Beginner

Professional

Notation

Composition Light

Composition Pro

The chords progression window

Subjects covered:

• Fast encoding and visualization of chords

Watch also the following video:

• Text, lyrics and chords (09'45) - Flash - Quicktime

Fast encoding and visualization of chords [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

Pizzicato Professional provides a window with direct access to all chords of the score. It is used to quickly and visually encode a sequence of chords.

Start from a new document and select the Chords Progression… item in the Windows menu. The following dialog box appears:

The upper part represents the measures, numbered starting from 1. An horizontal scroll bar is used to move and visualize the following measures. Right to this bar, two buttons - and + respectively allow to see the measures smaller and larger and thus to see more or less measures at once.

To add a Major C chord during two beats, do the following:

• In the central part of the dialog, select a 2 beats duration.
• Click on the Add button and the chords progression becomes:

The C chord is selected (in black). It is the current position in the progression. Click again on Add and you get:

A second chord is added just to the right. Its duration is also two beats and it is now selected. The current position is advanced with each addition of a chord. The characteristics of the selected chord are displayed in the left part of the dialog box. Let us modify for example this chord in Maj7 F on a C bass. Do the following:

• Select the F note, just below the progression (entitled Root note)
• In the chords table, select the Maj7 chord
• Check the Bass box and select the C note right to it
• Click the Modify button. The progression becomes:

If you check the box Automatic update, the current progression chord directly changes when you change the note, the chord or the bass. For the rest of this lesson, keep it disabled.

Now add a 4 beats D chord:

• Click on the D note
• Select the first type of chord in the table (empty box)
• Disable the Bass check box
• Set the duration to 4 beats
• Click on Add. The progression becomes:

Add similarly a 4 beats G chord then a 2 beats G 7 chord. You get:

The duration of a chord can easily be modified. You can lengthen or shorten a chord by clicking and dragging its right border. Move for example the right side bar of the G chord and bring it to the second red reference mark of measure 3 (the red reference marks show beats in the measure). The progression becomes:

Notice that the chord located to the right (G 7) is automatically moved. It would be the same for all chords located to the right of the resized chord.

By clicking on a chord of the progression, it is selected. You can then modify it as previously explained.

To insert a 4 beats C chord before the D chord, proceed as follows:

• Click on the D chord to select it
• Select the C, as well as the first type of chord in the table (empty box)
• Select a 4 beats duration
• Click on the Insert button. The chords which follow are shifted and the progression becomes:

To remove a chord, select it and click on Delete. The chord disappears. If there are one or more chords follow it, they keep their positions, but if there is a chord preceding it, it is lengthened to fill the space of the deleted chord.

You can also add chords in text mode. We will for example add the F, C Min and G# 6 chords to the progression. Do the following:

• Click on the last chord (G 7)
• In the text box entitled Chord name, type the F text
• Click on the Add button (this button is the default button, it is also activated with the Enter or Return keys)
• In the text box, type C Min then the Return key
• In the text box, type G#6 then the Return key

It is a fast method to introduce a progression of chords. The progression becomes:

Click OK. At this point, the score does not automatically display the chords symbols. You simply associated a chords progression to the score. You can use it thanks to the Chords… menu located in the Edit menu. With the selection tool, select the first staff of the score. In the Edit ... Chords… menu, select the Place chords symbols item. The score becomes:

Pizzicato created and placed the chords symbols on the selected staff. Notice that the chords progression is associated to all staves of the score. You could have done the same with the second staff.

Once the chords are encoded, either with the chords progression window or with the chords tool, the result is the same. You can indifferently modify them by double-clicking an individual chord or by calling the window explained in this lesson. Similarly you can transform the chords into notes, as seen in the previous lesson.

The check box "Update symbols in the score" enables Pizzicato to check all the chord symbols and automatically update them after you validate this dialog.

The last three options concern the score arranger. They will be explained in the lesson on the score arranger.

On the right side of this dialog, you can see the guitar chord diagram appear when you select a chord. You can click the Fill in the diagrams to ask Pizzicato to find diagrams for each chord of the chord progression. When you click on the diagram box, you can select a diagram from the library. See also the lesson on guitar tools.