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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
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…
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.
On Location : Finale & Sibelius Rehearsal Marks
“From the top ?” . . .
Image source : “The Art of Music Engraving and Processing” by Ted Ross
“Thanks for the great rehearsal marks!” isn’t the type of compliment you’ll hear from musicians at a rehearsal. But even if they don’t always tell you, musicians really appreciate it when you make their job easier by providing clear location info in their parts.
Location info helps the musicians stay in sync. Entrance cues in parts are a good example. Different barline types help to define sections. Multi-measure rests that break logically with phrases can be a location aid. Bar numbers are particularly helpful when navigating linear scores. Key changes or tempo changes can also provide location info.
REHEARSAL MARKS
Rehearsal Marks allow the members of a band or orchestra of any size to quickly navigate to a specific point in the score together, in order to master more difficult passages in rehearsal. (It’s also easier for the conductor or bandleader to say “Take it from Letter M” than “Take it from bar 167″). Even after the piece has been mastered, Rehearsal Marks continue to provide location signposts for the players, helping them to stay oriented during performances or additional rehearsals.
Finale and Sibelius allow you to easily change the appearance of Rehearsal Marks to make them stand out in your score and parts.
Font, size and attributes can all be customized.
Both programs dynamically update rehearsal marks if you insert, move or delete them, automating the sequence of Rehearsal Marks correctly regardless of the order in which you enter them.
You can restart the Rehearsal Mark sequence at any point in the score. In Finale, choose Edit Rehearsal Mark Sequence from the Expressions menu. In Sibelius 7, choose the drop down menu for Rehearsal Mark in the Text Tab. In Sibelius 6, choose Rehearsal Mark from the Create Menu.
In both Finale and Sibelius, you can choose whether Rehearsal Marks are displayed as Rehearsal Letters, Rehearsal Numbers, or Bar Numbers.
Rehearsal marks are assigned to key shortcuts, which can be customized. Default shortcuts are “M” in Finale or “CNTRL-R” (windows) or “CMND-R” (mac) in Sibelius.
Both programs allow to you insert a non-sequential rehearsal mark if needed, and to hide measure numbers at the locations of the Rehearsal Marks.
Grand Pause ( G.P. ) Text in Sibelius – Symbols Method
Q: I’m trying to figure out a better mousetrap for dealing with Grand Pauses (GP) in Sibelius. When I use tempo text to create a grand pause in the score, it doesn’t center over bar rests in the score or the parts, so it requires a whole lot of tweaking in both places. I’m hoping there is a smarter, less laborious way to deal with this?
A: Good question. There is actually more than one approach we can take to address this question, in the absence of a true Sibelius feature to center text within a bar. In this tutorial, let’s take a look at the Symbols method:
Aleatoric Elements : From Boxed to Out of the Box Notation In Finale
Music that supplies only the pitches while directing the players to improvise the rhythms freely is a common (partly) aleatoric device which gives the composer a desired degree of control over the tonality, while retaining temporal freedom.
The notation is typically indicated by surrounding a series of specific pitches with a square or rectangular box, along with a box extender line to indicate that the pitches are to be improvised on for a specific number of beats or a given number of seconds. The exact duration of the “box” can also be indicated as a text duration (e.g. 00:06″ etc).
In ”Creating Aleatoric / Temporal Boxed Notation in Finale, Part 1” we looked at how to create these semi-aleatoric directives.
Sometimes, the reverse is desired: the rhythm is notated, but the specific pitches are left up to the player. A common convention for this is to show stems of different lengths (without noteheads) to show the relative pitch relationships:
This is quite simple to do in Finale:
Creating Aleatoric Temporal Boxed Notation in Finale
Q: I would like to use Finale to notate the contemporary avant-garde works I am composing. In a score with a number of instruments, How do I encapsulate a series within boxes or repeat bars for only one instrument, while the others keep playing and counting normally, without the repeat sign?
A: Finale is very flexible in this regard. Start by entering the notes for the series you would like boxed. They can be quarter notes, or duplets or tuplets of any value. The note values you choose will determine the initial series width within a bar of score, and the relative width within the part:
If you are using tuplets, it is common practice to hide their numbers. Select the tuplet tool. Click the first note of the tuplet, and then double-click the little selection box that appears in the center of the tuplet. When the dialog opens, change the appearance popup menu to “none”, and do this optionally for the shape setting as well, then ok the dialog:
If you have multiple boxed notations on different instruments down the score which use tuplets, use the Mass Edit tool to select all the affected staves in your selected region, then go to Utilities > Change > Tuplets . . . where you can hide the tuplet numbers globally for the selected area in one pass.
As of this writing, there are several systems for notating boxed notation. To keep it simple, I will walk through one of the more common conventions . . .
Finale 2012 Score Manager & Mid-Score Instrument Changes
Before Finale 2012, setting up a staff to be fully defined as a particular instrument was a tedious process. First of all, playback was completely separated from the visual definition of any given instrument, requiring that you make changes in both the Staff Attributes dialog and in the Playback Window. And everything had to be set up manually, so if you were working with doubling parts, you needed to make changes in several areas of the program just to show the double’s transposition, clef and name correctly, and also play back the correct sounds.
Finale 2012 has neatly consolidated all of the parameters required to define an instrument into a single dialog and in the process, also given us an easy and intuitive way to create instrument changes for doubles occurring in the same staff. At the heart of this new feature is the Score Manager.
Take Control of Multirests in Sibelius and Finale
Let’s talk about rests. Multimeasure Rests, that is. You may not have given them much thought, but Multimeasure Rests play a key role in how your parts look. In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to control multirest settings and also, how add a unique touch to your charts in Finale and Sibelius with custom multirests.
In modern charts, the standard type of multimeasure rest is called an “H-bar”. The defaults for Finale and Sibelius are nearly identical. Here are the Engraved Style defaults:
Show Bar Rests for Score and Parts Differently in Sibelius
Q: The conductor I am working with does not want bar rests in the conductor’s orchestral score, so I have Show Bar Rests turned off. However, when I go into the parts, the whole rests are hidden there as well. This makes little sense in the parts, where the player needs them. In Sibelius, how do I make these independent: “Show Bar Rests in Parts” and “Show Bar Rests in Score”?
A: Simply turn off rests in Engraving Rules of the score before you print, then toggle them back on for the parts.
Losing the Parts Window in Sibelius 7
One of the most powerful features in Sibelius 6 was the Parts Window. The Sibelius 6 Parts Window acted as a central hub for everything to do with part creation. From one location within the program, you could perform a comprehensive list of tasks related to parts:
- Set the page size, margins, staff size, page breaks and other layout rules for all parts, one part, or any subset of parts (Multi Part Appearance).
- Import a house style to quickly change the look of one part, all parts, or any subset of parts.
- Print one part, all parts, or any subset of parts
- Save a PDF file of one part, all parts, or any subset of parts.
While Sibelius 7 hasn’t lost any of these capabilities, Multi-Part Appearance, Import House Style, PDF creation and printing have all been moved away from the v6 centralized Parts Hub design onto separate operations in the Ribbon UI. Even though these operations are clearly labeled in the various tabs on the Ribbon, the above parts editing / printing processes are no longer consolidated into one location, which by definition means that workflow for Parts preparation isn’t as efficient. This was obviously a conscious decision by Sibelius – a tradeoff in workflow efficiency for clarity in the UI.
For professional level users, the new design has a further subtle, but extremely important limitation. Sibelius 7 requires that in order to make any house style changes to any Part, it must first be OPEN. For instance, instead of simply selecting individual part names from the Parts Window list to make house style edits, you must now select either “Current Part”, “All Parts” and “All Open Parts”. This means that to perform a House Style related edit for a specific group of parts without affecting all the parts, you must first close any parts you don’t want affected, then open the parts you *do* want affected before you can actually apply Multi Part Appearance or House Style edits to just the string parts.
By comparison, in Sibelius 6, this was only two steps, done right in the Parts Window: (1) CNTRL-Click (CMND-Click) the individual Parts you want to edit. (2) use Multi Part Appearance or Import House Style to change formatting for the selected parts only, in many cases, without even having the parts open.
That said, the casual Sibelius user will probably never get deep enough into Sibelius to experience the drop in efficiency here. If you’ve never done anything to change the “look” of the built-in Manuscript Papers, you have nothing to worry about.
In summary, while the Ribbon UI design makes it easier for new users to understand Sibelius while encouraging experimentation and exploration, some users, particularly professional music copyists working under tight deadlines, may find the less centralized workflow for parts inefficient compared to the Parts Window in Sibelius 6. Consider it a tradeoff for all the improvements.
Displaying Different Octaves In Score and Parts in Finale
Question: “I’m working on a Violin Concerto in Finale 2011. The violinist who is playing the concerto prefers to have all the high passages written out in pitch (rather than using ottava notation). However, I would like to use the ottava notation In the score. How to I show the notes at pitch in the part, and 8vb with the ottava lines in the score?”
Answer: You can create and use a Staff Style for this. Select the Staff Tool, then choose “Define Staff Styles” from the Staff Menu, or right-click to choose Define Staff Styles from the Contextual Menu. When the Staff Styles dialog comes up, select the Transposition button, and choose Chromatic, up an octave. OK the sub-dialog, then give your new Style a name (e.g. “Up an Octave). OK the main dialog.
At this point, you should have all the notes with the ottava lines already in your score.
If your score is Transposing, go into the Violin part, Choose the Staff Tool and then select the region to be changed. Now, in the Contextual Menu, choose “Apply Staff Style To Current Score or Part”, and select your new “Up an Octave Staff Style from the list.
If your score is displaying in Concert Pitch, stay in the score, and apply your Staff Style to both the score and the part (e.g. select it from the main contextual list).
For either Transposing or Concert Score, hide the ottava lines in the part. Now the part will be displayed as the player wants it, you won’t have the ledger lines in the score, and playback should be just as it always has been.
This same technique can also be applied to transposing instruments, as long as you remember to adjust the Transposition appropriately for the transposition as well as the octave (e.g. you will need to transpose by key signature for transposing instruments in a keyed piece.)