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Composition tools - Harmonic spaces

Subjects covered:

• Basic principle
• Using the real time arranger
• Editing an harmonic space

Watch also the following videos:

• Intuitive combination of scores and chords (13'17) - Flash - Quicktime
• Using styles to compose music (20'24) - Flash - Quicktime

Basic principle [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

An harmonic space is a set of chord progressions that may be sequenced and that give a specific atmosphere or style to a music. It can be very simple or may contain several chords sequences and types. Its basic purpose is to orient the composer in an intuitive way, by being able to select a final chord progression to use in a music composition. It is used in association with a score group - an object that you can find inside the main area of the conductor view. By using an harmonic space inside a score group, you may select the chords and hear the effects they have with the real time arranger of Pizzicato. The scores placed inside the group will take the sound colour of chords you select in real time. This is an easy and powerful way to create a chord progression, because you hear it and choose it just from you feeling, without any needed knowledge of chord theory. It is an intuitive approach to design a chord progression.

We will first see how we can use an harmonic space with the real time arranger.

Using the real time arranger [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]

You will find some simple harmonic spaces in configuration 3 of the document manager, in Libraries / Instruments and templates / Harmonic spaces. We will use for instance the first, C Major - 3 notes chords + dominant 7th.

• Start Pizzicato on a new document and go to connfiguration 3 of the document manager and drag the node C Major - 3 notes chords + dominant 7th and drop it in the main area of the conductor view. You can then observe the following group that has been automatically created:

• You could also have reached the same result by creating a group of scores (contextual menu inside the conductor view) and by dragging the C Major - 3 notes chords + dominant 7th node into it. Resize the group by clicking and dragging its bottom right corner, so as to display:

You can observe the various chord progressions "C - D min", "C - E min",... with their assigned colours. The rule of such an harmonic space is that after a C, you can have the chords as displayed here above. After a D min, you may have such and such chords, ... This is a simple example, as other harmonic spaces may have other rules.

• As we have not yet selected the chord with which we want to start, Pizzicato shows you all the possible starting sequences. On each chord, you will see a little OK button. It is used to validate the chord to use. Click on the first C chord OK button and the group becomes:

The first chord is now fixed as C and Pizzicato suggests 7 chords that can be sequences after the C chord

• Click on the OK button of the F chord and the group becomes:

• Click on the next G chord, then on the C chord. The group becomes:

Notice that the group is automatically resized when you add chords to the progression. On each chord of the progression, there are now 4 icons that you can use to:

• "?" : click on this icon to change the chord, by calling the chord selection dialog box.
• "+" : click on this icon to add a new chord after the current chord, with the help of the chord selection dialog box.
• "x" : click on this icon to delete the current chord from the progression. The following chords are shifted to the left accordingly.
• "<=" : click on this icon to remove all chords from the progression, starting with the current chord. The next suggestion of Pizzicato is then displayed on that location so you can re-orient the chord progression from this point on.

You will notice that each chord is now assigned to a duration of one 4/4 measure. You may move the border between two chords by dragging the mouse over the border and click it to move it to the left (shorter duration for that chord) or to the right (longer duration).

Up to now, this is only visual, but here comes the interesting point.

• In configuration 4 of the document manager, third area, locate the following node, by expanding the nodes as necessary:

• Drag and drop the above Rhythm (selected in blue) inside the score group and position it as follows:

• Its content is one 4/4 measure of a country style rhythm, written in C Major. Expand the length of it as explained in the conductor view lesson : drag its bottom right corner to the right so as to have:

• Now listen to the group by using the yellow triangle of the conductor toolbar. You will hear the four measures change with the chords present in the group. This is the real time arranger that plays the score and arrange it to fit the chords you have selected.

We will now see how you can intuitively design a chord progression.

• First, click on the "<=" icon of the first chord, so as to delete the chord progression. Click on the OK button of the first C chord and resize the group and the rhythm so as to have the following presentation:

• Right-click on the blue background and select the Play in loop menu item. Start the playing and the score will now play in loop the same rhythm again and again. Here is how you can select your chord progression in real time.

• Double-click in the middle of the yellow C chord. A little coloured circle appears:

It is the fixed point for the real time arranger. When this circle is not present, the score is played with the chord present in the corresponding measure. But when you set this fixed point, Pizzicato continues playing the score with the chord being located at the fixed point (here C). You may now click in any of the chords suggested by Pizzicato and you will hear the change of tone in the rhythm. Try and click on each one of them. When you find one transition you like, just click on the OK button of that chord and the chord is added to the progression, as explained above. Pizzicato shows you then the next suggestions for possible chords in that harmonic space. This space represents here the 3 notes chords of the C major scale, as well as the dominant 7th chord, quite common in use.

When you click inside the circle, it disappears and the real time arranger continue to play the score with the existing chord progression. You may also disable the real time arranger by clicking inside the little yellow square present at the top of the group.

Warning - do not forget to delete this fixed point after you have used it, because otherwise Pizzicato will play all your score with that fixed point, even from other documents and they may sound strange to you because Pizzicato arranges them all in the fixed point chord.

Once you have found the chord progression you like, you may do two things with that group:

• You can drag the little green square on top of the group and drop it outside the group. Pizzicato will create a full score of the group, including the arranged notes with the chords.

• You can similarly drag and drop the little blue square and the score will only contain the chord progression. You can drag that chord progression in a document inside your My library folder to use it on other occasions. It is then part of your library.

You will find in the Pizzicato libraries numerous harmonic spaces. They are located in the Music libraries, Harmonic spaces folder and they are classified according to the types of chords (thirds, sevenths and others), by common notes and degrees to sequence. You can find them in the first area of configuration 4 of the document manager.

Since version 3.6.1, a check box entitled Do not arrange" is present in the play options dialog box. You can reach it with a right click on the score in the group and then select Play options... If you check it, the score will not be arranged with the current harmonic space of the group.