RAMP • Bach Chorale Project

Your choir director gives you the sheet music for a Bach chorale, and asks you to do the following:

1) Notate separate parts for each choral section (SATB)
2) Take the key down a whole step
3) Create an audio track of the piece played by piano
4) Create a similar track that accentuates the tenor part

Part 1: Notation in Digital Performer

•PSU: On your main hard drive, go Documents>Assignments>MIDI Sequencing & Notation, find the folder In All Project. Option-drag the whole folder to your desktop to copy it.

You can download a "stuffed" version of this folder here. Option-click on the link to download it to your desktop.

•Open the folder and locate the file inall.dp, and drag the icon to the Digital Performer icon in the Dock to open it in Digital Performer.

•Select all four tracks, and go Project>Quickscribe Editor to open the Quickscribe Editor.

...and click it to see which tracks are currently visible--your should see staves for all four tracks.

•In the Track Select column, option-click the Soprano track to select it by itself. Now click the Alto track. You should see staves for both the Soprano and Alto tracks in the Quickscribe window.

Some or all of the notes in the Quickscribe window may appear "hollow," not solid the way you might expect them to. This is how DP shows that the notes have been selected. Go Edit>Deselect All to deselect any selected notes.

•Refer to the printed sheet music In All That I Am Doing (hand-out in class, html here, and downloadable pdf here)

•Locate the vertical bar of tools at the left of your window. Click on a quarter note to select quarter note duration.

•In the Alto staff, place the cursor at the downbeat of measure 2, and on the second line from the bottom (G3). Click there to enter the note.

A quarter note is entered on the downbeat of measure 2. It is "hollow" to show that it's selected.

If you have a hard time putting the note in the proper place, you might "zoom" the screen to a higher resolution.

The zoom setting can be changed in the small menu at the bottom left of the Quickscribe window.

If you do happen to enter a note incorrectly, you could simply go Edit>Undo to undo the entry and try again.

If you want to move a note, find the vertical toolbar at the left of the window and click the Arrow tool.

You can also drag selected note(s) to the right and left to move them to a different location in the sequence. You can even drag notes from staff to staff, a helpful process if you are creating an arrangement using notation.

Notice that when you select a single note, its data shows up in a line at the top of the window--this data is similar to the data you would see for the note in the Event List. This data can be double-clicked and edited.

•Continue left to right, entering notes in the proper place. To enter different note durations, select the proper duration icon in the selection window on the left.

Don't worry about the slurs, we will enter them later. Also, Digital Performer may not give you an F#, but instead a Gb. There is a way to change that in DP, but again, don't worry about it now, we will fix it later.

•Finish entering the Alto line, and play it back to check it. If it is correct, proceed to the next step. If it is not correct, edit as needed.

Part 2: Saving as a Standard Midi File (SMF)

Now we want to save our project in a format that can be opened in another application, in this case Finale. The format is called Standard MIDI File, a format that can be recognized in most any sequencing application.

•In the Tracks Overview, make sure that all four tracks are on separate MIDI Channels. In other words, that they are assigned to Apple Software Synth-1, 2, 3 and 4.

This is important. Data on tracks that share a MIDI channel will end up on the same track in some applications including Finale.

•Double-click the Soprano track to open its Event List. In this window's title bar, click on the I to open the Insert Menu. Select Patch Change.

•At the right, you should see a patch name, e.g. Acoustic Grand Piano. Click on that name to open the General Midi Patch list. Find and click on 074 Flute. When this menu closes, hit the Return (not Enter) key. The patch change should now appear in your track at the beginning of the sequence.

Your patches may be grouped into instrumental types. However, they will still be numbered in order.

•Go through a similar process to enter patch information in the other three tracks as follows: for the Alto track, insert 069 Oboe. for Tenor 072 Clarinet, and for Bass 071 Bassoon. Save your file.

It is a good idea to save files frequently as we work on them. It's especially important when we do a "Save As." If for any reason you have not saved your file properly, a Save As can result in lost data.

Anytime you save a file, you need three pieces of information: 1) file name, 2) the location (folder) where the file will be stored, and 3) the file format. You don't usually need to worry about format, but in this case, it's important.

•If the MIDI File Options window opens, select Format 1 and Expand loops. Hit OK to save the file to the desktop.

You do not need to turn this project in yet, however, you will need the SMF for the next assignment.

Part 3: Open and Save a Standard MIDI File In Finale

•Find the Finale icon in the Dock, and drag your new inall.mid icon to the Finale icon to import it into Finale.

You may get a window called MIDI Setup. If so, hit Cancel, we will deal with this window later.

•In the Import MIDI File Options window, don't change anything. Hit OK. The file will open in Finale.

When you have opened a SMF, it doesn't exist as a Finale file until you save it.

Again, when you save a file, you need three pieces of information: 1) file name, 2) the location (folder) where the file will be stored, and 3) the file format.

•In Finale, go MIDI>MIDI Setup. In the MIDI Setup window, find the column labeled Input Devices. In the menu labeled 1-16, select the name of the MIDI keyboard controller at your work station.

This tells Finale what MIDI keyboard you want to use to input data. The controller name is the same as the one in your Audio MIDI Setup window.

Part 4: Set Up an Imported File In Finale

•With your Finale file open, go File>File Info, and enter a title (In All That I Am Doing) and composer (J. S. Bach). Hit OK. The title and composer have changed on the sheet music.

The Text Tool allows creating or editing text data on a Finale page. On this document, information from the File Info window have been "inserted" into text boxes, and will change when the data in the File Info window changes. This is handy for editing text that appears in multiple places in your document.

You may also enter other data here, including copyright information. The copyright symbol is made by typing Option-g.

•Go Tools>Staff to select the Staff Tool. Double-click the top staff. In the resulting window, find the Edit button to the right of Full Name and click it. In the resulting window, replace the current name with the word Soprano and hit OK, then OK again. The name of the top staff is changed to Soprano.

When opening a SMF, the staves are given names that correspond to the MIDI instrument they are assigned to.

•Still in Staff tool, double click the second staff to again open the Staff Attributes window. In the resulting window, find the Edit button to the right of Full Name and click it. In the resulting window, replace the current name with the word Alto and hit OK.

•Now access the menu to the right of Staff Attributes for, and select the third staff from the top. Using the method previously described, change the staff Full Name to Tenor. Similarly, change the name of the bottom staff to Bass. Hit OK and notice that all four staves have correct staff names.

•The clefs on the top two staves are correct. However, the Tenor and Bass staves should start with bass clefs. Using the Staff tool, double click the Tenor staff. In the resulting window, click on the button labeled Select to the right of First Clef. In the resulting window, click on the Bass Clef and click OK. Click OK again to return to the sheet music. The Tenor is now in bass clef. Use a similar method to make the First Clef in the Bass part a bass clef.

Notice that the opening notes and the key signatures in the Tenor and Bass staves still represent the same pitches as before, though the clefs have changed. We will change the Tenor staff clef again later in the assignment.

•Now we want to group the four staves, and put a bracket on the left that joins them. Still in Staff tool, drag down over the selector boxes at the left of all four staves to select them. Access the Staff menu, and select Add Group and Bracket to open the Group Attributes window.

Notice that the group goes from Soprano to Bass, and that you are choosing to draw barlines through all staves.

•At the bottom left of the window, click on the second bracket from the right to select it. Hit OK, and notice that your bracket is in place at the left of the staves, and that barlines are drawn down through all four staves.

Notice that Finale uses colors to identify certain types of data in your file. For example, your new bracket and barlines are blue. These are only for identification--you will still print in black and white.

•Go Options>Pickup Measure to open the Pickup Measure Window. Click on the quarter note icon, and hit OK. Notice that the opening measure now contains only the opening pickup note.

Also notice that the measure numbers have changed. The first "official" measure is the first full measure of the piece.

•Take a moment and hand-correct the measures on your sheet music, with measure 1 being the first full measure of music.

When transcribing music into Finale, having accurate measure numbers marked on your source music is an important step.

Part 5: Enter Notes In Finale

•Go Window>Simple Entry Palette to open the Simple Entry Palette--if it's already checked, leave it alone. The palette should be visible at the top of your screen.

•Select a quarter note duration from the Simple Entry Palette, then locate to the first full measure in the Tenor staff. Click on the given location at the beginning of the bar to enter the first note.

•Continue through the Tenor part entering notes via Simple Entry. Change durations where necessary.

•If you make a mistake, hit Command-Z to undo, or you could use the Eraser Tool to remove note(s). You can change durations by selecting a different duration then clicking on the note. You can't drag notes left and right in Finale.

•The following tutorial file (called EntryExercise.MUS) can be found in Applications>Finale 2006c>Tutorials on your computer:

•To hear your work, find the Playback Controls (if not visible, go Window>Playback Controls). Hit the play button to hear and watch a scrolling playback. Click on the small triange to the left of the window to show more controls, and to, for example, change tempo.

•You are looking at a document in what's called Page View. Go View>Scroll View to change to Scroll View. This allows you to view music in one long strip as opposed to on individual pages.

•To jump to a specific measure number in Scroll View, highlight the current measure number in the small box at the lower left of your file window, type in the target measure number, and hit Return. The target measure number will now be at the left of your file window.

•Go Tools>Speedy Entry. On the Bass staff, click in the second measure. The Speedy Entry selector appears around this measure.

•On your MIDI controller, find the specified Bass part note, and hold it down. On your numeric keypad, hit the 4 key. Notice that you've entered an eighth note at the desired pitch.

If a note does not appear, make sure your controller keyboard is turned on and connected to the computer. Go Applications>Utilities>Audio MIDI Setup, then click on the MIDI Devices button, and make sure your interface shows up and is connected to your controller. If it is, in Finale, go MIDI>MIDI Setup, find the Input Device column, and make sure your controller is selected in the top menu. If this still doesn't work, go to the Speedy menu and make sure Use MIDI Device for Input is checked. If this STILL doesn't work, go to a different machine, or contact your instructor.

•Refer to the Speedy Entry Keys chart. Notice that different durations of notes are selected with the numeric keypad, similar to Simple Entry.

•Continue through measures, entering both eighth (4 key) quarter notes (5 key), and half notes (6 key).

As each measure ends, notice that the selector automatically moves to the next measure when the note values in the current measure equal the required number of beats.

When you select a tool, a menu specific to that tool appears at the right end of the menu bar. When using the Speedy tool, if you don't want to jump to the next measure automatically, deselect Jump to Next Measure in the Speedy menu.

Finale will occasionally enter a "wrong" note, actually a note that is enharmonically equivalent to the note you entered. In measure 8, when you enter B natural, you may get Cb. You could shift-drag the note down to the next space and hit the plus sign twice, but the quicker way is to hit the 9 key on the number pad to "flip" to the enharmonic equivalent. If you do this immediately following entry in Speedy entry, the previous note will flip to the proper note. In fact, several alterations are possible immediately after entry, including accidental alteration, courtesy accidentals, and ties.

In Speedy Entry, to add an accidental alteration to a note in Speedy Entry, position the curson on the note and hit the + or - keys to go up or down 1/2 step. To add a courtesy accidental to the note, position the curson on the note and hit the * key on the number pad. If you want it in parentheses, hit the P key. To add (or remove) a tie, hit the = key.

•Check back over your score, and compare to your source sheet music. Where necessary, add accidentals, flip enharmonic equivalents, add ties, and so forth.

Resources:

•Speedy Entry Keys (html)

•Speedy Entry Keys (will download a pdf file)

•In Finale, go Help>Index to open the to the PDF help file index.

Part 6: Editing Data in Finale

•Now enter the slurs. Go Window>Smart Shape Palette. In the window that opens, click on the Slur shape. In the Alto staff, find the G in measure 3. Double-click on it. A slur appears connected dynamically to the next note. Add slurs as they appear in the sheet music.

To stretch a slur over more than one note, double-click on the first note, holding down the mouse on the second cick. Drag until the final note is selected then let go.

•In the Smart Shape Palette, select the "expanding hairpin." In measure 6 (measure 7 in the original sheet music), double click under the Soprano staff, and drag the resulting shape to the right to enter a crescendo hairpin under the dotted half note.

The hairpin is for the purposes of this exercise only. It is not found in the original sheet music.

•Go Tools>Lyrics to open the Lyrics Tool. Go Lyrics>Edit Lyrics. In the resulting window, enter the piece's lyrics. Be sure to hypenate properly. When finished, hit OK.

•Go Lyrics>Click Assignment. Click on the first note in the Soprano staff. The first syllable of the lyric will be entered.

•Option-click the next note. The rest of the lyrics will be entered. Note that the notes line up improperly after the syllable on the word I.

•Go Lyrics>Shift Lyrics. In the resulting window, for Shift Lyrics to the: select Right, and under options, select Shift Syllables by One Note, to the Next Open Note, and hit OK. Click on the first note that you want to move. All the syllables will shift to the right. Continue through the piece until all syllables are lined up properly.

Finale will often take care of respacing for you when you edit your piece. Sometimes, however, you must respace manually. Here's how...

You may find that added lyrics collide with the staves below them. Here's how to add space between staves...

The following section is for practice only, and does not affect your final project; material found here may appear on a future exam. If you want, you might go File>Save As to save your file under a different name, and use the new file for practice only. When you are finished, you would return to your original file. You might also just proceed, making sure to properly delete notes as mentioned in the last instruction.

•Find the Measure Tool in the Main Tools palette. Double-click it, and notice that a measure has been added to the end of your piece.

Double-clicking the measure tool will add a single measure at the end. Option-clicking will add a user-selected number of measures at the end.

•Option-click the Measure Tool and in the resulting window, enter 9 and hit OK to add 9 measures to the end of your piece.

•Go Tools>Mass Edit to access the Mass Edit too. Locate to measure 10. Select measures 10-12 (the last three measures with music in them) by dragging over them.

•Now drag the upper left corner or the first measure of your selection to measure 13 (the first blank measure). Enter 1 in the resulting box and hit OK.

If the measures you want to copy are too far away from the target measures, locate to the target measure and option-shift-click in the target measure to copy the data.

•Select some music in the added measures. In the Mass Edit menu, select Transpose.

A diatonic transposition moves notes to notes within the scale of the current key. Chromatic transpositions move all notes an exact interval independent of key.

•When you have experimented with Mass Edit copying and transposing, select the measures you added and hit the delete key to remove them (or, if you created a new file, return to your original file).

--USING MASS EDIT TOOL IN FINALE TO COPY LYRICS AND MEASURE SMART SHAPES TO OTHER STAVES

•Using the Mass Edit tool, click to the left of the Soprano staff to select all measures in the Soprano part.

•Go Mass Edit>Items to Copy. In the resulting window, click Uncheck All to de-select all boxes. In the upper half of the window, click (highlight) the box next to Lyrics. In the lower part of the window, click the box next to Smart Shapes (Assigned to Measures), then hit OK to close the window.

•Drag the first measure in the Soprano staff to the first measure of the Alto Staff. The lyrics and the hairpin are copied into the Alto part. Repeat the same steps to copy the lyrics and hairpin into the Tenor and Bass staves.

•Go Mass Edit>Items to Copy. In the resulting window, click Reset to Defaults, then hit OK to close the window.

Unless you do this step, Mass Edit retains your copy settings and you may be perplexed why some things don't copy when you want them to next time you use the tool.

•Go Tools>Articulations. In the last measure, click on the first note in the Soprano part. In the resulting window, click on box 7 which contains the legato mark. Hit Select. The articulation is placed on the note.

These articulations are for the purposes of this exercise only. They are not found in the original sheet music.

•Go Tools>Expression. Double-click the first note of the Soprano part to open the Expression Selection window.

•Now click on the mp (mezzo piano) mark. Hit Select to close the window. You should see a red mp in your score.

If your mp is green, you entered a Measure Expression. Undo, then redo, this time selecting Note Expression in the Expression window.

•In a similar manner, enter an f (forte) symbol at the downbeat of measure 7 (measure 8 in the original sheet music) in all parts.

These expressions are for the purposes of this exercise only. They are not found in the original sheet music.

•Go Tools>Key Signature. Double click in the first measure of the Soprano staff to open the Key Signature Tool window.

•Use the arrows next to the key signature to navigate to the key of Ab major. Make sure you have selected measure #1 to end of piece as a Measure Region, and for Transposition options, select Transpose Notes Down.

Notice that this transposes your entire piece to the new key, including all notes. Notice that items attached to notes move with the notes.

•Go Window>Instrument List. In the resulting window, find the Instrument column. In the Soprano part, click on the Instrument name and it will turn into a menu. From the menu, select New Instrument.

The Instrument Window serves the same purpose as the Default Patch column in DP--it is here you assign patches to your various staves.

Finale handles this by creating an "Instrument," which is actually a combination of patch and MIDI channel.

•For Instrument Name, enter Piano. For Channel, enter 1. For General MIDI, choose 1 : Acoustic Grand Piano. Leave all other selections alone. Hit OK. Piano is entered in the Instrument column for the Soprano staff.

•Change the patch on the other parts to Piano. Close the Instrument List window by clicking in the small red button at the left of the top menu bar of the window.

•If your Playback Control window isn't open, go Window>Playback Control to open it.

•Carefully go through your sheet music and check notes, expressions, lyrics, and so forth, correcting any errors and making slight position changes as needed.

To share files via email or on a website, you want to create a PDF document of your Finale file. The following assumes you are using System 10.3.9 or later on a Macintosh computer.

•Check back over your file and make sure you like the way it looks. Once you have saved as a PDF document, you can't make changes without going back to your Finale file.

You would also do this if you wanted to print. In that case, you would select a printer and hit Print. However, we can also use the Print window to save as a PDF file.

•In the print window, give your file the name inall.pdf, locate to your project folder, and hit Save. Your file will be saved as a PDF format file.

•In your project folder, find the file you just made. Double click it to open it in a PDF viewer. Check your PDF file before proceeding, and, if necessary, repeat these steps until you have a file you like.

•If you have not done so already, locate the Playback controls. If they are not visible, go Window>Playback Controls. Hit the play button to hear and watch a scrolling playback. Click on the small triange to the left of the window to show more controls, and to, for example, change tempo.

You can see how the patches are assigned in the Window>Instrument List window.

If you are using Finale 2006 or higher, you can get more advanced mixing controls in View>Studio View.

If you do not hear anything during playback, first test the volume keys on your numeric keypad. Then, in Finale, go MIDI>Internal Speaker Playback>SmartMusicSoftSynth Playback and make sure it is checked. Sometimes just re-selecting this option will "kickstart" Finale playback. If that doesn't work, try going MIDI>Internal Speaker Playback>Quicktime Playback. If that doesn't work, check with your instructor.

•If you like the way your file sounds, proceed to the next step. If not, go back and make corrections, until you get a playback that you like.

•Now we want to create an audio file that could be put on a CD or posted to the Internet. To do this, go File>Save Special>Save As Audio File. After processing, you will see a standard save window. Enter data as follows:

The Standard Audio File setting will save your file in AIFF format, a "full-sized" audio format that can be put onto an audio CD. The Compressed MP3 File setting will save your file in mp3 format, a "compressed" audio format that is suitable for posting to a website or adding to an mp3 player like iPod.

In Finale 2006 or higher, this could be done using controls found in View>Studio View. Those controls use MIDI volume controls to affect loudness, much like the Mixing Board controls in Digital Performer. To do that, each staff would need to be assigned to its own MIDI channel.

However, in our exercise we want to change the velocities of the actual MIDI notes in the Tenor part.

You may recall that MIDI velocity controls how loudly (or perhaps intensely) MIDI patches sound, and that settings can range from 0 to 127.

•Now we want to create a version of our project in which the Tenor part is louder than the other parts. First, make sure your Finale file is saved. Then go File>Save As. Save your file with the name inall_tenor.mus.

•With the MIDI tool engaged, click to the left of the Soprano staff to select the whole staff. Hold down the Shift key and click to the left of the Alto staff to add the Alto part to your selection. The staves will highlight.

•Find the MIDI Tool menu to the left of the Help menu. Select Key Velocities (a checkmark will appear next to Key Velocities)..

•Access the MIDI Tool menu again, and select Set To. In the resulting window, Set Key Velocities to 75. Hit OK.

•Now select the Tenor staff. Using the same method, set its key velocities to 100.

•Playback your file and check to see if these settings sound right to you. Make any necessary changes to create the rehearsal tool asked for by your choir director.

•First, go File>Save to save your the tenor-enhanced version of your finale file.

•Now use the method described above to create an AIFF file of your tenor version. Use the name inall_tenor.aif and save in your project folder.

•When you have completed the project, turn in the whole project folder to Drop Box>MIDI Sequencing and Notation>Assignment 7 In All.

Your folder should contain the following files (names may reflect later file versions):

inall.dp (the Digital Performer file with the Alto line and patches in it)
inall.mid (the Standard MIDI File of your DP file)
inall.mus (your completed Finale file)
inall.pdf (the PDF version of your Finale file)
inall_tenor.mus (the Finale file that has the enhanced tenor part)
inall.aif (the audio file of your Finale file)
inall_tenor.aif (the audio file of the tenor enhanced Finale file

Make sure you confirm that your folder is named Lastname.Firstname.InAll and that it is turned into the correct location in the Drop Box.

Resources:

Parts:

Project Description

Part 1: Notation in Digital Performer

Part 2: Saving as a Standard Midi File (SMF)

Part 3: Open and Save a Standard MIDI File In Finale

Part 4: Set Up an Imported File In Finale

Part 5: Enter Notes In Finale

Part 6: Editing Data in Finale

Part 7: Finishing