Composition tools - The smart link |
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The composition tools [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
This is the first lesson on the composition tools introduced
by Pizzicato 3. It is an introduction to practical music
composition tools.
The next lessons are reserved for Pizzicato Professional
and Composition. They use the conductor view, which is
only available in these versions. The conductor view is a musical
desktop on which you can manage several scores, virtual music
keyboards, instrument definitions and groups of scores that may
be played together to build a music composition. It is a powerful
setup to compose music, for light music, ethnic music, orchestral
music, contemporary music or any other music style.
The difference between notation software tools and composition
tools is that the later will provide ways and means to help you
to answer the questions regarding what rhythms, what notes, what
chords will be used in the music. Those tools will help you to
arrange, organize, develop and implement your musical ideas into
full score music composition.
Don't think that the computer will compose for you. This would
be silly because a computer is not able to create. It can only
combine the data it has by following the instructions it
receives, and this it does very well and fast. So YOU are the
composer and Pizzicato is your helper to execute what YOU want
him to do. If you try to find a push-this-button-and-get-a-nice-composition
software, Pizzicato is not the software you need. So you will
have to work, create and imagine!
The first version of the composition tools was implemented in
Pizzicato version 1, in 1995. You may find this system in the
lessons on Composition Libraries (1) to
(6) in this manual. Pizzicato 3 has kept the same basic principle
but has made a much more user friendly interface to use them.
Also, several new concepts and tools have been added to the
original version so as to make it even more powerful and easy to
use.
The basic principle is that music can be broken down into the
following simple items : rhythms, melodies, chords and effects.
Any music composition could be constructed on those basic
building blocks. Music becomes a construction game, using simple
building blocks to create structures and assemble those
structures into more complex structures and into music
compositions.
The first step is explained in this lesson : the tool that
lets you combine those items together to build a structure. It is
the first level of construction. You will learn how rhythms,
melodies and chords may be combined, as though they were bricks
to assemble with mortar. This tool is called the smart link.
The smart link [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The smart link lets you take rhythmic values found somewhere
in a score, melodic values found anywhere else in the score,
chords in even another set of measures and combine them all into
one or more measures. For Pizzicato Professional and Composition,
the three items (rhythm, melody and chord) may even come from
different scores (but all inside the same document).
It is like a mixer you can feed with rhythms, melodies and
chords. The resulting music is a set of measures called computed
measures.
We have seen that a measure may have one or more versions and
that at any time, only one version of the measure is visible and
active. In addition to that, a measure may also have a special
version called a computed version. By default, the computed
version is not present, but the use of the smart link function
will automatically add a computed version to the measures as
needed.
Any measure may become a computed measure. It will then
memorize the resulting computed content in the computed version
of the measure, in addition to its normal content and versions
(which will always remain untouched).
The important point to understand with a smart link is that
the original source of rhythms, melodies and chords stay
connected to the resulting computed measures. A change in any one
of the source components may affect the computed measures. It is
like a spreadsheet: a cell may be recomputed when another cell -
to which it is related - is modified. Let us explain this with
some examples.
- Open the example Ex080. It contains a simple
scale that we will use as a simple melody example:

- The smart link can be seen as similar to the paste
function. You must first select and copy one or more
measures and then smart link them on another set
of measure (or on itself). Select the two above measures
and copy them (Edit, Copy menu). Then select the
third measure of the staff and choose the Edit, Smart
link... menu. Its shortcut keyboard is CTRL + B (on
Mac, apple key+B). The following dialog appears:

- This dialog contains several templates of smart links.
These templates may be used very easily. Let us try the
template named Exact copy x 2. This link creates
two duplicates of the selected measures. Click this
template and then click on Paste. The score
becomes:

- You can see that the melody has been copied two times,
exactly duplicating the original melody and starting from
the smart link target measure (the measure that was
selected before calling the smart link dialog). You may
also notice that the computed measures have their
backgrounds colored. This is used to recognize that a
measure is displaying its computed version in place of
its current normal version. We will see a little further
why two different colors are used. The original version
of these four measures were empty. You can easily switch
between normal and computed versions of the score by
using the C check box located in the tool bar of
the score :

- Click two times on this check box and the score displays
the normal versions for all measures. The computed
measures are invisible but they still exist. Click again
on this check box to see the computed versions. This
check box is checked when its last use was to display the
computed versions. As you add other smart links into the
score, or as you manage the parameters of the computed
measures (as we will explain further), the score may
display only some of the computed measures. This check
box is then used to synchronize the display (all computed
measures or all normal versions). When you ask to display
the computed version for a measure that has no computed
version (as the first two measures of the score),
Pizzicato displays its normal version instead.
- Now modify the first original measure to have:

- As measures 3 to 6 are smart links (exact copies) of the
first two measures, you may ask Pizzicato to update the
computed versions of the score to take into account the
changes made in the original measures. Select the Edit,
Update smart links menu. Its shortcut is CTRL+R
(apple key + R on Mac). The score now displays the
updated computed measures:

Notice that you may edit the computed measure content, but
whenever you ask Pizzicato to update them, the change you
made will be overwritten by the updated computed version.
This simple melody could have been 16 measures long and be
smart linked fifty times through all instruments of a full
orchestral score. Pizzicato would have updated the full score
from the changes you made in the original theme. Quite
practical to test some changes in a score.
- Copy again the first two measures and smart link them
into the first measure of staff 2. In the dialog, select Time
flexible copy. Two parameters appear in the right
part of the dialog. Fill in the Rhythm duration
division text box with "2". All rhythm
durations will be divided by 2. Click on Paste
and the score becomes:

The melody is now two times faster with the same notes.
The smart link is not only a copy of the melody but also
contains several transformation parameters that may affect
the content of the measures. Here is a brief explanation of
the various templates proposed in the smart link dialog box:
- The first four templates are copies of the original
measures (1, 2, 3 and 4 times).
- The Multiple exact copy takes two parameters
: the number of times the rhythms and the notes are
duplicated.
- We have seen the Time flexible copy that may
be used to multiply/divide the rhythmic values.
- The next 6 templates have fixed transposition values.
They transpose the notes of the original measures.
- The General transposition template lets you
select the transposition interval, its type and an
additional octave transposition.
- The Copy with rhythm inversion takes the
notes in the original order but the rhythms in the
reverted order.
- The Copy with note inversion takes the notes
in the reverted order and the rhythm in the original
order. This would give for our example:

- The next template takes both rhythms and notes in the
reverted order.
- The Random copy randomizes the rhythms and
notes to have a new melody based on the notes and
rhythmic values found in the original melody.
- The next template, General copy combining rhythms
and/or notes contains several parameters to
create a copy with multiple options. We will explain
each parameter in the next chapter.
- The next template gives you the opportunity to use a
mirror copy based on notes and/or rhythms. One
example with our melody would be the diatonic mirror
copy based on the C note (mirror reference):

- The next template lets you arrange the notes of a
melody on chords.
- The Coppy of rhythms only copies the
rhythmic values of the source measures. Used alone,
the resulting computed measure is empty, because a
measure needs at least rhythms and notes to display
something. It can be used in combination with the
following template.
- The Copy of notes only copies the note
values of the source measures. Used in combination
with the previous option, you may copy the rhythmic
values of one measure and combine them with note
values from another measure. We will see an example
of this at the end of this lesson.
- The next template lets you arrange and transpose
notes based on a chord.
The computed measure parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
Behind the smart link function, there is a series of
parameters attached to the target measure. They determine how the
smart link must be computed. Each template found in the smart
link dialog is in fact a predefined set of these parameters, with
some of them being available in the right part of the dialog.
Applying a smart link to a measure attaches
all these parameters to the first target measure. Those
parameters are available at any time from the measure itself.
They may also be added to a measure without the application of
the smart link dialog. To access these parameters, click with the
right button on a measure (without selecting a measure) and
choose the Smart link parameters... menu. The following
dialog box appears:

These parameters are divided into three sections : notes,
rhythms and chords. We will explain them by section in the rest
of this lesson.
When you validate the dialog, the parameters are attached to
the measure. If you click on Delete, the parameters are
removed from the measure.
These parameters are attached to one measure, but they may
affect several measures that follow it. When displaying the
computed versions of the score, Pizzicato draws a different
background color for the measures that contain computing
parameters, as seen in the beginning of this lesson. You can then
easily differentiate computed versions with computing parameters
and computed versions which are only affected by the parameters
of a previous measure.
There are basically three sources that are combined to create
the computed measures. Each source is independantly extracted
from same or different measures and recombined to form the
computed measure. These sources are the notes, the rhythms and
the chords.
As the three sources may contain several measures, the
resulting notes may fill much more than the current measure. To
the right of the dialog box, a parameter entitled Number of
affected measures may limit the number of measures that will
be affected by the computation. If this parameter is
"1", then this measure will only affect its own
computed version. If this parameter is "2", then it
will also affect the next measure computed version, and so on.
Note parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The note parameters affect only the pitch of the note but not
its rhytmic value.
- The first four menus determine the first source measure
from which the notes will be extracted to create the
computed version. In case of multiple scores inside the
same document (Pizzicato Professional only), you may
select the source score for notes. The second menu
determines the source staff inside the score and the
third determines the measure number. With the last menu,
you may select the version of the measure, if the measure
contains more than one version.
- The box entitled Number of measures used
determines how many measures will be used as the source
for notes.
- The box entitled Number of notes used may be
filled to limit the number of notes. If equal to zero,
there will be no limit: all notes of the measures will be
used.
- The next box, entitled Limit the number of notes to
may be used to limit the total number of notes generated
in the resulting computed measures. When zero, no limit
is imposed.
- The box entitled Use each note ... time(s) may
be used to use one note several times before going to the
next note. If notes are C, D and F and this box contains
3, the sequence will be C,C,C,D,D,D,F,F,F.
- The box entitled Use all notes ... time(s)
determines how many times the all set of notes will be
used. If notes are C, D and F and this box contains 3,
the sequence will be C,D,F,C,D,F,C,D,F. The effect is not
the same as the previous parameter.
- The Sequence menu will determine the order in
which notes are used. Three choices are possible: Ordered,
Inverted and Random. In the last case,
notes are picked up randomly in the set of notes to build
the computed version of measures.
- The Melodic mirror menu is
used to create an effect similar to the use of an
horizontal mirror: each note is reflected in this mirror
and is replaced by the note which is at the same distance
from the mirror but at the other side of it. The mirror
reference note may be defined with the Select...
button which displays a keyboard where you can click the
reference note. The mirror may be Diatonic -
which means that the interval is taken into account but
not the real number of half tones - or chromatic - the
notes are mirrored according to the number of half tones
from the mirror. In the first case, the melody will
easily fit in the same tonality but with chromatic
mirror, the melody could have accidentals and change
tonality.
- The last three menus may define a transposition that can
be applied to the notes.
All these parameters may be used separately or may be
combined. The resulting series of notes will then be combined to
the resulting series of rhythmic values, as we will now explain.
Rhythm parameters [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The rhythm parameters do not affect the pitch of notes but
only their rhytmic values.
- The first four menus determine the first source measure
from which the rhythmic values will be extracted to
create the computed version. In case of multiple scores
inside the same document (Pizzicato Professional only),
you may select the source score for notes. The second
menu determines the source staff inside the score and the
third determines the measure number. With the last menu,
you may select the version of the measure, if the measure
contains more than one version.
- The box entitled Number of measures used
determines how many measures will be used as the source
for rhythms.
- The box entitled Number of rhythms used may be
filled to limit the number of rhythmic values. If equal
to zero, there will be no limit: all rhythmic values of
the measures will be used.
- The next box, entitled Limit the number of rhythms to
may be used to limit the total number of rhythms
generated in the resulting computed measures. When zero,
no limit is imposed.
- The box entitled Use each rhythm ... time(s) may
be filled to use the same rhythmic value several times
before going to the next one. If rhythms are 4 (Quarter
note), 8 (8th note) and 16 (16th note) and if this box
contains 3, the sequence of rhythmic values will be
4,4,4,8,8,8,16,16,16.
- The box entitled Use all rhythms ... time(s)
determines how many times the all set of rhythms will be
used. If rhythms are 4 (Quarter note), 8 (8th note) and
16 (16th note) and if this box contains 3, the sequence
of rhythmic values will be 4,8,16,4,8,16,4,8,16.
- The Sequence menu will determine the order in
which rhythmic values are used. Three choices are
possible: Ordered, Inverted and Random.
In the last case, rhythmic values are picked up randomly
in the set of values to build the computed version of
measures.
- Two text boxes let you multiply and/or divide the
duration of all rhythmic values. This makes the melody
slower of faster in relation to the main tempo of the
score.
- The Rhythmic mirror check box is used to create
an effect similar to the note mirror. Here the choice is
made between the standard rhythmic values: whole note,
half note, quarter note,... A rhythmic value is selected
as the reference value and all rhythmic values are
mirrored against this value. For instance, if the
reference is the quarter note, a whole note will become a
16th note and an half note will become an 8th note.
All these parameters may be used separately or combined. The
resulting series of rhythmic values will then be combined one by
one to the resulting series of notes.
Chords influence [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
Additionally to the various parameters that affect the notes,
the melody may also be adapted to fit a given chord progression.
- The first two menus determine the location of the chord
progression. Remember that you may create a chord
progression in any score (see the lesson on chord symbols and chord progressions). If the first
menu is set on --- Current chord ---, the melody
will be influenced by the chords present in the target
measure. If you select another staff (Pizzicato
Professional), you may then specify the first measure
containing the chords you want to use.
- The following text box specifies how many measures you
want to include as a source for chords.
- The Influence menu determines how notes will be
modified to fit the chords. The default choice specifies No
influence. The Arrange choice means that
each note will be compared to the current chord. If the
note is one of the chord notes, it is not changed. If the
note is not included in the chord notes, then it is
replaced by a note of the chord that is the closest to
the original note. In this way, a melody will be arranged
to fit the chord. The Transpose choice is
different. The original note will be considered to be a
note in relation to the C Maj chord. It will then be
transposed in the current chord, in the same relative
position. It is mainly used for bass instruments. As an
example, if the sequence of note is C,D,G and if the
chord is D Maj, then the notes will become D,E,A which in
D Maj are degrees I, II and V like C,D,G are in C Maj.
The next choice cumulates both effects. The Smart
arranging choice is reserved for the score arranger
and will be explained in a specific lesson.
- The Minimal duration to arrange specifies a
rhythmic value in units (1 quarter note equals 480
units). If the original rhythmic value is less than this
value, the note is left untouched. This option can be
used to enable fast notes to be left untouched.
Otherwise, an arranged melody would become too monotonous
by using only the notes of the chords.
Application example [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
As the above parameters may combine each one with the others
and as the source measures may contain practically anything that
can be written in music notation, the number of possibilites
offered by this system are numerous. You will need to make your
own experiments and use your imagination to be creative with it.
Here is a detailed example of application where we will create a
random melody, with some given notes and rhythms and we will
arrange it based on a given chord progression.
- Open the Ex081 example document. The lower
system contains the music material we will use, in
measures 6 to 8:

For the main melody, we will randomly use the notes of
measures 6 and 7 and the rhythm pattern of measure 8. We will
structure our score on the upper system, considering the
lower system as a scratch pad where we prepare the notes and
rhythms we need.
- With the right mouse button, click on the first measure
of the first system and select the Smart link
parameters... menu. The computed measure parameters
dialog box appears.
- Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the
notes to use.
- Set the Number of measures to use to
"2" (we want to use measures 6 and 7,
starting at 6).
- Set the Sequence menu to Random
because we want the notes of our melody to be made of
randomly choosen notes from measures 6 and 7.
- For the rhythm parameters:
- Select the last measure 8 / 8 as the first measure of
the rhythms to use. Measure 8 contains the rhythm
pattern we want our melody to use.
- If we keep it like this, the rhythms will only be
used one time. We want 4 measures so we set to
"4" the Use all rhythms ... time(s)
text box.
- For the chords parameters:
- There are 4 chords in this score. They start on
measure 1. We need to use the chords on 4 measures,
so we put the Number of measures used to
"4".
- Set the Influence menu on Arrange
which means that the notes will be adjusted so they
are all part of the current chord.
- Finally, as we need computed versions for 4 measures, we
set the Number of affected measures to
"4". Click on OK and the upper system
staff becomes for instance:

We say "for instance", because as the notes are
randomly selected, the melody may look totally different on
your computer. In fact, each time you ask Pizzicato to update
the measures (CTRL/Apple key + R), a new melody is generated.
Try it a few times. In all instances and according to the
options we have selected, you will notice that:
- The rhythm is always the same, it is based on the
rhythmic content of measure 8.
- The notes inside a measure are all contained in the
chord mentioned just above the staff. This is because
we asked the notes to be arranged on the chords.
If needed you may call the computed measure parameters
dialog to modify the selected options. It is attached to
measure 1, which has a different color background compared to
measures 2 to 4 (those computed versions are the result of
the parameters assigned to measure 1, but measures 2 to 4 do
not contain parameters).
We will now create the second staff content, based on measure
6, staff 2. This measure will be used 4 times and will be
arranged on the chords.
- With the right mouse button, click on the measure 1 of
staff 2 and select the Smart link parameters...
menu. The computed measure parameters dialog box appears.
- Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the
notes to use.
- Set the Use all notes to "4" so as
to cover 4 measures.
- For the rhythm parameters:
- Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the
rhythms to use.
- Set the Use all rhythms to "4" so
as to cover 4 measures.
- For the chords parameters:
- There are 4 chords in this score. They start on
measure 1. We need to use the chords on 4 measures,
so we put the Number of measures used to
"4".
- Set the Influence menu on Arrange
which means that the notes will be adjusted so they
are all part of the current chord.
- Finally, as we need computed versions for 4 measures, we
set the Number of affected measures to
"4". Click on OK and the upper system
staff becomes:

As no random option was selected, the second staff is
unequivocally determined.
We will now create the third staff content, based on measure
6, staff 3. This measure will be used 4 times and will use the
chords.
- With the right mouse button, click on the measure 1 of
staff 3 and select the Smart link parameters...
menu. The computed measure parameters dialog box appears
again.
- Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the
notes to use.
- Set the Use all notes to "4" so as
to cover 4 measures.
- For the rhythm parameters:
- Select measure 6 / 8 as the first measure of the
rhythms to use.
- Set the Use all rhythms to "4" so
as to cover 4 measures.
- For the chords parameters:
- Set the Number of measures used to
"4".
- Set the Influence menu on Arrange.
- Finally, set the Number of affected measures to
"4". Click on OK and the upper system
staff becomes:

- You may now do the same for the last staff. Use measure 6
of staff 4 as the source of the bass melody, but in the Influence
menu, select Transpose and you will get:

This example gives you one possible application. There are
lots of possible combinations for the smart link function.
For Pizzicato Professional, this function may be combined to
the features of the conductor view, which will give you a music
destkop composition to create, arrange your musical compositions.
Two additional items have been added in the Edit menu
since release 3.2 You can use them for the full score (if there
is no selection) or for a selection of measures:
- Fix smart links - This menu copies the computed
versions of the selected measures (or all measures if
none are selected) into the original measures and then
removes the computed versions. The result is that you
have one normal score with the final computed version.
- Remove smart links - This menu removes the
parameters and computed versions of the score so that
only the original measures are kept.
Adding smart link templates [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
In this lesson, we have first introduced the smart link dialog
box, explaining a series of predefined functions. Then we have
explained the various parameters that may affect the computed
version of a measure.
A predifined function is a simplified set of prepared
parameters, extracted from the full set of parameters. It offers
an easy way to execute a specific functionality out of the full
set of possibilites. You may add new templates to the list so
that you can use them when working your music compositions. The
following explanation is for the advanced user who wants to make
a full use of this function.
- Call the smart link dialog, as we did in the beginning of
this lesson (copy one measure and select the Edit,
Smart link... menu). Select the Time flexible
copy item. It has two visible parameters:

- Click on the Modify... button. The following
dialog appears:

The right list contains all the parameters that will be
used when this predefined function will be applied on a
measure. By clicking on one of them, the parameters appears
to the right and you may set its value. A check box also
appears to enable/disable the modification of this parameter
when you use this template. The name of the template may be
modified in the bottom right part of the dialog.
- Click on the Rhythm duration multiplication
parameter. To the right, the next items appear:

The default value is "1" and the parameter will
appear so that you may modify it when calling the template.
- Click on Cancel, select the Copy of notes
template and click on Modify... The dialog now
displays:

In this case, only a part of the parameters are used. The
left list parameters are left untouched in the target
measure, so that you may combine this smart link with another
one (Copy of rhythms for instance). This means that
you may apply multiple smart links on the same target
measure, providing that they do not transfer the same
parameters. If they transfer the same parameter, the last
applied smart link parameter will overwrite the first and
will be used. Click on Cancel.
You may explore the various templates and see what default
parameters they use.
To create a new template, click on Add and the dialog
appears. Decide which parameters must be used (use the middle
buttons to transfer parameters from one list to the other), their
default values and if they may be modified when calling the smart
link function. Give a name to your template and click on OK.
You may also select an existing template and click on Duplicate.
A template is created that duplicates the current template. You
may then change its name and modify it.