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Composition tools - The smart link

Subjects covered:

• The composition tools
• The smart link
• The computed measure parameters
• Note parameters
• Rhythm parameters
• Chords influence
• Application example
• Adding smart link templates

Watch also the following video:

• Tools to compose music (13'28) - Flash - Quicktime

The composition tools [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

This is the first lesson on the composition tools introduced by Pizzicato 3. It is an introduction to practical music composition tools.

The next lessons are reserved for Pizzicato Professional and Composition. They use the conductor view, which is only available in these versions. The conductor view is a musical desktop on which you can manage several scores, virtual music keyboards, instrument definitions and groups of scores that may be played together to build a music composition. It is a powerful setup to compose music, for light music, ethnic music, orchestral music, contemporary music or any other music style.

The difference between notation software tools and composition tools is that the later will provide ways and means to help you to answer the questions regarding what rhythms, what notes, what chords will be used in the music. Those tools will help you to arrange, organize, develop and implement your musical ideas into full score music composition.

Don't think that the computer will compose for you. This would be silly because a computer is not able to create. It can only combine the data it has by following the instructions it receives, and this it does very well and fast. So YOU are the composer and Pizzicato is your helper to execute what YOU want him to do. If you try to find a push-this-button-and-get-a-nice-composition software, Pizzicato is not the software you need. So you will have to work, create and imagine!

The first version of the composition tools was implemented in Pizzicato version 1, in 1995. You may find this system in the lessons on Composition Libraries (1) to (6) in this manual. Pizzicato 3 has kept the same basic principle but has made a much more user friendly interface to use them. Also, several new concepts and tools have been added to the original version so as to make it even more powerful and easy to use.

The basic principle is that music can be broken down into the following simple items : rhythms, melodies, chords and effects. Any music composition could be constructed on those basic building blocks. Music becomes a construction game, using simple building blocks to create structures and assemble those structures into more complex structures and into music compositions.

The first step is explained in this lesson : the tool that lets you combine those items together to build a structure. It is the first level of construction. You will learn how rhythms, melodies and chords may be combined, as though they were bricks to assemble with mortar. This tool is called the smart link.

The smart link [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

The smart link lets you take rhythmic values found somewhere in a score, melodic values found anywhere else in the score, chords in even another set of measures and combine them all into one or more measures. For Pizzicato Professional and Composition, the three items (rhythm, melody and chord) may even come from different scores (but all inside the same document).

It is like a mixer you can feed with rhythms, melodies and chords. The resulting music is a set of measures called computed measures.

We have seen that a measure may have one or more versions and that at any time, only one version of the measure is visible and active. In addition to that, a measure may also have a special version called a computed version. By default, the computed version is not present, but the use of the smart link function will automatically add a computed version to the measures as needed.

Any measure may become a computed measure. It will then memorize the resulting computed content in the computed version of the measure, in addition to its normal content and versions (which will always remain untouched).

The important point to understand with a smart link is that the original source of rhythms, melodies and chords stay connected to the resulting computed measures. A change in any one of the source components may affect the computed measures. It is like a spreadsheet: a cell may be recomputed when another cell - to which it is related - is modified. Let us explain this with some examples.

• Open the example Ex080. It contains a simple scale that we will use as a simple melody example:

• The smart link can be seen as similar to the paste function. You must first select and copy one or more measures and then smart link them on another set of measure (or on itself). Select the two above measures and copy them (Edit, Copy menu). Then select the third measure of the staff and choose the Edit, Smart link... menu. Its shortcut keyboard is CTRL + B (on Mac, apple key+B). The following dialog appears:

• This dialog contains several templates of smart links. These templates may be used very easily. Let us try the template named Exact copy x 2. This link creates two duplicates of the selected measures. Click this template and then click on Paste. The score becomes:

• You can see that the melody has been copied two times, exactly duplicating the original melody and starting from the smart link target measure (the measure that was selected before calling the smart link dialog). You may also notice that the computed measures have their backgrounds colored. This is used to recognize that a measure is displaying its computed version in place of its current normal version. We will see a little further why two different colors are used. The original version of these four measures were empty. You can easily switch between normal and computed versions of the score by using the C check box located in the tool bar of the score :

• Click two times on this check box and the score displays the normal versions for all measures. The computed measures are invisible but they still exist. Click again on this check box to see the computed versions. This check box is checked when its last use was to display the computed versions. As you add other smart links into the score, or as you manage the parameters of the computed measures (as we will explain further), the score may display only some of the computed measures. This check box is then used to synchronize the display (all computed measures or all normal versions). When you ask to display the computed version for a measure that has no computed version (as the first two measures of the score), Pizzicato displays its normal version instead.

• Now modify the first original measure to have:

• As measures 3 to 6 are smart links (exact copies) of the first two measures, you may ask Pizzicato to update the computed versions of the score to take into account the changes made in the original measures. Select the Edit, Update smart links menu. Its shortcut is CTRL+R (apple key + R on Mac). The score now displays the updated computed measures:

Notice that you may edit the computed measure content, but whenever you ask Pizzicato to update them, the change you made will be overwritten by the updated computed version. This simple melody could have been 16 measures long and be smart linked fifty times through all instruments of a full orchestral score. Pizzicato would have updated the full score from the changes you made in the original theme. Quite practical to test some changes in a score.

• Copy again the first two measures and smart link them into the first measure of staff 2. In the dialog, select Time flexible copy. Two parameters appear in the right part of the dialog. Fill in the Rhythm duration division text box with "2". All rhythm durations will be divided by 2. Click on Paste and the score becomes:

The melody is now two times faster with the same notes. The smart link is not only a copy of the melody but also contains several transformation parameters that may affect the content of the measures. Here is a brief explanation of the various templates proposed in the smart link dialog box:

• The first four templates are copies of the original measures (1, 2, 3 and 4 times).
• The Multiple exact copy takes two parameters : the number of times the rhythms and the notes are duplicated.
• We have seen the Time flexible copy that may be used to multiply/divide the rhythmic values.
• The next 6 templates have fixed transposition values. They transpose the notes of the original measures.
• The General transposition template lets you select the transposition interval, its type and an additional octave transposition.
• The Copy with rhythm inversion takes the notes in the original order but the rhythms in the reverted order.
• The Copy with note inversion takes the notes in the reverted order and the rhythm in the original order. This would give for our example:

• The next template takes both rhythms and notes in the reverted order.
• The Random copy randomizes the rhythms and notes to have a new melody based on the notes and rhythmic values found in the original melody.
• The next template, General copy combining rhythms and/or notes contains several parameters to create a copy with multiple options. We will explain each parameter in the next chapter.
• The next template gives you the opportunity to use a mirror copy based on notes and/or rhythms. One example with our melody would be the diatonic mirror copy based on the C note (mirror reference):

• The next template lets you arrange the notes of a melody on chords.
• The Coppy of rhythms only copies the rhythmic values of the source measures. Used alone, the resulting computed measure is empty, because a measure needs at least rhythms and notes to display something. It can be used in combination with the following template.
• The Copy of notes only copies the note values of the source measures. Used in combination with the previous option, you may copy the rhythmic values of one measure and combine them with note values from another measure. We will see an example of this at the end of this lesson.
• The next template lets you arrange and transpose notes based on a chord.

 

The computed measure parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

Behind the smart link function, there is a series of parameters attached to the target measure. They determine how the smart link must be computed. Each template found in the smart link dialog is in fact a predefined set of these parameters, with some of them being available in the right part of the dialog.

Applying a smart link to a measure attaches all these parameters to the first target measure. Those parameters are available at any time from the measure itself. They may also be added to a measure without the application of the smart link dialog. To access these parameters, click with the right button on a measure (without selecting a measure) and choose the Smart link parameters... menu. The following dialog box appears:

These parameters are divided into three sections : notes, rhythms and chords. We will explain them by section in the rest of this lesson.

When you validate the dialog, the parameters are attached to the measure. If you click on Delete, the parameters are removed from the measure.

These parameters are attached to one measure, but they may affect several measures that follow it. When displaying the computed versions of the score, Pizzicato draws a different background color for the measures that contain computing parameters, as seen in the beginning of this lesson. You can then easily differentiate computed versions with computing parameters and computed versions which are only affected by the parameters of a previous measure.

There are basically three sources that are combined to create the computed measures. Each source is independantly extracted from same or different measures and recombined to form the computed measure. These sources are the notes, the rhythms and the chords.

As the three sources may contain several measures, the resulting notes may fill much more than the current measure. To the right of the dialog box, a parameter entitled Number of affected measures may limit the number of measures that will be affected by the computation. If this parameter is "1", then this measure will only affect its own computed version. If this parameter is "2", then it will also affect the next measure computed version, and so on.

Note parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

The note parameters affect only the pitch of the note but not its rhytmic value.

• The first four menus determine the first source measure from which the notes will be extracted to create the computed version. In case of multiple scores inside the same document (Pizzicato Professional only), you may select the source score for notes. The second menu determines the source staff inside the score and the third determines the measure number. With the last menu, you may select the version of the measure, if the measure contains more than one version.

• The box entitled Number of measures used determines how many measures will be used as the source for notes.

• The box entitled Number of notes used may be filled to limit the number of notes. If equal to zero, there will be no limit: all notes of the measures will be used.

• The next box, entitled Limit the number of notes to may be used to limit the total number of notes generated in the resulting computed measures. When zero, no limit is imposed.

• The box entitled Use each note ... time(s) may be used to use one note several times before going to the next note. If notes are C, D and F and this box contains 3, the sequence will be C,C,C,D,D,D,F,F,F.

• The box entitled Use all notes ... time(s) determines how many times the all set of notes will be used. If notes are C, D and F and this box contains 3, the sequence will be C,D,F,C,D,F,C,D,F. The effect is not the same as the previous parameter.

• The Sequence menu will determine the order in which notes are used. Three choices are possible: Ordered, Inverted and Random. In the last case, notes are picked up randomly in the set of notes to build the computed version of measures.

• The Melodic mirror menu is used to create an effect similar to the use of an horizontal mirror: each note is reflected in this mirror and is replaced by the note which is at the same distance from the mirror but at the other side of it. The mirror reference note may be defined with the Select... button which displays a keyboard where you can click the reference note. The mirror may be Diatonic - which means that the interval is taken into account but not the real number of half tones - or chromatic - the notes are mirrored according to the number of half tones from the mirror. In the first case, the melody will easily fit in the same tonality but with chromatic mirror, the melody could have accidentals and change tonality.

• The last three menus may define a transposition that can be applied to the notes.

All these parameters may be used separately or may be combined. The resulting series of notes will then be combined to the resulting series of rhythmic values, as we will now explain.

Rhythm parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

The rhythm parameters do not affect the pitch of notes but only their rhytmic values.

• The first four menus determine the first source measure from which the rhythmic values will be extracted to create the computed version. In case of multiple scores inside the same document (Pizzicato Professional only), you may select the source score for notes. The second menu determines the source staff inside the score and the third determines the measure number. With the last menu, you may select the version of the measure, if the measure contains more than one version.

• The box entitled Number of measures used determines how many measures will be used as the source for rhythms.

• The box entitled Number of rhythms used may be filled to limit the number of rhythmic values. If equal to zero, there will be no limit: all rhythmic values of the measures will be used.

• The next box, entitled Limit the number of rhythms to may be used to limit the total number of rhythms generated in the resulting computed measures. When zero, no limit is imposed.

• The box entitled Use each rhythm ... time(s) may be filled to use the same rhythmic value several times before going to the next one. If rhythms are 4 (Quarter note), 8 (8th note) and 16 (16th note) and if this box contains 3, the sequence of rhythmic values will be 4,4,4,8,8,8,16,16,16.

• The box entitled Use all rhythms ... time(s) determines how many times the all set of rhythms will be used. If rhythms are 4 (Quarter note), 8 (8th note) and 16 (16th note) and if this box contains 3, the sequence of rhythmic values will be 4,8,16,4,8,16,4,8,16.

• The Sequence menu will determine the order in which rhythmic values are used. Three choices are possible: Ordered, Inverted and Random. In the last case, rhythmic values are picked up randomly in the set of values to build the computed version of measures.

• Two text boxes let you multiply and/or divide the duration of all rhythmic values. This makes the melody slower of faster in relation to the main tempo of the score.

• The Rhythmic mirror check box is used to create an effect similar to the note mirror. Here the choice is made between the standard rhythmic values: whole note, half note, quarter note,... A rhythmic value is selected as the reference value and all rhythmic values are mirrored against this value. For instance, if the reference is the quarter note, a whole note will become a 16th note and an half note will become an 8th note.

All these parameters may be used separately or combined. The resulting series of rhythmic values will then be combined one by one to the resulting series of notes.

Chords influence [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

Additionally to the various parameters that affect the notes, the melody may also be adapted to fit a given chord progression.

• The first two menus determine the location of the chord progression. Remember that you may create a chord progression in any score (see the lesson on chord symbols and chord progressions). If the first menu is set on --- Current chord ---, the melody will be influenced by the chords present in the target measure. If you select another staff (Pizzicato Professional), you may then specify the first measure containing the chords you want to use.

• The following text box specifies how many measures you want to include as a source for chords.

• The Influence menu determines how notes will be modified to fit the chords. The default choice specifies No influence. The Arrange choice means that each note will be compared to the current chord. If the note is one of the chord notes, it is not changed. If the note is not included in the chord notes, then it is replaced by a note of the chord that is the closest to the original note. In this way, a melody will be arranged to fit the chord. The Transpose choice is different. The original note will be considered to be a note in relation to the C Maj chord. It will then be transposed in the current chord, in the same relative position. It is mainly used for bass instruments. As an example, if the sequence of note is C,D,G and if the chord is D Maj, then the notes will become D,E,A which in D Maj are degrees I, II and V like C,D,G are in C Maj. The next choice cumulates both effects. The Smart arranging choice is reserved for the score arranger and will be explained in a specific lesson.

• The Minimal duration to arrange specifies a rhythmic value in units (1 quarter note equals 480 units). If the original rhythmic value is less than this value, the note is left untouched. This option can be used to enable fast notes to be left untouched. Otherwise, an arranged melody would become too monotonous by using only the notes of the chords.

Application example [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

As the above parameters may combine each one with the others and as the source measures may contain practically anything that can be written in music notation, the number of possibilites offered by this system are numerous. You will need to make your own experiments and use your imagination to be creative with it. Here is a detailed example of application where we will create a random melody, with some given notes and rhythms and we will arrange it based on a given chord progression.

• Open the Ex081 example document. The lower system contains the music material we will use, in measures 6 to 8:

For the main melody, we will randomly use the notes of measures 6 and 7 and the rhythm pattern of measure 8. We will structure our score on the upper system, considering the lower system as a scratch pad where we prepare the notes and rhythms we need.

• With the right mouse button, click on the first measure of the first system and select the Smart link parameters... menu. The computed measure parameters dialog box appears.

• For the note parameters:

• Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the notes to use.
• Set the Number of measures to use to "2" (we want to use measures 6 and 7, starting at 6).
• Set the Sequence menu to Random because we want the notes of our melody to be made of randomly choosen notes from measures 6 and 7.

• For the rhythm parameters:

• Select the last measure 8 / 8 as the first measure of the rhythms to use. Measure 8 contains the rhythm pattern we want our melody to use.
• If we keep it like this, the rhythms will only be used one time. We want 4 measures so we set to "4" the Use all rhythms ... time(s) text box.

• For the chords parameters:

• There are 4 chords in this score. They start on measure 1. We need to use the chords on 4 measures, so we put the Number of measures used to "4".
• Set the Influence menu on Arrange which means that the notes will be adjusted so they are all part of the current chord.

• Finally, as we need computed versions for 4 measures, we set the Number of affected measures to "4". Click on OK and the upper system staff becomes for instance:

We say "for instance", because as the notes are randomly selected, the melody may look totally different on your computer. In fact, each time you ask Pizzicato to update the measures (CTRL/Apple key + R), a new melody is generated. Try it a few times. In all instances and according to the options we have selected, you will notice that:

• The rhythm is always the same, it is based on the rhythmic content of measure 8.
• The notes inside a measure are all contained in the chord mentioned just above the staff. This is because we asked the notes to be arranged on the chords.

If needed you may call the computed measure parameters dialog to modify the selected options. It is attached to measure 1, which has a different color background compared to measures 2 to 4 (those computed versions are the result of the parameters assigned to measure 1, but measures 2 to 4 do not contain parameters).

We will now create the second staff content, based on measure 6, staff 2. This measure will be used 4 times and will be arranged on the chords.

• With the right mouse button, click on the measure 1 of staff 2 and select the Smart link parameters... menu. The computed measure parameters dialog box appears.

• For the note parameters:

• Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the notes to use.
• Set the Use all notes to "4" so as to cover 4 measures.

• For the rhythm parameters:

• Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the rhythms to use.
• Set the Use all rhythms to "4" so as to cover 4 measures.

• For the chords parameters:

• There are 4 chords in this score. They start on measure 1. We need to use the chords on 4 measures, so we put the Number of measures used to "4".
• Set the Influence menu on Arrange which means that the notes will be adjusted so they are all part of the current chord.

• Finally, as we need computed versions for 4 measures, we set the Number of affected measures to "4". Click on OK and the upper system staff becomes:

As no random option was selected, the second staff is unequivocally determined.

We will now create the third staff content, based on measure 6, staff 3. This measure will be used 4 times and will use the chords.

• With the right mouse button, click on the measure 1 of staff 3 and select the Smart link parameters... menu. The computed measure parameters dialog box appears again.

• For the note parameters:

• Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the notes to use.
• Set the Use all notes to "4" so as to cover 4 measures.

• For the rhythm parameters:

• Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the rhythms to use.
• Set the Use all rhythms to "4" so as to cover 4 measures.

• For the chords parameters:

• Set the Number of measures used to "4".
• Set the Influence menu on Arrange.

• Finally, set the Number of affected measures to "4". Click on OK and the upper system staff becomes:

• You may now do the same for the last staff. Use measure 6 of staff 4 as the source of the bass melody, but in the Influence menu, select Transpose and you will get:

This example gives you one possible application. There are lots of possible combinations for the smart link function.

For Pizzicato Professional, this function may be combined to the features of the conductor view, which will give you a music destkop composition to create, arrange your musical compositions.

Two additional items have been added in the Edit menu since release 3.2 You can use them for the full score (if there is no selection) or for a selection of measures:

• Fix smart links - This menu copies the computed versions of the selected measures (or all measures if none are selected) into the original measures and then removes the computed versions. The result is that you have one normal score with the final computed version.

• Remove smart links - This menu removes the parameters and computed versions of the score so that only the original measures are kept.

Adding smart link templates [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

In this lesson, we have first introduced the smart link dialog box, explaining a series of predefined functions. Then we have explained the various parameters that may affect the computed version of a measure.

A predifined function is a simplified set of prepared parameters, extracted from the full set of parameters. It offers an easy way to execute a specific functionality out of the full set of possibilites. You may add new templates to the list so that you can use them when working your music compositions. The following explanation is for the advanced user who wants to make a full use of this function.

• Call the smart link dialog, as we did in the beginning of this lesson (copy one measure and select the Edit, Smart link... menu). Select the Time flexible copy item. It has two visible parameters:

• Click on the Modify... button. The following dialog appears:

The right list contains all the parameters that will be used when this predefined function will be applied on a measure. By clicking on one of them, the parameters appears to the right and you may set its value. A check box also appears to enable/disable the modification of this parameter when you use this template. The name of the template may be modified in the bottom right part of the dialog.

• Click on the Rhythm duration multiplication parameter. To the right, the next items appear:

The default value is "1" and the parameter will appear so that you may modify it when calling the template.

• Click on Cancel, select the Copy of notes template and click on Modify... The dialog now displays:

In this case, only a part of the parameters are used. The left list parameters are left untouched in the target measure, so that you may combine this smart link with another one (Copy of rhythms for instance). This means that you may apply multiple smart links on the same target measure, providing that they do not transfer the same parameters. If they transfer the same parameter, the last applied smart link parameter will overwrite the first and will be used. Click on Cancel.

You may explore the various templates and see what default parameters they use.

To create a new template, click on Add and the dialog appears. Decide which parameters must be used (use the middle buttons to transfer parameters from one list to the other), their default values and if they may be modified when calling the smart link function. Give a name to your template and click on OK. You may also select an existing template and click on Duplicate. A template is created that duplicates the current template. You may then change its name and modify it.

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