play some notes through your MIDI keyboard or on the keyboard window. Try to create a small melody with a few notes. Experiment, test, play, explore, take your time.
3. Harmony
Click on the "A7" button at the left part of the second tool bar of the score. The score already has an harmony, made out of 7 main chords displayed over 4 measures, as follows:
The next 8 measures reproduce twice the same series of chords.
You can of course modify these chords as you want. This progression is based on C Major: it starts and ends on C.
Check the 
button to color the notes according
to the chords that are present.
4. Giving rhythm to melodies
We will now use the tool that lets you draw the shape of a melody intuitively and we will (in fact, you will) create musical motives for the instrumental sections (woodwinds, brasses, strings).
Let us start to define a rhythmic in common to all string instruments. In the violin staff, write two half notes in the first three measures and one half note and one half rest in the fourth measure, as follows:
The pitch you use (C in the example) has no importance, as we only specify the rhythmic dimension. As a reminder, to add notes and rests, open the Notes and rests palette (Tools menu), select the rhythmic value you want in the palette and click on the staff where you want to add it (for more details see the lesson www.arpegemusic.com/manual34/EN180.htm ).
Open the Composition
tool palette in the Tools menu and click on the
melodic line tool 
.
Draw a melodic line as follows:
- Click at the beginning of the green area on the first measure
- Drag the mouse to the right, up to the end of measure 4
- Then release the mouse button.
While dragging, you determine the approximative position of the melody, its general shape, its direction. You can free your imagination and melodic creativity.
For a better precision, you can zoom in ("+" button in the tool bar). You get for instance:
At any time, you can simply redraw the full curve or only correct a small part of it. Just click and drag to mouse to the right, over the section you want to correct and the line will be modified. You can then listen, modify again, until you really like it.
This melodic curve is called a music vector.
Do the same with the 3 other instruments (viola, cello and double bass). First, add the same rhythms, so that you keep a cohesion between the instruments. Then draw a melodic line freely. Pizzicato will place the notes so that they are as close as possible to the line and are also part of the current chord. This will help to give a good sounding effect.
Explore and modify the curves and each time, listen to it. Try with straight lines or slightly down or up directions or in fact any combination or shape you want. Orient the shapes differently from one instrument to the other.
You can also modify the rhythms and use for instance quarter notes or whole notes or any other combination to test. These tools let you explore many possibilities, but you are still the composer!
5. A solo melody
Now that the strings create the harmony of the piece, let us add a melody with the woodwinds. Set the following rhythm on the first four measures of the flute:
You can now draw a curve through these measures, still by using the melodic line tool. An example would be:
6. Generalization
You can now continue to construct your score by adding melodies and accompaniments (secondary melodies).
Do not forget to adjust each time the melody. Even if you draw the shape you want, it often does not sound so nice at the first try. You must then adjust and redraw some portion of the line here and there so as to influence the notes of the resulting melody. You can also vary the rhythm. The possibilities are endless.
So here are the main tools that you can use:
- You can select or modify chords freely
- You can create a rhythmic cell on one or more measure for a given instrument
- You draw a first melodic curve, you listen, adjust, remodel the shape until it sounds good to you. Take enough time on this step, as it is important. Without it, you will obtain a sound ensemble that will lack musical taste, even if it does not sound too bad. It is part of your effort to express yourself.
- Add other instruments.
Do not err in the direction of willing every instruments to play all the time. In an orchestra, attention is often placed on a small set of instruments at a time. The attention point can be displaced from one instrument to the other. When all instruments play together, it creates an orchestral global effect where each instrument is mixed in the all and looses part of its personal expressiveness to the benefit of the full orchestra. It is only useful for specific moments but not as a continual practice.
To draw the melody, you can also reshape the rhythmic aspect and introduce some subtleties. See the details at www.arpegemusic.com/manual34/EN855.htm
You can of course combine this with the selection of new instruments and the use of effects (sound volume, tempo, duration,...) as you can do in the global view. For more details about this, see www.arpegemusic.com/manual34/EN569.htm
I wish you a nice discovery of these composition tools. They will help you, if you practice them, to start really expressing yourself with music, even if you are not an expert in music theory, harmony or counterpoint.
But please do not err in the belief that this is a "push-button" technique that will compose music for you all by itself. It is not!
You will need to work your music composition as much as composers who use their theoretical knowledge of music to compose. It is simply another way to approach it, another kind of tool.
But only the result is important: does your music composition express what you want? If yes, you win!
Dominique
Vandenneucker
Designer of Pizzicato.