Score Editor Tutorial - Text, Lyrics and Symbols

The second score editing tutorial will show you how to enter and edit lyrics, expressions, text, symbols and clefs.

To start, load QuickScore Elite and load the file SILENT.QSD by clicking on the File menu, selecting the Open menu item and then double-clicking on SILENT.QSD in the file window. This piece is Silent Night.

Let's start by maximizing the Score Editor. If you haven't already done so, click on the button in the top right-hand corner of the Score Editor's window with the triangle pointing up (the maximize button). Now the Score Editor will fill the screen. If you just finished the first score editing tutorial, you are probably still in Print Preview mode. We want to be in Edit mode so make sure the page button in the Score Editor's control area is not highlighted.

Deleting Lyrics

We'll start this tutorial by deleting the second line of text in bar three, "Shep ? herds quake". We'll first select the L in the object type palette in the Score Editor's control area to put us in Lyric mode.

Select the arrow tool (the first tool) in the toolbar. Now we'll set the Lyric Filter by clicking on the Edit menu and selecting the Lyric Filter menu item. Put a check on Use Filter and then uncheck Lyric 1, Lyric 3 and Lyric 4. We only want to edit Lyric 2.

Click on the OK button.

Select all the notes in the third bar by dragging over them. Click the mouse on the top staff at the beginning of the third bar. Hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse to a point after the last note in the bar. Release the mouse button. Now the music you dragged over with the mouse should be highlighted in reverse video and an edit menu should drop down.

Select Cut [Lyric] from the menu. The second lyric line should disappear.

Entering Lyrics

Now let's reenter this line. Select Lyric 2 from the Lyric drop-down list box at the far right of the Score Editor's control area (click on the list box and click on Lyric 2).

Select the pencil tool from the toolbar. Select the eighth note from the durations palette in the main control area. Make sure the duration qualifier (to the right of the durations palette) is not showing a triplet. If you have a triplet for the duration qualifier (left over from the last tutorial), press T twice to set this back to a duple value. Click on the first note in bar three.

The lyric editing cursor should appear to let you enter the second lyric line for the first note in bar three.

Type "Shep". Now we want to move to the next note, but we want to put a dash between this lyric and the next. We can move and put in a dash at the same time by typing CTRL+? (dash). (Hold down the CTRL key and press ? (dash).) Now we have a dash between the first and second notes in the bar and we are ready to type in the lyric for the second note. Type "herds". Now press the TAB key to move to the next note without putting in a dash. Type "quake". Now select the arrow tool from the toolbar to stop entering lyrics.

Spacing Lyrics Vertically

Let's change the vertical spacing for lyrics using the Lyric Positioning dialog. Click on the Display menu, select Page and click on the Lyrics button at the bottom of the dialog. Put a check mark in the Reposition lyrics box and change the Lyric 1 position to 6 and leave the Spacing number at 5. Click on OK. The lyrics will move up a couple of rows. (One row is equal to half the distance between two staff lines or two ledger lines.)

Editing Expression Text

Let's edit the "moderato" expression text in bar one. Click on the E in the object type palette. Now you can edit expressions. Double-click at the beginning of the "moderato" text. A box with a red arrow will appear to the left of the text and a menu will drop down from the edit menu. Select Edit from the drop down menu and a text editing dialog will appear.

Type "allegro" and click OK. The "moderato" expression text is changed to "allegro".

Entering Block Text

Now let's put in two blocks of text and set the fonts for each of these blocks. Click on the T in the object type palette to select Text mode. Select the pencil tool from the toolbar. Click the mouse just below the second staff of the first bar. A little box with a cursor inside it will appear.

Let's make this box a bit bigger. Move the mouse over the bottom right-hand corner of the box. The mouse pointer will change from a pencil to a double-ended arrow at 45 degrees. Click and drag the end of the box to the right and down. Let go of the mouse. Now the box should be a bit bigger. You can change the shape of the text box in this way any time you want to when you are editing text or entering text.

Now let's enter some text. Click inside the box and type "Silent Night is a Christmas carol."

Now let's put in some text with a new text style. Click on the text type drop-down list box and select the second text type. (This will probably have the same font as the first text type, but don't worry about that for now.)

Now enter a box of text just under the second bar. Type "Franz Gruber wrote Silent Night." in the box. So far so good.

Changing Text Fonts

Now let's change the fonts for these pieces of text. Click on the Display menu and select Page. Click on the Fonts button at the bottom of the Display Page dialog. We want to change the fonts for Text 1 and Text 2. First we'll do Text 1. Click on the button with the name of the font for Text 1. Choose the font, the font style and point size for the Text 1 font. Make it something interesting. Click on OK and do the same thing for Text 2. Press on OK to get out of QuickScore Elite's Font dialog and OK again to get out of the Display Page dialog. You'll see the new fonts for the two text blocks you entered.

Moving Block Text

Let's move a text block around. Select the NSEW tool (the tool with the four arrows on it) in the toolbar. Grab one of the text blocks by clicking the left mouse button in the top left corner of the block and dragging the mouse while holding down the mouse button. When you release the mouse button the text is placed where you moved it.

Entering Symbols

Let's put in a few symbols. Select the symbol in the object type palette.

The icon displays the last symbol that was selected. Click on it again and the symbol palettes will drop down. You can select a symbol from ten different symbol palettes. Let's select the upward fermata symbol. Click on Marks in the upper left-hand corner of the Tools palette and then click on the upward fermata in the lower left-hand corner of the Articulation Marks palette that appears.

The fermata will replace the previous symbol in the symbol button in the object type palette. Select the pencil tool from the toolbar. Click in a couple of fermatas, one above the last note in the first bar and one above the last note in the second bar.

Entering a Slur

Now let's put in a slur. Let's select the slur symbol. Click on the symbol in the object type palette, click on Adjust and select the slur symbol (the one in the lower left-hand corner of the Adjustable palette that appears. The slur will now appear in the symbol button in the object type palette. Let's put the slur over the notes in the second bar on the first staff. Enter the slur by clicking and dragging it from its starting point to its ending point. Then adjust its shape by dragging around the three little triangles (control points) and finally enter the slur by pressing ENTER. If you don't want to enter the slur press ESC instead of ENTER.

Let's put in a piano dynamic mark. Select the piano symbol from the Dynamics palette and click above the first staff at the beginning of the third bar. The piano mark should appear.

Entering a Crescendo

Now we'll put in a crescendo going from just after the piano mark to the end of the bar. Select the crescendo symbol from the Adjust symbol palette. Enter the crescendo symbol by dragging it in as you did for the slur. Reposition it by dragging the control points (the little diamonds) with the mouse. When you have it the way you like, press ENTER. If you don't want to put in the crescendo symbol press ESC instead of ENTER.

Entering a Guitar Chord

Now let's put in a guitar chord at the beginning of bar 5. Click on the horizontal scroll bar once at the right of the scroll box. The display will move forward to bar 4. Bar 5 is the second bar displayed. Select the tablature chord symbol from the Misc. symbols palette. Click the mouse above the first staff at the first beat in bar 5. The Tablature Chords dialog will appear.

We will put in an F guitar chord, so select it from the chord name list box. Scroll the box until you see F and click on F. The F chord will be displayed on the grid in the dialog. Put a check in the Show Chord Name box. Now the name of the chord (F) will appear above the grid. You can change the chord name by clicking on the Set Chord Name button, but we don't have to do that here. Click on OK to enter the chord.

Spacing Guitar Chords Vertically

Our guitar chord is a little low (it overlaps the note below it). Let's change the guitar chord position by using the Guitar Chord Positioning dialog. Click on the Display menu, select Page and click on the Tablature Chord Position button. The entry position will affect all new guitar and other tablature chords entered. We want to reposition all the chords we entered (just one), so put a check in the Reposition all chords box. Let's set the entry position to 6 rows above the staff instead of 4. Click on the 4 in the Rows above staff list box to open it and select 6. Now click on OK. The guitar chord will be moved up two rows and all future guitar chords you enter will be at this level.

Automatic generation of chord names and guitar chords

You can automatically generate chord names and guitar chords based on the notes that are already in your tracks. To do this, choose the arrow tool from the toolbar, choose the note in the object type palette, select all or part of a track and choose Generate Chords from the edit menu. The Generate Chords dialog appears.

Choose whether you want to generate chords once per bar or once per beat.

Choose whether to analyze all notes in the bar or beat, or just the notes at the start of the bar or beat. (You might choose to analyze just the notes at the start of each bar or beat if you have lots of melodic notes that don't necessarily form part of the underlying chords.)

Choose whether to analyze notes in all tracks or just notes in the current track.

You can generate any combination of chord names and guitar chords. The chord names and guitar chords are positioned at the tablature chord entry position, which can be changed by clicking on the Tablature Chords Position button in the Display Page dialog, available under the Display menu.

6-String Guitar Tablature Notation

To display a track with a guitar tablature staff, select the Track Display dialog from the Display menu and set the clef to 6 String Tab.

You can also enter a Guitar Tab clef symbol at the beginning of the track to display the track with a guitar tablature staff. (While in the Score Editor, select the Guitar Tab clef from the Clefs palette, select the pencil tool from the Tools palette and enter a Guitar Tab clef at the beginning of the track.)

When you have set your staff to display with a Guitar Tab clef, your track will appear as a wide six-line staff. Your notes are represented as fret numbers on the appropriate string in traditional guitar tablature notation.

To enter new notes, first select the pencil tool. Click and hold down the left mouse button. Move the mouse to the position on the string where you want to enter your note. If you let go the left mouse button, the note is entered as fret 0 on the line (representing the appropriate string) your mouse is pointing at. To change the number of the fret, press the UP and DOWN arrow keys while you keep the left mouse button down. When you let go the left mouse button, the note is entered as the number you've chosen on the string you've chosen.

For example, to enter a note on the second fret of the highest string, click and hold the left mouse button on the highest string. Press the UP arrow key twice so that the number 2 appears. Now let go the left mouse button.

To move a note from one string to another, use the NS tool (the second tool from the end in the toolbar). When you grab and move a note up and down, the fret number will move from string to string. The pitch of the note stays the same as you move the note from string to string - the fret number will change to reflect this. The exception is when the note could not be played on the string to which you've moved the note. In this case the string is made open and the pitch of the note is changed to reflect this.

To change the number of the fret, choose the NS tool. After you select the note by clicking and holding the left mouse button over the fret number, press the UP and DOWN arrow keys while you keep the left mouse button down. When you let go the left mouse button, the note has the fret number you've chosen on the string you've chosen.

The Tablature Edit Menu

When you select a single note in a tablature staff (choose the arrow tool from the toolbar, and double-click on the appropriate fret number), you can Cut the note, Copy it, change its Fret or change its String.

To change the fret, you have to enter the new fret number in the Fret dialog that appears.

To change the string, you choose either a string number or default (to make the note appear on the lowest possible string) from the submenu that appears.

When you select a group of notes you can set the strings for the notes. When you first set a track to display as guitar tablature, each note comes up on its default string. Sometimes (especially for notes above the highest string) the notes will overlap one other. When you select Set Strings, QuickScore Elite puts the highest note of each chord on the highest string and then chooses the highest possible string for each of the subsequent notes so that they don't overlap each other and are most easily played by a guitarist.

You change the tuning of your guitar tablature strings from the 6 String (Guitar) Tablature Tuning dialog, available from the Options menu.

For each string, select the note you want for the open string from the appropriate list box. Press the Default button to set all the strings to the default tuning (EADGBE). When you change the tuning of your strings, the fret numbers are adjusted automatically.

Entering Clefs

Now let's put in a few clef changes. Click on the clef in the object type palette to select it and click on it again to display the clef palette. Let's choose an alto clef (the clef in the fifth position).

Make sure the pencil tool is selected in the toolbar and now we'll put in the alto clef. Let's enter it at the beginning of bar 5 on the lower staff. Click at this point with the pencil tool and the clef will go in. Now all notes after the clef will be drawn to reflect this clef. Let's make one more clef change. Click on the clef symbol in the object type palette and select the bass clef. Enter the bass clef at the beginning of bar 6. Now only bar 5 is written in the alto clef.

Experiment with the tools available for clefs (the arrow, the pencil, the eraser, and the EW tools) to move and edit clefs. You can change the duration value in the durations palette in the main control area to change where you can enter or move the clefs.

Conclusion

You've seen an overview of most of the things you can do with the Score Editor.

Starting Out

Score Editor Tutorial - Notes and Formatting

Score Editor Tutorial - Text, Lyrics and Symbols

Setting up for Sequencing

Piano Roll Editor Tutorial

Controller Editor Tutorial

MIDI Mixer Tutorial

Song Editor and Event List Tutorial

Recording MIDI Tutorial

Recording Audio Tutorial

Audio Mixer Tutorial

Glossary

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