In observing the steps people go through to change visibility of text between score and parts in Sibelius, I thought a short tutorial post on the subject might be helpful.
more >> “Sibelius : Controlling Text Visibility Between Score & Parts”
Finale : Controlling Text Visibility Between Score & Parts
In observing the steps people go through to change visibility of text between score and parts in Finale, I thought a short tutorial post on the subject might be helpful.
more >> “Finale : Controlling Text Visibility Between Score & Parts”
Sibelius: Use Percussion Pictographs for Staff Names or Instrument Changes
This tutorial is also available for Finale.
I recently typeset a piece of music for children’s choir and percussion. The percussion part, which was on three different instrument lines, needed to be as clear and readable as possible for the kids performing. The publisher requested that we use percussion pictographs instead of abbreviated text for the percussion instrument names after the first system:
I thought this would make an interesting tutorial, useful for worksheets and other specialty applications (like my kid’s choir project). I hope you agree. Let’s take it from the top…
more >> “Sibelius: Use Percussion Pictographs for Staff Names or Instrument Changes”
Finale: Use Percussion Pictographs for Staff Names or Instrument Changes
This tutorial is also available for Sibelius.
I recently typeset a piece of music for children’s choir and percussion. The percussion part, which was on three different instrument lines, needed to be as clear and readable as possible for the kids performing. The publisher requested that we use percussion pictographs instead of abbreviated text for the percussion instrument names after the first system:
I thought this would make an interesting tutorial, useful for worksheets and other specialty applications (like my kid’s choir project). I hope you agree. Let’s take it from the left edge…
more >> “Finale: Use Percussion Pictographs for Staff Names or Instrument Changes”
Finale’s Clef Designer
Finale supports as many as 18 different clefs within a single score, and as we’ll see, allows you to modify existing clefs and even create your own.
This is the continuation of a previous post: Octave Displaced Staves in Concert Scores with Transposed Parts in Finale. As you will see, Finale’s Clef Designer feature is very flexible and powerful.
FINALE’S CLEF DESIGNER
Finale displays music notation intelligently relative to each clef’s definition. If you change a clef, Finale will correctly re-notate the music and also keep track of the playback pitches. Any new clefs you create appear in the standard palette of eighteen clefs (replacing existing clefs).
Finale 2014 and earlier offer “octave clefs” which allow instruments like Piccolo or Contrabass to play back at the correct octave in concert pitch scores. (These look like treble or bass clefs with a small 8 above or below them.) However, modern common practice for concert pitch scores is to use standard bass and treble clefs for octave-displaced instruments.
The good news is, it’s easy to swap out the old-style octave clefs for the regular bass and treble clefs in Finale while retaining the correct octave-offset playback for specific instruments. Let’s take a look.
Octave-Displaced Staves in Concert Scores with Transposed Parts in Finale
Before reading this article, please see: Concert Pitch, Transposing and Octave Displaced Instruments : A Prelude.
Instruments which are not considered “transposed” per se, but written in a different octave than where they sound are referred to as octave-displaced instruments. Examples of octave-displaced instruments are Glockenspiel, Piccolo, Guitar and Contrabass.
CONTEMPORARY CONVENTION
The current convention for scores in Concert Pitch specifies that instruments which transpose at the octave-only be displayed at their written pitches, e.g. mostly within the staff, rather than requiring numerous ledger lines.
Reading a full score is complicated enough without forcing the conductor to always count ledger lines!
Additionally, in modern scores, It is understood that instruments such as the piccolo, guitar, contrabassoon and contrabass sound an octave above or below where written, and so the small reminder number 8 (or 15 if two octaves) above or below the treble or bass clef has fallen out of popular use.
If you think about it, the convention of written pitches makes a great deal of sense; The Glockenspiel sounds two octaves (15ma) above where written; the highest written note for Glockenspiel, C above the staff, requires nine (9) ledger lines to display at concert pitch!
more >> “Octave-Displaced Staves in Concert Scores with Transposed Parts in Finale”
Transpose by Interval in Sibelius
Q: I play Alto Sax in a (small) big band. We’ve purchased Superstition by Stevie Wonder, arranged by Mike Tomaro. It’s a nifty piece of work and quite a challenge. I used Photoscore to enter my Alto Sax part into Sibelius 6, which appeared to go quite smoothly. But, Photoscore apparently didn’t spot the fact that it was a transposed part.
Is there a way that I can correct this in Sibelius and not lose all my sharps and flats? When I play it, I hear the correct notes but not at the right pitch. It would be nice to be able to change them, without having to alter each sharp or flat by hand. I’ve been trying to find an anwser but I have not been successful so far. Can you help me? Thanks very much.
A: Fortunately, this one is pretty easy to set right by (a) first making sure that the score in concert pitch is set to the correct key signature (in this case, your “score” can also be a single part) and (b) transposing the notes to the corresponding concert / transposed pitches. You can do both operations from within the Transpose dialog in Sibelius.
Let’s say you have a chart in three flats concert. The corresponding Alto Sax part is going to appear as C maj / A minor: