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Create Custom Repeat Dots On 2 Line Staves in Sibelius 7 or Sibelius 6
A solution to this problem would be useful to many music educators, who often present introductory music in fewer than five-line staffs, but want to acquaint students with the conventional symbols like repeat signs.
A: In Finale, moving the repeat dot locations is a simple matter of adjusting the vertical location for available “Top Repeat Dot” and “Bottom Repeat Dot” parameters in Staff Setup. However, while the method to achieve this in Sibelius is somewhat more circuitous, it is indeed quite possible, and in fact, once you’ve created the mechanism once, it is very fast to create in subsequent worksheets or even scores, via Export / Import House Style.
The workaround uses a pair of staves which have been dragged directly on top of one another; one staff displays the 2 staff lines and the notation, the other displays only the barlines.
Start by making a duplicate of the ”Percussion [2 lines]” instrument. This will be the same as the regular ”Percussion [2 lines]” instrument, with one crucial difference. We are going to hide its barlines.
Go into Edit Instruments, select “Percussion [2 lines] and then click the “New Instrument…” button. A dialog will pop up, asking you “Are you sure you want to create a new instrument based on “Percussion [2 lines]?” Click yes.
(You can also optionally force the initial barline at the left edge of the score to break at this location by unchecking “Initial barline” here.)
Next, we want to create an “overlay staff instrument” which will have nothing *but* the barlines and special barlines visible. Create a duplicate of the “Percussion [1 line]” instrument. Go into Edit Instruments, select “Percussion [1 line] and then click the “New Instrument…” button. A dialog will pop up, asking you “Are you sure you want to create a new instrument based on “Percussion [1 line]?” Click yes.
When the New Instrument dialog comes up, name it appropriately. I used “RPM [1 line, barlines only]“. Now, click the “Edit Staff Type” button. When the dialog opens, click the General button at the top and set the number of staff lines to zero. Make sure all of the checkboxes in the “Other Objects” section are unchecked. Now, set both of the “Extend” text fields in the Barlines section to “1″. Leave the “Initial barline” and “Barlines” checkboxes checked.
Next, select the Notes and Rests tab. In this dialog, locate the “Note Properties” section, and uncheck “Rhythms (stems, dots, ties, rests, etc.)” and also “Bar rests”. Actually, it’s ok to uncheck everything in the Note Properties section. The only thing we want to show in our modified 1-line staff are the single barlines, special barlines like the repeats, and the final barline. OK the “Staff Type” dialog, and then the “Edit Instrument” dialog.
(The hard work is done. At this point, you can save your worksheet example file as a Manuscript Paper, or export these new Instrument definitions in a House Style, so you can bring them into other documents quickly.)
Add these two new instruments to your worksheet, with the ”Percussion [2 lines, no barlines]” above the ”Perc [2 line repeat source]“. OK the dialog.
You’ll want to enter music into the 2 – line staff before doing the next step, to avoid entering music into an “invisible” staff.
Finally, after entering the notation, drag your “1 staff, barlines only” staff right up inside the modified 2-line percussion staff until it won’t move any further north. It will be aligned correctly. Again, it’s important to wait until the note entry is completed before overlaying the barlines staff, otherwise, you’ll be entering invisible notes in an invisible staff!
One advantage of this method over using font characters or symbols to achieve this graphically, is that your file will play back correctly, with repeats.
That’s it! That’s all there is to it.
for Anne Carley
Proofreading
Proofreading is an essential part of music preparation, whether it’s engraving for publication, a recording session, or for performance.
It’s more than merely having an eye for detail. Good proofreading really boils down to having an efficient and methodical / systematic approach which allows every aspect of the music on every page to be examined consistently and thoroughly.
I recommend the method advocated by William Holab and David Fetheroff in “The G. Schirmer/AMP Manual of Style and Usage” as a great starting point. Once you’ve learned how it works, you may modify the process somewhat, as I have, but the gist is, you want to specifically target groups of musical elements one at a time in a methodical manner to produce consistent and accurate results.
In the G. Schirmer system, the proofreader prints out a copy of the score or part and pencils the following letters at the top of the page, crossing each letter off as that task is complete:
P R D A M Pd T Ex
- “P” stands for Pitch, and includes things which affect pitch such as clef changes and accidentals.
- “R” is for Rhythmic elements, such as note values, rests, multirests and ties.
- “D” for Dynamics, including hairpins, and text markings such as cresc. and dim.
- “A” for Articulations (G. Schirmer includes dynamic markings in this group)
- “M” for Measure Numbers
- “Pd” – if you are proofreading Keyboard music, you’ll want a separate pass for Pedal Markings.
- “T” for Text such as titles, tempo marks and instrument labels.
- “Ex” for what G. Schirmer calls “extremities”, which is basically anything not covered above.
I use a red pencil with different colored highlighters for different rounds of proofing. If more than one person is involved in the editing process, a uniquely color coded markup for each person works very well.
Sibelius has two very useful software-based tools for proofreading: “Highlight” and “Comment”, which allow multiple proofreaders and editors working together to create color-coded errata / editorial markup across several rounds of edits.
For parts proofreading of commercial music, particularly film scoring sessions, where time is extremely tight, it’s accepted practice to print the score out for reference, but proof the parts on screen, making all corrections during this pass. If time permits, a second proofreader will review or spot check this work in a second pass, again, making corrections directly in the file if needed.
A more likely scenario for multiple proofreaders in a film scoring session, though, is to have two or more proofreaders “split” a cue, with one proofer reviewing the woodwind parts, and another reviewing the brass in order to meet the very short turnaround demands. All the more reason for a systematic approach to proofreading here.
Additional things to look for in parts:
- Pitch – Check transposing parts carefully for pitch (commercial scores are almost always in concert pitch).
- Layout – Good page turns are a must. Poor page turns can really bring a session to a halt, and require unnecessary pickups in recording.
- Numbering – Check Bar Numbering and Page Numbering. For recording sessions, where bar numbers appear on every bar, make sure no music element is obscured by a bar number.
- Cues – Make sure all parts contain appropriate cues. This is especially important for recording sessions or performances with minimal rehearsal where the music is unfamiliar. In commercial music, entrances on the downbeat can be cued using text only to break multirests.
- Headers – you’d be surprised in film score work how many times the wrong cue number or instrument name, usually left over from a previous score template, appears on the title page and / or header text. Carefully check the instrument name, title and header text of each part!
Simplify – Make sure each part is providing the necessary information in the most economical way for the musician. For instance, with 16 bars of flute notes written in the staff with an 8va, the actual pitches will be easier for the player to read, and the long 8va line is an additional visual distraction.
For publishing, it is common practice to have more than one proofreader look at a piece. Particularly where the music is complex in nature, and with respect to each publisher’s requirements, regardless of experience, no proofreader will catch every detail of every note and bar of music. Being able to assign multiple experienced proofreaders to the same piece of music in several rounds of proofing may seem like something of a luxury, but each new pair of eyes on the music will discover new errors.
One last thought. If you have composed a piece of music, get someone else to proofread your work whenever possible. Any time you compose or arrange or orchestrate or engrave or copy something, the tendency is to see what you thought you wrote, not what you actually wrote. A good proofreader will find the things you intended to do, but didn’t.
You’ve been reading what I wrote – what did I miss?
~robert
Auto Note / Stem Side Articulation Placement in Finale
Articulations are small symbols which which are normally placed near the notehead to indicate how a note is to be played.
However, when music appears in more than one Voice or Layer, the placement rules change. Earlier versions of Finale required a lot of manual adjustment to make articulations appear in the right place where there were multiple Layers. In current versions of FInale, users can take advantage of a positioning feature for articulations called “Auto Note / Stem Side”:
use for: accent, accent-staccato, accent-tenuto, marcatissimo, marcato accent (rooftop) marcato staccato, staccato and tenuto (sostenuto).
Show Active Layer Only : What You See Is What You Edit in Finale
In Finale, sometimes it is desirable to copy only the material from one Layer (e.g. voice) to another location. However, while you can use use the settings in Edit > Edit Filter to control which elements are copied, all Filter settings apply to all visible Layers. But Finale has a very powerful feature hidden in the Document menu : “Show Active Layer Only”.
All you have to remember to use this feature is “If you don’t see it, it won’t get copied”. So, to copy only the music from Layer 2 onto the clipboard, make Layer 2 active, then select “Show Active Layer Only”.
Keep in mind that you can use this in connection with your settings in the Edit Filter to get very precise control of what gets copied to the Clipboard, for instance, copy just articulations attached to Layer 2…
Quick tip : Slur / Phrase Mark Entry in Finale 2012 / 2011
In Finale, with the slur tool selected, double click on the start note of the slur, but don’t release the mouse after the second click (down, up, down). Instead, drag the slur right to extend it. As it passes each subsequent note, it becomes highlighted, indicating that the slur will “snap” to that note. If you release the mouse while you see the highlight, the slur will be properly attached to the desired destination note.
While this technique will also work across systems, or even pages, it’s sometimes easier to enter phrase marks using Scroll View, since everything is linear in this view.
Articulation Alternatives for Staggered Bowing in Finale and Sibelius
Bowings are a type of symbol used in music notation to indicate the use of the bow in string parts, which indicate the manner in which a note should be played. Finale and Sibelius share a standard way to create these; they treat bowings as articulations, which are automatically positioned in proximity to the notehead.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS & PLAYBACK
In Sibelius, you can add alternate key shortcuts to the Default bowing shortcuts. Locate “Keypad (Articulations)” in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts (called “Menus and Shortcuts” in Sibelius 6). Select Upbow or Downbow from the list, then click the Add button at the right to add an alternate keystroke.
In Finale, you can program a new key shortcut for Upbow or Downbow by selecting the Articulation tool, then typing SHIFT followed by the letter or number you want to use. When the dialog opens, select the articulation you want to assign to your keystroke.
Both programs are pretty smart about playback, and with a decent sound set, you’ll hear a difference between upbow and downbow during playback (the little GM soundset does not have multiple samples or velocity sensitivity for playback.)
ARTICULATIONS
In engraved music for publication, articulations such as staccato, accent-staccato, accent, tenuto, marcatissimo etc., are actually considered to be part of the notehead, and so they appear that way – automatically moving inside the staff to maintain close proximity to the notehead regardless of pitch or stem direction:
By default, Finale and Sibelius both apply the upbow and downbow symbol as a note – attached articulation, centered over the note, and above the staff.
STAGGERED BOWING
Bowings, though, are a special case. First, as mentioned above, rather than becoming ”part of the notehead”, bowing marks always go above the note (except in special divisi situations), and outside of the staff, rather than orbiting the notehead inside the staff like a staccato or accent might.
Additionally, while they appear in proximity to the notehead a high percentage of time, sometimes a single note or phrase needs to be sustained longer than is possible with a single bow. In this case, it is common practice to divorce the bowing symbol from any notehead, and display it independently. The term for this is “Staggered Bowing”. The location of the symbol relative to the barline gives a beat location for the bow change, independent of any specific notehead.
In the following example, note how the first three bowings appear centered over specific notes, but the last one appears to be in the middle of a bar, “staggered”, e.g. not attached to any notehead:
“Free Bowing” is another related technique used by composers. This is a directive which specifies that bowing need not be uniform within the section. This is sometimes indicated with parenthesized bow markings, or with a text directive.
For these cases, it’s not advisable to try to use the standard bowing articulations provided by the notation software. In Sibelius, you’ll find you can’t move the Upbow or Downbow symbols left or right, and if you try to do this in Finale, you can wreak havoc with your note spacing.
Fortunately, both Finale and Sibelius have alternative ways to enter these bowing symbols which are not note attached.
In Finale, Go into the Expression Selection dialog, select Technique Text and then “Create Technique Text”. Choose “Music Font” from the popup menu (which will most likely be Maestro in a standard Finale Default File). Now, up in the main Text Menu, choose “Inserts > Symbol”. Select the Upbow and Downbow symbols from the list. (slots 178 and 179). In the Positioning Tab, set the horizontal positioning to be at “Horizontal Click Position” to allow you freedom to move it anywhere in the bar. Or, cut to the chase and download this file, which has these premade (including the parenthesized variant).
Finale users should also consider using this text expression technique for creating caesurae (breath marks). Dragging a note-attached breath mark articulation to move it can mess up note spacing in the parts.
In Sibelius, all of the Symbols available in the Keypad are also available in the Symbols dialog. The symbols in the dialog don’t have any unique placement attributes associated with them, so you can place them anywhere. Type “Z” to open the Symbols dialog (or “Gallery”, as it is now called in Sibelius 7) and choose your bowing from the list. Once chosen, the cursor will turn blue to indicate that it is “loaded”. Click above the staff where you would like the bowing to appear.
The only thing to be aware of when using these free-floating symbols is that you may find that locations can shift a bit between score and parts in both programs, so you may have to make some minor adjustments. All in all, though, this is a simple, clean way to enter staggered (e.g. horizontally offset) bowings in Finale and Sibelius, which both consider articulations, including bowing marks, to be “note attached”.
~robert
for Laura Cones
Postscript: It’s worth noting that not many standard classical published works available for rental have typeset bowings. When an orchestra rents a piece for performance, advance parts are given to the principal string players to mark their preferred bowings in pencil. These are then given to the music librarian, who pencils these bow markings into each part for the ensemble in advance of rehearsals.
Notation Workflow : Tips For Moving Logic Files into Sibelius or Finale
For Logic users there may come the time that one needs to get a file over to Finale or Sibelius to finish a project. Logic has its own proprietary notation display formatting and doesn’t currently support Music XML. However, you can export a Standard MIDI File (SMF) and achieve good results. To maximize compatibility before exporting a SMF, you’ll need to do some adjustments, as described below.
The important proprietary formatting items are Display Quantize, Interpretation mode and to a lesser degree, Syncopation mode. These items affect Logic’s display only – playback remains unaffected. You may also need to deal with pedal markings (these do affect playback). Let’s look at what they do, and how to pass along this information in a SMF.
Create a Divisi or Chorded Instrument from Two Separate Staves
In my post “Keep it Together in Finale or Sibelius : Score & Parts in the same file“, we looked at methods of exploding chorded or divisi parts in the score into individual lines that, would be hidden in the page view of the score, while still available as single line parts.
Often, just the opposite workflow is required: the score already contains individual instrument staves that need to be combined for the score. That is, rather than allocating the contents of a divisi or chorded staff into individual instrument staves, the requirement is to merge data from two or more independent staves into a single combined staff.
Let’s break it down.
Keep it Together in Finale or Sibelius : Score & Parts in the same file
In the early days of Finale and Sibelius, individual parts were generated from a master score via a painful and aptly named process referred to as “Extraction”. The programs would dutifully export twenty or thirty cryptically named parts files onto your Desktop which would then need to be cleaned up and individually prepared for printing. Any subsequent changes to the score *also* required edits to one or more (or all) respective parts.
Today, parts are integrated within the score and the content is intelligently married. Sibelius calls its parts integration feature “Dynamic Parts“, while Finale labels their feature “Linked Parts“. In general, having scores and parts linked in one master file has proven to be a godsend, but there are some caveats.
Woodwind and brass instruments aren’t polyphonic. With some notable quality control exceptions in currently published music, common practice is to have one instrument per staff in the parts. Ideally, woodwind and brass players should not be required to locate their lines from within a divisi part.
At the same time, the better organized an orchestral score is, the more readable it becomes. Generally scores with fewer systems are easier to read. Quite often, the requirement is for pairs of instruments appearing on a single staff wherever possible: Clarinet 1 and 2 on a single staff, Horn 1 and 3 on a single staff and so on. For this tutorial, we’ll start with divisi or chorded staves in the score, and create individual parts from these.
Let’s take a look at how each program currently integrates score and parts, and some ways we can make Finale and Sibelius best work to our advantage despite any limitations.
Change Stubborn Text in Finale Quickly, Easily & Globally with Finale Script
In “Finale Text Sized, Placed & Styled – Document Options & the Category Designer“, we looked at how we can set up a Finale document’s overall font choices using the Document Options > Fonts and the Category Designer.
Changes to the Category Designer and Set Default Music Font affect your score in real time; however, some of the text objects in Document Options > Fonts can only be set prior to starting work on your score; problematic if your score is already completed, or you need to update your House Style after the fact.
So, since some of the Document Settings don’t update in real time in Finale, how do we change the font settings for text types such as Lyrics*, Measure Numbers*, Staff Names* and Text Blocks* which we have already entered?
This is where writing a few short lines of Finale Script can help you. Wait! You don’t have to be a computer programmer. It’s really simple, I promise. And it will save you hours of work over time with minimal effort up front.
Center Grand Pause (G.P. & other text) in Sibelius – Lines Method
Sometimes, such as when displaying “G.P.” text in an empty bar of score, it is desirable to be able to center the text between the barlines. While Sibelius doesn’t explicitly offer a “center text between barlines” feature when inputting text, the ability to center any string of text attached to a Line makes this “centered in bar” justification possible.
In “Centering Grand Pause (G.P.) text in Sibelius – Symbols Method“, we covered a method of centering Grand Pause (G.P.) text using Symbols.
Sibelius has a “Centered Text” feature built into its Edit Lines dialog. You can immediately see this in action:
One Step Text Multi-Copy Shortcuts in Finale 2012 / 2011
The following Text Expression multi-copy shortcuts for Finale 2012 and Finale 2011 do not work with System / Score text Categories (e.g. Tempo Marks, Tempo Alterations and Rehearsal Marks), however, they can be used with Dynamics, Expressive Text and Technique Text.