Tutorial 5 – Working with music notation

A great way to compose in SONAR is by using the Staff view. The Staff pane displays MIDI note events as musical notation. For some musicians, this may be the most familiar and comfortable view in which to work. The Staff pane provides many features that make it easy for you to compose, edit, and print music. You can add notes to your composition with simple point-and-click techniques.

This tutorial will introduce you to the tools and features that SONAR provides for working with notation.

Let’s start by opening the Staff view in a new project:

1.	On the File menu, click New.

The New Project File dialog box appears.

2.	Select the Normal template, specify a project name and save location, then click OK.

SONAR loads the new blank project.

3.	Click the Insert menu and select MIDI Track to insert a new MIDI track.

4.	Click on track 1 labeled Track 1.

5.	On the Views menu, click Staff View.

The Staff view opens.

Next we need to configure the Staff view tools for the purpose of this tutorial:

1.	Click the Staff view View menu, point to Display Resolution and select the smallest note value on the submenu.

2.	Click the Staff view View menu and disable the Fill Durations and Trim Durations options.

3.	Select the Smart tool in the Control Bar.

For this tutorial, we will also change the time signature to ¾, the key to G and the staff layout to display a treble and bass clef.

1.	On the Project menu, click Insert Meter/Key Change.

The Meter/Key Signature dialog box appears.

2.	Change Beats per Measure to 3 and Key Signature to 1 Sharp (G), then click OK to close the Meter/Key Signature dialog box.

3.	Click the Staff view Edit menu and choose Layout.

The Staff View Layout dialog box appears.

4.	In the Clef list, select Treble/Bass, then click OK to close the Staff View Layout dialog box.

The Staff view now looks like this:

Now that you know how to set up the Staff view, it's time to play! You can either record a MIDI track in this project or manually add notes. The rest of this tutorial will provide you with a basic overview of the notation tools. For more in depth information about all the features and functionality of the Staff view, including using the Fretboard and the Lyrics view, see Notation and lyrics.

Selecting the note value

In the Control Bar’s Tools module, click the Duration button and hold the mouse button pressed, then select the desired note duration from the pop-up menu.

Figure 24. The Tools module.

Adding a note

To add a note:

1.	Select the Smart tool or Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , click where you want to draw a new note.

With the Freehand tool , click where you want to insert a new note

A note event is inserted.

Selecting notes

To select notes:

1.	Select the Smart tool or Select tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Do one of the following:

To select a single note, click the note head.

To select multiple adjacent notes, drag with the right mouse button to draw a rectangle around the desired notes.

To select discontiguous notes, hold down the CTRL key and click the desired notes.

Moving notes by time or pitch

To move notes:

1.	Select the Smart tool or Move tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , position the pointer over the bottom half center of the note, then drag the note to the desired location.

With the Move tool , drag the note or selection to the desired location.

Tip: When moving a note, hold down the SHIFT key to constrain vertical or horizontal movement, depending on the direction you first move.

Copying notes

To copy notes:

1.	Press and hold the CTRL key down while you click the desired note(s).

2.	While still holding the CTRL key and the left mouse button, drag the note(s) to the desired location, then release the mouse button.

The note(s) is copied.

Changing the duration of a note

1.	Right click the note head to open the Note Properties dialog box.

2.	In the Duration field, enter in the number of ticks you want for the note, then click OK to close the Note Properties dialog box.

The following table shows the relationship between note durations and ticks (with the default timebase of 960 ticks per quarter note).

Note	Duration in ticks
Whole	4:000
Half	2:000
Quarter	1:000
Eighth	480
Sixteenth	240
Thirty-second	120

Deleting a note

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Erase tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Do one of the following:

With the Smart tool , right-click a note to erase a single note, or keep the right mouse button pressed and drag over notes to erase multiple notes.

With the Erase tool , click a note to erase a single note, or drag over notes to erase multiple notes.

Adding lyrics

To add a lyric event below a note:

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Lyric button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer just below the note and click.

A box appears where lyrics can be typed.

4.	Press the space bar to quickly jump to the next note.

Adding chord symbols

To add a chord symbol above a note:

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Chord button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer above the note you want to add the chord to and click.

A chord symbol is added above the note.

4.	To change the chord properties or show a guitar chord grid, right-click the chord name.

The Chord Properties dialog box appears.

Adding expressions

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Expression button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer just below a note and click.

A box appears where expressions can be entered.

Adding a crescendo or decrescendo/diminuendo

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Hairpin button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer just below a note and click.

A hairpin event (crescendo or decrescendo) is inserted.

4.	To change the hairpin type and duration, right-click the hairpin event.

The Hairpin Properties dialog box appears.

Note: Hairpin events are ornamental only and do not affect playback.

Adding pedal marks

1.	Select the Smart tool or the Freehand tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Click the Pedal button in the Staff view.

3.	Position the pointer below the staff and click.

Pedal down and Pedal up marks are inserted.

4.	Click and drag to move the marks to a new time if needed.

 

See:

Printing your notation