Sibelius is a great program for working with musical text, in which you can create both simple instrumental parts and volume scores for any cast. Finished work can be printed out on the printer, while it will look like it’s written in a publishing house.
The main charm of the editor is that you can do a simple set of notes, and work on music projects directly on your computer. For example, to make arrangements or compose new music.
Start working
There are 7 versions of this software for PC. The desire to improve each new version did not affect the general principles of work in the Sibelius program. Therefore, everything written here is equally applicable to all versions.
We will show how to work in the Sibelius program, namely: type notes, enter various kinds of notation, draw up a ready-made score and listen to the sound of the written.
A convenient wizard is used to open recent projects or create new ones.
Let's create our first score. To do this, select "Create a new document" if the start window appears when the program starts. Or at any time in the program, press Ctrl + N. Choose the instruments you’ll work with in Sibelius (or the score template), the font style of the notes, the size and tonality of the piece. Then write the name and the name of the author. Congratulations! You will see the first bars of the future score.
Enter the musical material
Notes can be entered in several ways - using a MIDI keyboard, a regular keyboard and mouse.
1. Using a MIDI keyboard
If you have a MIDI keyboard or a keyboard synthesizer connected to a computer via a MIDI USB interface, you can type the musical notation in the most natural way - just by pressing the right piano keys.
The program has a virtual keyboard for entering durations, alterations, and additional symbols. It is combined with the numeric keys on the computer keyboard (which are turned on with the Num Lock key). However, when working with a MIDI keyboard, you only need to change the duration.
Highlight the beat from which you will start entering notes and press N. With one hand play musical material, and with the other turn on the desired duration of the notes.
If your computer does not have the numeric keys to the right (for example, on some notebook models), you can also use the virtual keyboard with the mouse.
2. Using the mouse
Putting a large scale, it will be convenient to type note text and mouse. To do this, click in the right places of the bearer, simultaneously exposing the desired duration of notes and pauses, alteration and articulation signs on the virtual keyboard.
The disadvantage of this method is that both the notes and the chords will have to be dialed sequentially by one note. This is long and tedious, especially since there is a probability of accidental “missed” at the desired point on the noteplate. To adjust the height of the note, use the up and down arrows.
3. Using a computer keyboard.
This method, in our opinion, is the most convenient of all. Notes are entered using the appropriate Latin letters, which correspond to each of the seven notes - C, D, E, F, G, A, B. This is a traditional letter designation of sounds. But, this is just one of the ways!
Entering notes from the keyboard is convenient because you can use a lot of "hot keys" that increase the performance and speed of typing at times. For example, to repeat the same note just press the R key.
I will tell you a secret that I am typing the entire score with this single key. Just besides R, use the up and down arrows to help move the copied note to the desired height level. And all this takes a fraction of a second, and you don’t even have to stare at the screen, and don’t need to aim anywhere - it’s enough to check the result with your hearing. And so I can copy and quickly transpose any chord or even a whole beat of the music.By the way, it is convenient to type any chords and intervals from the keyboard. In order to finish the interval above the note - you need in the row of numbers that is above the letters, choose the number of the interval - from 1 to 7.
Let's say you need a third - press three, need triad - three and again three, need sektakkord - three, and then four. Using a mouse such a chord you will gain 5 minutes, and using the keyboard - 5 seconds.Using the keys, you can also easily select the desired duration, alterations, put down dynamic shades and strokes, enter text. Certain operations, of course, will have to be done with the mouse: for example, switch from one notus to the other or highlight bars. So in general, the method is combined.
It is permissible to place up to 4 independent votes on each noteplate. To start typing the next voice, highlight the beat in which the second voice appears, press 2 on the virtual keyboard, then N, and start dialing.
Add additional characters
All functions for working with notes and note text itself are available in the Create menu. For quick access to them, you can use hot keys.
Leagues, volts, octave transposition symbols, trills and other elements in the form of lines can be added in the "Lines" window (L key), and then “pulled out” them with the mouse if necessary. Leagues can be quickly added by pressing S or Ctrl + S.
Melismatics, signs to indicate the specifics of performance on different instruments, and other special characters are added after pressing the Z key.
If you want to put another key on the noton board, press Q. The size selection window is invoked by pressing English T. Key characters are K.
Making a score
Usually Sibelius builds the bars of the score in the most successful way. You can also do this by manually moving the rows and bars to the right place, and also “expand” and “narrow” them.
Let's hear what happened
In the process of work, you can listen to the result at any time, identify possible errors and evaluate how this may sound in a live performance. By the way, the program provides for setting "live" playback, when the computer tries to imitate the game of a live musician.
We wish you a pleasant and fruitful work in the program Sibelius!
The author - Maxim Pilak
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