Alicia's Keys To Arranging For Singers - Lead Sheets, Finale and GarageBand

Week 10 - Bounce Down Your Track!

2009-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hurray! You're on the home stretch! The last thing you need to do to finish your song is bounce it down and send it to me - both I'm Yours and your own project.

Here are the

steps:

Go to the Share Menu - choose Export To Disk
Choose Compress - mp3 (don't worry about any other setting) - click Export
When you save it, SAVE IT WITH YOUR FULL NAME so I can give you credit for it.
Once it mixes down and exports, e-mail it to me at aliciamorgan@gmail.com with a sent time stamp no later than 5:00 PM Monday, Sept. 14 (Week 11)

Then you have the written test on Monday - from 1-5 pm here in the Passage Lab.

That's all! See you Monday!

Week 9 - GarageBand Final Review and Study Guide

2009-08-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

Click here to download the Final Review and Study Guide.

Click here to download the Week 9 Audio File Format handout.

Our Final will be on Monday of Week 11. It will consist of 3 sections -

The "I'm Yours" class project, bounced down and exported to .mp3
Your own GarageBand project, which can be anything you like, provided it is over one minute long, and it has at least 3 tracks - a drum track, a bass track, and a rhythm track of any kind - piano, guitar, synth, whatever. Bounced down and exported to .mp3. Within those parameters, the rest is totally up to you.
A written test which will cover the most important concepts we've worked on in this class.

The written test has been handed out this week with the answers on it. I am also putting it up here so it is available for you to study over the next couple of weeks. Everything that will be on the test is on the Study Guide.

Both GarageBand projects will be exported as .mp3s and emailed to me from the computer at aliciamorgan@gmail.com.

If you record a vocal or instrumental audio track - either that you sing or play yourself or record someone else singing or playing - you will receive extra credit.

The Final will be given on Monday of Week 11 in the Passage Lab from 1:00-5:00.

By 5:00 the Final must be complete - the written test must be handed in to me, and the 2 .mp3s must be in my email.

Mp3 Projects with a time stamp (sent) in my email that is later than 5:00 will not be accepted.

Next week we will go over exactly how to bounce your projects down to the proper format in GarageBand.

Click 'read more' to read what is in the Final written test.

1. Name the three places to get sound on your lab computer:

Your object is to get sound from the program you are using to the sound output you want to use. On our Passage Lab computers, there are three places to get sound:

• Built-In Output – this is where the sound comes out of the computer’s built-in speakers.
• Built-In Headphones – this is where you plug in your headphones at the back of the computer, using a minijack plug.
• M-Box 2 – this is the audio/MIDI interface used for the ProTools program. It has a standard ¼-inch headphone jack

2. Name the three ways to access sound on your lab computer:

On the computer, there are several ways to access the sound:

• Through the Sound Preference in System Preferences
• Through the Audio/MIDI Utility in the Utilities Menu
• Through the sound preferences in the program

FYI: To get to the Sound Preference panel, you go to the Apple menu (farthest upper left on your screen) and choose System Preferences. From there, you will find Sound all the way to the right in the Hardware section. The Sound window will show you what sound choices you have – in our case, Built-In and M-Box 2. This is the overall system sound for the computer, and its volume control can be found on the right-hand side of the menu bar. The icon looks like a little speaker with sound waves. Mac people will probably be familiar with this; PC people maybe not so much. If the slider is all the way down, there will be no little sound waves, and it will be muted, so be sure and check that the volume is up there.

The Audio MIDI Setup utility can be found in Utilities, which is a folder inside the Applications folder. To find it, click on the Desktop to get to the Finder. From there, go to the Go menu, and choose Utilities – or, an easier way is to use the key command Shift-Command-U. Audio MIDI Setup gives more detail about what’s happening with sound, and it also lets you know what MIDI connections are active. You can choose from here which output you want to be active – Built-In Audio or M-Box 2.

Your individual audio program will also have its own sound preferences, so once you check the first two, if you still don’t have sound you will need to go there. Every Mac program (or application) has a set of Preferences which let you decide how you want that application to work – on a PC they’re often called Options. Not all audio applications keep the Audio/MIDI settings in Preferences – Finale gives it a menu item – but many do. GarageBand does, so you will go to the upper left where it says GarageBand in the menu, and under that you will see Preferences. There is also a Key Command to open Preferences, which is Command-Comma. In the Preferences window that opens up, choose Audio/MIDI. This will show you where GarageBand’s inputs and outputs are set. Choose the one you want.

At this point you should have sound.

If you are playing the controller keyboard, and you’re not getting sound, check that:
• The power plug in the back is plugged in
• The MIDI cable is plugged in – it should be in MIDI Out, and the other end should be plugged into the M-Box 2 into MIDI In.
• If these are all right, try turning the power on and off on the controller.

3. What are the differences between MIDI and audio?

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A MIDI file is information about a musical performance on the computer – what notes are played, what sounds are used, the note values and velocity of the notes being played. It is a smaller file because it is only a set of directions and does not contain the sound itself.

An audio file is a digital recording of a sound performance. An audio file is a large file because it contains the complete sound data of what was recorded.

4. What are they called in GarageBand and how are they used?

In GarageBand, a MIDI track is called a Software Instrument track and it is green. You can choose any of the available sounds in GarageBand to assign to a Software Instrument track, and can change that sound at any time you wish. Apple Loops that are MIDI files are green.

In GarageBand, an audio track is called a Real Instrument track and it is blue. The sound on a Real Instrument track comes from whatever audio input is plugged into the computer – guitar, bass, microphone, etc. – and chosen as the sound source for that track. Apple Loops that are audio files are blue.

FYI: MIDI and audio can be compared to a recipe for a cake (MIDI) compared to the cake itself (audio). The recipe on a piece of paper may only weigh a few ounces, but a cake can weigh a pound or so. You can change the recipe (MIDI) – using pickles instead of strawberries, or using organ instead of piano, but once the cake is baked (audio), you can’t separate the eggs from the flour, or the guitar track from the drums.

5. What can you edit (change) on a MIDI track?

You can change the software sound, add or delete notes, make them longer or shorter, louder or softer.
You can record a performance into the track by playing it on a MIDI keyboard, or add notes one at a time manually.

6. What can you edit (change) on an audio track?

You can change the audio input – the sound source that is being recorded, such as a mic input (mic XLR cord) or a line input (guitar, keyboard or bass cord).
You can record a performance into the track by playing it on your instrument or recording with a microphone.

7. What can you edit on both audio and MIDI?

You can drag a green (MIDI) Apple Loop into the Track Window, and use the loop the way it is or change it.
You can change an audio file (Apple Loop or your recorded performance) by cutting, copying, pasting, and dragging.
You can merge two or more sections by selecting them using command-J to join, or split one section by using command-T to split at the playhead.
You can also add effects from the Info Window and automate those effects in the track.

8. Identify the parts of the GarageBand window, letters a thru j:

9. Name the two most common uncompressed audio file formats, what is their size per minute, and write their extensions:

AIFF and WAV
10 MB per minute
.aif and .wav

10. Name the two kinds of compressed file formats that GarageBand uses, what is their size per minute, and write their extensions.

Mp3 and AAC
1 MB per minute
.mp3 and .m4a

This will be your test on Week 11.

You will not be tested on anything inside the “FYI” italics – they are only there for your information, and to help you.

Week 9 - Audio File Format Basics

2009-08-31T13:29:00.000-07:00

The last bit of new information that we will be getting into before the end of this class is Audio File Formats in GarageBand. This is a duplicate of what is in your Week 9 handout.

What is an ‘Audio File Format’?

There are many different kinds of sound files, or ‘audio files’. ‘Format’ is the word used to describe what type of file it is – what company developed it, what applications or programs can play it or use it, what has been done to it since it was originally recorded.

If you have ever used a computer for music, you have heard of an .mp3, but you might not have known exactly what that means – to most people, it’s just a name for something you listen to on iTunes or an iPod.

An .mp3 is an audio file that has been compressed, or had parts taken out of it, so that it can be small enough to send by email, or so that you can have room to store more of them on your drive or music player. It’s kind of like a trash compactor – the file is kind of squished down so it can fit into a smaller space. The parts that are removed to do this are mostly parts that you don’t miss – you can hear the difference between a compressed and a non-compressed file, but for casual listening purposes you’re choosing lower quality so you can have smaller files which are easier to store and send.

There are dozens and dozens of audio file formats, but we’re not going to get into them here. We’re going to discuss the formats that are used in GarageBand, which also are used by other audio recording programs and players.

Uncompressed Audio:

Uncompressed audio is audio that is kept the way it’s first recorded – not squished down. The two basic kinds we deal with in computer music are AIFF and WAV files. They are identified by their extensions – the three letters that come after the dot in the name of a file. For instance, a Word document’s extension is .doc. An Adobe Portable Document File’s extension is called a .pdf, which is a file type that can be read by almost any computer and program. The file extension is how programs can recognize whether they can use a file or not. Sometimes, all you have to do to get a program to be able to read a file is by just manually changing the letters of the extension!

A WAV file and an AIFF file are both uncompressed. The WAV extension is.wav, and the AIFF extension is .aif or sometimes .aiff. There is a slight difference in quality – overall, WAV files are a little better quality – but they can both be used to burn to CD. WAV is a format that is PC-Windows-based, and AIFF is Apple’s own CD-quality format. Most music programs (both Windows and Mac) now recognize both, but in the past, Mac programs would only recognize AIFFs so you would have to convert a WAV to an AIFF in order for a Mac to use it.

The reason to use WAV or AIFF files is for both quality of sound and ability to burn to CD.

Compressed Audio:

The reason we compress audio is to make the file smaller. The goal is to get a file as small as you can without compromising the audio quality too much. An uncompressed audio file – AIFF or WAV – is roughly 10 megabytes (MB) for each minute of audio. A four-minute song, for example, runs around 40 MB.

This can take up a lot of space on your hard drive or your portable audio player. But if an audio file is compressed using the .mp3 format, it shrinks to about 10% of its original size, with only a slight loss of quality to the ear. So, if you have room for 10 songs uncompressed, you have room for 100 if you compress them!

Apple uses the compression format called AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) for its iTunes songs. The extension for an AAC file is .m4a. These can be copy-protected, which is why they use it. It is a slightly higher quality compression but takes up the same amount of space. However, you can have AAC files that are not copy-protected as well.

The most popular compression method is, of course, .mp3. You can choose to export your GarageBand songs either as uncompressed AIFF (CD-burn-ready) or compressed .mp3 (standard) or AAC (iTunes standard). When you choose a compression type, you can also choose the quality of the compression – the less compression, the better the sound quality, but the bigger the file.

So, when you choose a compression quality, you are balancing which is more important – small file size or sound quality. For instance, compression at 64kbps will give you a very small file, but lower quality; 192kbps wil give you a larger file but better quality. It totally depends upon your needs for that file.

GarageBand audio exports:

– AIFF – Mac uncompressed, CD-quality, 10 mb per minute of song - .aif
– Mp3 – standard compression, 10% of Aiff or WAV – 1 MB per minute of song - .mp3
– AAC – itunes standard compression , 10% of aiff or wav – 1 mb per minute of song - .m4a

MIDI & Audio Files for "I'm Yours"

2009-08-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the MIDI and audio files for our project song "I'm Yours":

Note - to download the files so you can use them, double-click (or right-click) on the link which will open up the page which has the Quicktime file, and do a 'save as' from the File menu so it saves as a MIDI file.

MIDI Piano (for reference and copying bass part)
MIDI drums
MIDI Wurli
MIDI Guitar-1
Muted Guitar 2-mp3

Handouts for Summer 09 Up to Week 6

2009-08-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hi y'alls - here are all the handouts for this quarter:

I will also have the MIDI files up here soon to download if you need them.

We Begin - Introducing GarageBand, Starting Our New Track!

2009-07-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today we start with our intro to GarageBand - the handout is taken from the Help File, which is a great tool to use. It's a good idea to get comfortable with using the Help files in any program - that will help your progress and speed up your learning curve no matter what you do. The two indispensible tools for me with computer music (and computers in general) are the Help Files and Google. With those two tools at your disposal you can conquer the world!

Click here for a link to today's handout.
Click here for the song we're working on, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz

We're going to begin our project by importing a MIDI file of the song, and using it to build our track.

Welcome Back! Time for GarageBand!

2009-07-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - welcome back to Arranging for Singers, Part Deux. Hope you had a great break. This quarter we focus on GarageBand. Today's handout with the pertinent info is here:

Click here for Handout!

Week 11 - Final!

2009-06-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here are the review handouts for your final.

The test will be in 2 parts - the first is a written Q&A, and the second is transcribing a piece of sheet music into Finale.

The handouts will cover everything that will be on the test.

Click here for Part 1 - Q&A

On "Section II - Finale", you will not be tested on how to set up the document; it's there to help you for when you do your transcription. Everything else you will be tested on.

Click here for Part 2 - Transcribe

Week 5 - Meeting Finale

2009-05-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

This week, we are going to get acquainted with Finale and learn about the basic tools. Over the next 3 weeks, we’re going to learn the three basic methods of inputting notes – Simple Entry, Speedy Entry and Hyperscribe. For a practice project, you will be using the chart you worked on earlier for your demo. This will not be a finished project, just a way to learn to use the Finale tools.

When you open Finale, you will go to File→New→Document with Setup Wizard.

You will follow the instructions to set up your document. Under Select an Ensemble, you will goto Create New Ensemble, and then we will choose Jazz Font. Click Next.

Here is where you will add all the information about your song. You can also edit this later on by choosing File Info... from the File menu.

When you have finished this, your chart will be ready to go. There are 3 viewing modes – Scroll View, Page View and Studio View. The way yours will come out when you first start it is determined in the Preferences, underneath the Finale 2008 menu on the top far left of the screen. Some of the workstations seem not to have Preferences listed – perhaps because they are volume licenses. If you don’t have Preferences don’t worry about it. You can change the view from the View menu, or use the key command .

If you finish this before class ends, go ahead and start messing around. We will start entering notes as a class tomorrow.

For more information about getting your chart set up, go to this page.
It is using a different song but the steps are laid out for you.

Week 4 - Finishing Lead Sheets, Finale Next Week

2009-04-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Your finished Lead Sheet is due next Monday - Week 5. This week, get your lead sheets ready to turn in. You will need:

Your draft version (pencil)
Your final version (pen)
A copy of your original commercial sheet music that you used to make your chart from

If you only have the one copy, give it to me and I will hand it back to you after checking it.

This will be your Mid-Term grade.

Next week - Week 5 - we will be starting Finale, the music notation program. This is going to be more challenging than what we've been doing so far, so be prepared!

We're going to re-choose workstations that you will stay with for the rest of the quarter. If you like the one you have, stick with it. If you choose a new one, you will need to set up your own personal folder in Documents again, and keep all of your data on - don't forget, these computers are used by other people who may not be as file-management-conscious as you are! People lose their data all the time, and erase other peoples' as well, so make your own folder, and then back it up onto your flash drive.

For Finale, you must have:

Headphones
A flash drive to back up your work onto

Make sure that you have both of these.

Have a great week - I'll see you next Monday!

Week 4 - Lead Sheet - the Finished Product

2009-04-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

So far, we have a rough draft of our lead sheet. This week and next we will clean up the lead sheet to make a good-looking chart that is easy for any musician to read.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you make your final copy:

Write your final version lightly in pencil, then trace over it in pen. Use a pen with blue or black ink (Sharpie Calligraphy pens are what I like best)
At the beginning of the chart, write the clef, the key signature and the time signature on the first staff only! Every other staff can be left blank.
Give your players the info they need, such as feel, tempo, what instruments are played when (example: "medium rock feel", "First verse piano & vox only; band in on second verse")
If there is a signature intro line, write out the melody in notation - usually one staff only.
Make sure you are clear about sections - write Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Solo, Outro (or whatever other sections you may have) to clearly mark where those sections are.
Arrange your measures so that each section starts at the far left of the page. It is okay to have a different number of measures in each staff, so long as it enables the sections to start at the far left. If you only have four or six measures on a second (or 3rd) page, see if you can distribute those measures among the ones on the previous page(s) so you won't have an extra page with only a few measures on it.
Write neatly!
Make sure you write chords large enough for your players to be able to read at a distance! Remember that they will probably have your chart on a music stand and will need to have everything written large, clear and uncluttered. Your chart could be perfect, but it won't make a difference if your player can't see it. So, even if your normal handwriting is small, for your chart, make it larger.
You do not have to write lyrics; however, if there are places where it would help the players to know a lyric, you could write the first couple of words in the phrase followed by an ellipse(…) just to let them know where they are in the song - especially if it is repetitive, or the verse and chorus sound the same.
Double-check to make sure your graphical and text repeats work for the song structure. Make sure they are easy to see. I usually put little curved lines on my repeat signs to make sure they are eye-catching. Same with your codas and signs - make sure they are noticeable by your player.

These things will help you put together a great chart. We will talk more about this in class.

The Big Four - Back By Popular Demand!

2009-04-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Click each page to view or download!

Welcome, My Spring Chickens!

2009-04-08T11:14:00.002-07:00

Hi all - this is our introductory post for the Spring 09 quarter of Arranging For Singers 'A'.

Our first assignment, for next Monday (week 2), is to bring in a piece of commercial sheet music - it can be something you buy, or scan out of a book, or check out of the library, or something you aready have. It needs to have lyrics, chords, and a piano part. What we will be doing is condensing it into a chord chart, which we will be writing by hand.

I'll be updating this on a regular basis. In the meantime feel free to browse the rest of the site - theres a lot of info there that we will be using later on in the quarter. And don't forget to sign up on our Facebook group!

If you have any questions about anything we're doing, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me any time - by a comment on the blog, an e-mail, a text message or through Facebook.

See you Monday!

Welcome To 'Arranging For Singers' - Lead Sheets, Finale, GarageBand

2009-04-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Arranging For Singers! This is where I'll be posting info about what we're working on in class.

What Is Required For This Class:

Headphones!
Pencils, erasers and staff paper – plenty of it. A pen for copying the finished chart – I recommend the Sharpie calligraphy marker.

Also, either a flash drive or a CD to back up your work - many people use these computers and there's no guarantee your files will be where you left them.

How to start:

There are a few basic concepts you should learn from the beginning – knowing these concepts will make your computer work that much easier.

The first one is – save your work immediately after creating your new document.

Let me repeat:

SAVE YOUR WORK IMMEDIATELY AFTER CREATING YOUR NEW DOCUMENT!

You’ll be so happy you did - especially when your program crashes on you and you still have the file you worked so hard on. As you work, Finale can automatically save your file every five minutes, or whatever time you specify.

Basic things to know:

• Use keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse every time you can. It will help immensely with your speed and efficiency.
• Learn the most common keyboard shortcuts by heart so you automatically use them.
• Get familiar with the Main Tool Palette. This palette (little floating square with buttons on it) is the key to everything you will do in Finale.
• Access the Help Menu in Finale - it opens up in a browser and tells you anything you want to know. Most of the info below is directly from the Help Menu.

Main Tool Palette

This floating square holds the tools that you will use in creating your chart in Finale.

How to get there:

The Main Tool Palette is almost always open on the screen. If it’s not, choose Main Tool Palette from the Window Menu.

What it does:

This palette contains all of Finale’s primary tools, which you can rearrange or hide. You can move, resize, reshape, or hide the palette itself. You hold the mouse over any of the tools to find out what the name of the tool is. Click on the name of the Tool in the picture below to view that section of the manual.

* [Close box]. Click this small button at the upper-left corner of the palette to close the palette. Once it’s hidden, you make the palette reappear by choosing Main Tool Palette from the Window Menu.
* [Title bar]. Drag the strip across the top (or left) edge of the palette to move the entire palette to a new screen location.
* [Sizable frame]. Drag this small white square at the lower-right corner of the palette diagonally upward and to the right; you’ll reshape the entire palette. As you drag, the palette snaps into new configurations: tall and thin, short and stout, square, and so on. If your monitor is wider than it is tall, for example, you might consider rotating the palette so that it’s a short horizontal strip.

If you drag the resize box inward toward the upper-left corner, you hide tools. Drag the resize box outward again to bring them back into view.

* [Tool icons]. See the individual tool for a complete discussion of each tool and what it does. In the meantime, note that you can rearrange the icons within the palette. To do so, press shift and drag an icon into a new position; it will trade places with the icon onto which you drop it. Keep in mind, too, that you can save these configurations of tools for quick access; see View Menu/Customize Toolbar dialog box for instructions.

These are the tools you’ll use most often in chart-making:

Selection Tool
Double-click an object to go to its editing tool. Click and drag to move an object.

Staff Tool
Use the menu to add or edit staves -- names, transpositions, groups, brackets, etc.

Simple Entry Tool
Click or use keystrokes to select values from the palette, and then use your mouse, computer keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard to enter notes.

Speedy Entry Tool
Click a measure to edit or insert music, with or without a MIDI keyboard.

Measure Tool
Double-click a measure to set characteristics; drag to move a barline. Click or double-click the tool icon to add blank measures to the end of the score.

Repeat Tool
Double-click a measure to create repeats, ending brackets or text such as ‘To Coda’.

Key Signature Tool
Double-click a measure to insert a key change.

Chord Tool
Choose an input method from the menu; click a note to add or edit chord symbols.

Lyrics Tool
Use the menu to create or edit lyrics and position them in the score.

Text Tool
Double-click to add text blocks. Use menus to change fonts, borders and so on.

HyperScribe Tool
Set up menu, then click a measure and play, for an instant transcription.

Page Layout Tool
Click the page to adjust margins or systems.

Mid-Term Handout for Test on Tuesday, Feb. 10

2009-02-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

The handout that contains the questions and answers for tomorrow's Mid-Term is here:

Arranging Mid-Term Q&A Handout.

We will test on Tuesday.

Next week:

Monday - GarageBand

Tuesday - Nick Batzdorf!

Walking Through Our Project - "Ain't Got You" - Part 1

2008-10-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

When you open up Finale, you will either see the Launch Window, in which case you will select Setup Wizard (on the left of the window) or go to File->New->Document with Setup Wizard.

Either way, choose Setup Wizard.

Start with “Create a New Ensemble” on the left. Then choose “Handwritten Style - Jazz Font”. This is a larger font and easier to read in a lead sheet or chart. Click “next”.
Now, you’re on the Add Instrument page. Start with Keyboards on the left, choose Piano and click “Add>”. Click “next”.
On the Score Information page, fill in whatever information you want. Click “next”.
You are now at Score Settings. Choose the appropriate settings for your song - time signature, key signature, tempo and pickup measure (if necessary) and number of measures if you wish. All of these can be changed later, by the way. For this project, we're using 6/8, key of G, no tempo or pickup. Click “next”.

You are now set up to begin your chart. You will have a staff system that goes on horizontally, with a piano track to the left of each clef, and a tempo tap track above those. It will be called ‘Untitled #1’ or some other number depending upon how many untitled files you’ve started.

Right now - SAVE YOUR FILE!

Navigation:

You will want to navigate to a place that you want to save your file to.

Use the key command “command-S”. Always use a key command if one is available. This will bring up a “Save As” window. By default it will say “Untitled #1.mus” = .mus is the Finale extension. ou will choose the name you want to save it as. If the arrow to the right of the Save As: title is pointing down, click on it to open up your navigation window, and find a place to save it. t could be to your flash drive, or on the computer - either in Documents or Music. When you get to either one of those, you can create a folder of your own to keep your files in by using the New Folder button on the bottom left, and then click Save (or, better yet, use Enter on the keyboard) to save your file.

You are ready to start working on your chart.First, let’s get familiar with the tools we will be working with the most that are in your Main Tool Palette. These are:

The Selection Tool - first on left, dotted square with arrow.
This tool is the one you will be using the most for selecting, copying and dragging different items around. if you click on an item that is specific to a tool, such as a repeat sign, a chord symbol, a note, etc., that tool will become selected and you can work with it.

The Simple Entry Tool - the one that looks like a single upright eighth-note (not the speedy one that is slanted with little lines on it - that’s Speedy Entry and we’ll get to it later.) This is the tool you’ll use to enter notes into the staff, either by clicking on the staff directly or clicking on a number and a letter key on your computer keyboard.

The Staff Tool - this one looks like a measure with a treble clef in it. This is one you’ll be using a lot - it controls things like putting slashes and rhythmic notation into your measures that have only chord changes in them. For a simple chart or lead sheet, there will be a lot of this.

The Measure Tool - this tool will get some use, too - you can use it to add different kinds of bar lines to different sections of the song; also you can drag the handles to make the measure wider or narrower.

For now, that’s enough to get you started.

There are also some important keyboard shortcuts you need to know.

For Simple Entry -

Number Pad: the number pad on the right of the keyboard is used with the Simple Entry Tool to determine what length of note you want to use. When you’re in Simple Entry, each number corresponds to a note value - a quarter note is the number 5, an eighth note is the number 4, a sixteenth is the number 3, a half note is the number 6, etc. So if you want to enter a half note, the first thing you would do would be to press 6 on the number pad. If you look at the Simple Entry palette, you would see the note value change around as you press different numbers.

Then, you would have a couple of different options for entering your note. If you wanted to enter a C half -note, you could press 6 on the number pad and then the letter C on the computer keyboard. Or, you could press 6 and then use the mouse to select a C on your staff. It’s up to you which method is fastest for you.

Navigation Arrows: the arrow keys directly to the left of the number pad help you navigate through your measures and notes in Simple Entry. If you have entered a note, you can use the up and down arrows to move the note up and down on the staff, and you can use the left and right arrows to select notes to edit. You can also use the up and down arrows with the Shift key to change the octave of a note you’ve selected.

Letter Keys - can be used to enter the corresponding note letter names along with the number keys which determine note value.

Plus and Minus Keys - these keys will make a selected note sharp, flat or natural, depending upon the key signature. Plus (+) key moves a note one half-step up, minus (-) key moves a note one half-step down. Can be used from the number pad or the regular keyboard.

Dotted Notes can be created by adding the decimal point on the numpad or the period to a number selection for note value - in other words, pressing 3 plus the decimal will give you a dotted sixteenth.

Walking Through Our Project - "Ain't Got You" - Part 2

2008-10-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Okay. We now have a blank chart ready to go.

This is going to be a simple chart at first, with mostly chord changes.

Whe we sketched the chart out on manuscript paper, we counted out the measures for each section - intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus. Then we wrote in the chord changes for each section. We found that the intro and the chorus had the same changes, so that saved some work right there.

Our goal is always to save work whenever we can!Now, we're ready to start entering data in Finale.

Our chart is going to have slashes with chords over them in the treble staff, and bass notes in the bass staff.

Let's start with the Intro.

The intro is 8 measures long. We're going to start by entering in bass notes.

We enter notes with the Simple Entry tool, so click on that.

Our chord changes for the intro are: CMaj7 | Bmin7 | Amin7 | GMaj7 |CMaj7 | Bmin7 | Amin7 | GMaj7 |

So, we're going to enter the roots of those chords as bass notes.

In the first post, we talked about using the Number Pad to choose note value. We want the note value to be a dotted quarter, so we will press 5 and then the decimal (dot). When you choose the Simple Entry tool, your cursor becomes a note of the value you have chosen with a vertical line through it, called a 'caret'. Point your cursor to beginning of the first measure in the bass clef (not the treble, where it probably wants to go) and then press the letter 'C' twice on the computer keyboard. If all goes well, you should end up with this:

Congratulations!

Walking Through Our Project - "Ain't Got You" - Part 3

2008-10-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

So...

We have entered our first notes in Finale!

Let's continue entering bass notes - Bs in the second measure, As in the third measure and Gs in the fourth measure.

****Now, let me take a minute here to talk about using your key commands.

When you work in Finale (or write a chart by hand for that matter), always look for patterns that can be repeated. This is how you work fast and efficiently (and also avoid carpal-tunnel syndrome!)

In the intro, if you look back to the last post, you can see that the chord changes repeat themselves after the first 4 bars. So, instead of entering the notes by hand, you can copy them two different ways.

Let's start at the beginning, with Select.

'Select' is computer-speak for anything that you pick to work with. You can 'select' in many different ways and with many different tools, but it is the same function. In order to change any item, it must be 'selected'. When an item is selected, there is usually an obvious visual cue to let you know what has been selected - it may be highlighted with a color, it may have a box around it, or little dotted lines, but you will be able to tell by looking at it that it is selected and therefore able to be modified.

When you select text, for instance, in a Word document or any other word processor, it is highlighted. You know then that you can change the color or size or font, or add a link to it or underline it or change the formatting to bold or italic, but only what is highlighted is affected - nothing else. It's the same thing in Finale.

The Selection tool is the all-purpose tool for selecting items in Finale. You can click and drag to enclose anything you want to work with. Also, while using the Selection tool, if you click on an element of your chart, such as a chord or a note or a repeat, it will activate the tool that is associated with that item. Click on a chord, and it will bring up the Chord Tool.

When you click on a measure, it will highlight to show you that it can be worked with. A very useful and important key to use with selection is the Shift key.

Shift/Select:

When you want to select a region of measures, but you don't have the screen real-estate to fit them all inside the selection box, you will want to use Shift/Select. Here's how it's done:

First, you select one measure -

Then, you hold down the Shift key and click on the last measure that you want as part of your selection -

and all the measures in between are selected.

Now, we have two choices. We can either copy and paste, or drag-copy, meaning you click on the selected area and drag it into the next open measure, which will show a dark black border to let you know where you're dragging it to. Either way, you have copied the four measures.

Now the bass line for the intro is complete.

Walking Through Our Project - "Ain't Got You" - Part 4

2008-10-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Next, we are going to learn how to add chord changes with slashes.

The tools we'll be using will be:

Select Tool

Staff Tool

Simple Entry Tool

Chord Tool

It is a good idea to get familiar with both the tools and their icons, so that when you want a certain tool, you can go right to the icon on the Main Tool Palette.

We’ll start with the intro, which is 8 bars long.
Choose the Simple Entry tool.

The first thing we’ll do is add ‘dummy notes’ to each bar. ‘Dummy notes’ are notes that are not played, but are added to the measure when you use slash chords so that you can attach chord symbols to them in the right rhythm.

Finale will not let you add chords without anything to attach them to, so in each measure we will put some random notes. You should figure out how quickly your chords will change, and on what beat, so you can choose the right note value for your ‘dummy notes’.

For instance, if you have a measure where the chords change every beat in a 4/4 measure, you would need to put quarter-note dummy notes. If the chords land on 1 and the ‘and’ of 2, then you would need to put a dotted quarter and an eighth note in the measure.

Random Fact about Simple Edit - you can change any note in Simple Entry into a rest by pressing ‘R’, and then change it back into a note by pressing ‘R’ again. You can attach a chord to a rest that is changed from a note, but not a rest that is there because nothing has been entered into the measure - in other words, a default rest. These are two different kinds of rests.

So...

Back to our chart.

Since our chords only change once a measure in the intro, our ‘dummy notes’ can be a dotted half. If they change twice in the measure, as they will in the ‘B’ section, then we will use two dotted quarters.

Using the Simple Entry Tool, press 6 on your numpad (Number Pad) and then a decimal or a period. This will give you a dotted half.
Make sure the cursor (colored note with a vertical line through it) is positioned in the treble clef of the first measure, then press Enter. You will see the dotted half-note entered in the first measure, and the cursor moved forward to the next measure.

Remember, these are dummy notes - it does not matter what pitch they are at all, becasue you will neither see nor hear them.

Continue to press Enter until you have a dotted half in all 8 measures.

Now, it's time to switch tools. Let's choose the

Chord Tool.

The chords for the intro are: ||: CMaj7 | Bmin7 | Amin7 | GMaj7 :||

Click on the Chord Tool, then double-click on the first dotted-half note. (In the Chord Menu to the left of Help, make sure that Manual Input is selected and not Type Into Score.) The Chord Definition window will show up:

There are several ways you can enter chords here. The most obvious is to type the name of your chord into the box that says Chord Symbol. For this demonstration, we're going to use the Definition section of the window.

In the green selection box, you can see that it says 'G'. This is the default, as it always starts off on the root of the key of the song - in this case, G. (Thank you, Professor Einstein.) But in the Definition part of the window, you can see that it says 'Root', and then 'Scale Tone' and 'Alteration'.

Our first chord is not G, but C major 7. So it is asking us for the scale tone of the chord we want. C is the 4th tone in the G major scale, so we would enter 4 for Scale Tone.

Then, we need to add Major 7, so we go to 'Suffix' and click Select...

which brings up the Chord Suffix Selection window. We select the suffix we want (#13, Maj7) and click Enter.

Now, when we look at our Chord Symbol, it's what we want - CMaj7. We click Enter again, and our chord appears above the dotted half note, just where it's supposed to be!

The group of 4 arrows to the left of the staff are used to position the chords higher or lower on the staff.

Slashes

Time to switch tools again to add slashes to this measure.

To explain slashes: They are a Staff Style, added by the Staff tool. What they do is 'cover up' whatever else happens to be in that measure - the measure objects (notes, rests, etc.) without deleting them. When you see a Staff Style in use, you'll see the slashes, but you won't be able to see what the slashes are covering up. I think of Staff Styles as sort of a curtain that hides what's behind it.

So - we switch to the
Staff Tool and click inside the first measure (the one we added the chord to) to select it.

Now, here's the cool part. Simply press the letter S on your computer (no modifier key.)

Lo and behold! The 'dummy note' has been covered up by slashes!

When you have selected the Staff Tool, any measures that have Staff Styles on them will show a blue bar above the staff to identify them.

"What if it won't let me add a chord?"

Dear friend, this is a common question, and the answer is almost always the same - you've tried to add a chord to a slash measure without knowing whether there are notes underneath the slashes! Remember, you can't add a chord to an empty measure. But you can add a Staff Style to an empty measure, so it's very likely that you have slash measures without dummy notes under them. The solution is to select the offending measure, then click on it while holding Control (also known as Control-Click.) This will bring up the contextual Staff Menu, at which point you will choose "Clear Staff Styles". While you're looking at the menu, notice all the different Staff Styles there are to choose from! In this project we will mostly be using Slash Notation and Rhythmic Notation.

Choosing "Clear Staff Styles" will do just that, and show you what's underneath, at which point you can add the dummy notes and then select and re-apply the slashes by pressing S again.

Now, do this with the other three chords, then copy the first four measures and paste them into the fifth.

You are now the proud owner of an intro!

We Interrupt Our Tutorial To Bring You This Very Important Message

2008-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Before we go any further, I want to impress upon you how useful it is to know the basic shortcuts - both in Finale and in computer programs (applications) in general. When you know them automatically, you will be amazed at how much quicker and more efficient your work is. And - time is money.

The Big Four - Copy, Paste, Cut and Undo

Most of you probably know these, but I want to start from Jump Street.

These are all paired with a modifier key - the Command key. It looks like a little four-leaf clover - ⌘. There are two of them, located on either side of the Space Bar. For a long time (in Mac Land) people called it the Apple key (“press Apple-C”) because it had a Mac apple on it next to the little clover-shape, but the latest keyboards have eliminated it, and it’s better to think of it as the Command key because that’s what it does - it gives commands when paired with another key. To use it, you press the Command key first and hold it down while you press the next key.

If you let up on the Command key before you hit the next key, it won’t work.

Copy - ⌘-C
Paste - ⌘-V
Cut - ⌘-X
Undo - ⌘-Z

Earlier, we talked about the Select function, which is the basic way we choose what we want to work with or modify. Once an item is selected, you can copy it, paste it somewhere else, or cut it. What exactly does this mean?

First, let’s talk about the Clipboard. The Clipboard is an invisible ‘holding area’ for items that have been copied or cut. If you select an item and then Copy (⌘-C) it, a copy of that item is stored on the Clipboard, and it stays there until something else is copied. Only one item at a time can be stored on the Clipboard, and if you copy something else, the new item will replace the one that was previously on the Clipboard.

So - once you have copied an item, the original item stays where it is, amd the copy is on the Clipboard. Think of it as being stuck on a bulletin board with a push-pin.

Now that there is an item on the Clipboard, you can use Paste (⌘-V) to place that copy anywhere else you choose. You can paste the same item over and over, because it will stay on the Clipboard until it’s replaced by a new Copy item. But you can’t Paste anything unless it has been stored on the Clipboard.

Now we come to Cut (⌘-X). Cut is like a combination of Copy and Delete. When you use Cut on a selection, like Delete it removes the original, but like Copy it puts a copy of the item on the Clipboard, which you can then Paste anywhere you like.

Finally, the Big Kahuna - Undo (⌘-Z)! You will fall down on your knees with gratitude for Undo - especially in Finale, because depending on how you set the program, there are unlimited Undos! So, if you make a mistake, or a few mistakes, or a complete and utter tsunami of mistakes, you can just ⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z⌘-Z until you are back to where you did not make a mistake. Undo is the Supreme Lord and Master of all Command keys.

I’m going through all these basics because you will use all of these a lot in Finale, and soon you’ll wonder what you ever did without them.

If you start using these keys now, while you are just learning the program, it will become second nature and you won’t have to waste time switching from mouse-and-menu commands.

Remember - use a Key Command instead of the Mouse-and-Menu whenever you have that option.

Speaking of Option...
When you go to a Menu item with the mouse, if a function has a Key Command associated with it, it will display it next to the name of the function. Most people can recognize the Command symbol (⌘)- but what about those other weird ones?

Besides Command, there are three other modifier keys that handle most of the business. These are:

Shift -⇧
Control - ⌃
Option - ⌥

When you see them in a menu, sometimes it’s difficult to remember which keys the symbols correspond to. It took me a while, until I came up with some little memory-tricks to help me.

Shift -⇧ is fairly obvious, but I had to make sure not to confuse it with the arrow keys next to the Number Pad that we use to navigate around the staff.

Control - ⌃ is not as self-evident as Shift but since it’s closest to Shift on the keyboard, I grouped it with Shift as both being arrow-types that point upward.

Option - ⌥ was hard for me to remember until I thought of the word Op-Shun, a two-part word with the first syllable being accented in a higher pitch and the second syllable being lower-pitched, and then looking at the symbol, which is in two parts with the first part being ‘high’ and the second part being ‘low’. You may have some other way to remember it that works better for you, but finding a little ‘hook’ in the brain helps a lot.

Here is an example of how to use Copy, Cut and Paste.

We have two measures with notes in them. Now, we're going to Select the two measures:

and then Copy using (⌘-C). This will put those two measures in the Clipboard - the invisible bulletin board - but nothing looks different. The measures stay the way they were.

Next, we will deselect the first two selected measures (by clicking anywhere outside of the green selection area) and click on the 5th measure to select it.

Then, we will Paste (⌘-V) the contents of the Clipboard - which are the two measures we copied from the beginning of the piece - into that selected measure.

Voilà! How cool are you?!? It is so much easier than entering the notes by hand all over again. You might have noticed that even though we only selected one measure, it added both measures that had been Copied to the Clipboard once it was Pasted in.

Now let's take a look at Cut (⌘-X).

We'll take the same six bars (I copied and pasted them, BTW):

and select the same two bars:

But....

Instead of Copying them, we will Cut (⌘-X) them. Like Copy, the two measures are now on the Clipboard. But, unlike Copy, the contents of the two measures will be deleted - at least to the naked eye.

Now, let's Select measure 3.

And Paste (⌘-V) the contents of the Clipboard into the selected measure!

Our two measures were not lost forever, even though they disappeared from view. That is the difference between Cut (⌘-X) and Delete (⌫ or ⌘-⌫ , depending upon the application.) If we had used Delete instead, it would have looked the same as Cut, but the measures would not have been sent to the Clipboard.

Some other useful shortcuts are:
Select All - (⌘-A) This command will select everything in the document you're working on. Great for clearing everything out and deleting everything if you want to start over, or making a complete copy (⌘-A, ⌘-C)of what you're working on to transfer somewhere else in the document, or Paste (⌘-V) into a new document - either in the current application (Finale) or to put into another program like a word processing application.

Save -(⌘-S) Fairly obvious, yet important. If you save often, you will not be caught with your pants down if there is a crash - your data will be safe. And you will be very, very happy.
Open -(⌘-O)> Also obvious, but useful.
Close Window -(⌘-W) Closes the document you're working on without quitting the program.

And, of course, the ever-popular...

Quit - (⌘-Q) Quits the program.

Print(⌘-P) No explanation needed.
Hide - (⌘-H) Makes your program temporarily invisible without quitting. Very useful.

Why am I making such a big deal out of key commands? Because of the impact they will have on your work, not just in Finale but any application. Music applications in general, such as ProTools, Logic, Digital Performer, depend on lots and lots of cutting, copying and pasting - also navigating around in very large documents. If you have to spend time going to the Menu Bar and going to the drop-down menus and picking the function you need, your project will take twice as long, and your mouse hand will suffer as well.

While we're really geeking out here, I'm going to take a minute and use some computer terms that are useful to know when you're talking to other computer people and want to sound like you know what the hell you're talking about. You will sound very impressive, and people may want to give you money and stuff.

Select, and selection, we've already gone over. But it's good to know the 'official' description.

Application - when you're talking about a computer program, you call it an application. The word 'program' is usually used as a verb, meaning to write code.

Document - the thing you're working on in your application. So, the chart you're writing is a document; the application that you're using is Finale.

Data - information of any kind, but usually referring to the information in your document.

When you're looking for a place to save the stuff you're working on (on the Mac), your best bet is in the folder called Documents. Create a folder for yourself (⇧⌘-N)with your name, and save all your data there.

Don't save to the Desktop! It's messy and horrible and n00b. Data goes in Documents. Don't save your data to the Applications folder either - only applications belong there. And don't save to the Home folder or the root of the hard drive (Computer in the Finder Go menu). This will help the computer stay happy since it doesn't have to track things down where they don't belong, and it will help you stay happy because you'll always know where your stuff is.

And one final, important piece of advice:

Computers can smell fear.

Like small children, they are always testing you, and if they think they can beat you or get the upper hand, they will be constantly challenging you and acting up, trying to see what it can get away with.

You must always let the computer know who's boss. You must always hold the whip hand. You can never back down. If you let it win, then it will run you over and make your life a living hell.

But if you assert your authority as the dominant human, and the master, you will get what you want from the computer. Go ahead - tell it you'll sell it for scrap metal and get a newer, shinier, faster, more powerful computer, and watch how fast it cleans up its act. Make it obey and it will respect you.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.