The chords progression window |
Watch also the following video:
Fast encoding and visualization of chords [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] Pizzicato Professional provides a window
with direct access to all chords of the score. It is used to
quickly and visually encode a sequence of chords. Start from a new document and select the Chords
Progression
item in the Windows menu. The
following dialog box appears: The upper part represents the measures, numbered starting from
1. An horizontal scroll bar is used to move and visualize the
following measures. Right to this bar, two buttons - and +
respectively allow to see the measures smaller and larger and
thus to see more or less measures at once. To add a Major C chord during two beats, do the following: The C chord is selected (in black). It is the current position
in the progression. Click again on Add and you get: A second chord is added just to the right. Its duration is
also two beats and it is now selected. The current position is
advanced with each addition of a chord. The characteristics of
the selected chord are displayed in the left part of the dialog
box. Let us modify for example this chord in Maj7 F on a C bass.
Do the following: If you check the box Automatic update, the current
progression chord directly changes when you change the note, the
chord or the bass. For the rest of this lesson, keep it disabled. Now add a 4 beats D chord: Add similarly a 4 beats G chord then a 2 beats G 7 chord. You
get: The duration of a chord can easily be modified. You can
lengthen or shorten a chord by clicking and dragging its right
border. Move for example the right side bar of the G chord and
bring it to the second red reference mark of measure 3 (the red
reference marks show beats in the measure). The progression
becomes: Notice that the chord located to the right (G 7) is
automatically moved. It would be the same for all chords located
to the right of the resized chord. By clicking on a chord of the progression, it is selected. You
can then modify it as previously explained. To insert a 4 beats C chord before the D chord, proceed as
follows: To remove a chord, select it and click on Delete. The
chord disappears. If there are one or more chords follow it, they
keep their positions, but if there is a chord preceding it, it is
lengthened to fill the space of the deleted chord. You can also add chords in text mode. We will for example add
the F, C Min and G# 6 chords to the progression. Do the
following: It is a fast method to introduce a progression of chords. The
progression becomes: Click OK. At this point, the score does not
automatically display the chords symbols. You simply associated a
chords progression to the score. You can use it thanks to the Chords
menu located in the Edit menu. With the selection tool,
select the first staff of the score. In the Edit ... Chords
menu, select the Place chords symbols item. The score
becomes: Pizzicato created and placed the chords symbols on the
selected staff. Notice that the chords progression is associated
to all staves of the score. You could have done the same with the
second staff. Once the chords are encoded, either with the chords
progression window or with the chords tool, the result is the
same. You can indifferently modify them by double-clicking an
individual chord or by calling the window explained in this
lesson. Similarly you can transform the chords into notes, as
seen in the previous lesson. The check box "Update symbols in the score"
enables Pizzicato to check all the chord symbols and
automatically update them after you validate this dialog. The last three options concern the score arranger. They will
be explained in the lesson on the score arranger. On the right side of this dialog, you can see the guitar chord
diagram appear when you select a chord. You can click the Fill
in the diagrams to ask Pizzicato to find diagrams for each
chord of the chord progression. When you click on the diagram
box, you can select a diagram from the library. See also the
lesson on guitar
tools.