SongWriter Overview

			Features		So you want to be a recording artist
			Features		So you want to write your own sheet music
Home	Index	Music	MP3	Internet	Downloads	Features	Awards	Reviews	Opinions

So you want to write your own Sheet Music

You probably think that writing music notation requires years of training in music theory, and should only be attempted by the most experienced of musicians and composers. Well, not so. Quartet SongWriter is to music notation what accounting software is to bookkeeping. Simply put, it automates the process of creating a music score as a paper notation sheet. In fact, you don't need any training at all in music theory to write notation when you do it with Quartet Songwriter. All you need is a little bit of training in the use of the program, and you are good to go. I know, I know; Mozart would turn over in his grave. But never mind. The times, they are a-changing.

1. Quartet SongWriter Overview

Quartet SongWriter Notation software is the latest component of Quartet X2 and is available only in the Platinum Edition. Quartet SongWriter was designed to let you create your own professional-looking sheet music with very little effort.

The picture below illustrates what Quartet SongWriter does:

From this.................................To this, at the click of a mousebutton

Quartet Songwriter is an Integrated Notation Interface, which simply means it is fully integrated with the Music Composition end of Quartet X2, rather than being a stand-alone program. This is important because creating sheet music the conventional way requires that you have at least some training in music theory, and are willing to spend long hours in rendering a music score into sheet music format. As you may have already learned, composing a music score using the Quartet Interface is simple and fast. Now, with Quartet Songwriter, you can convert that music score into sheet music almost as easily as clicking your mouse.

Convert music scores into multiple pages of sheet music

Not only can you convert your Quartet music files into sheet music scores, but you can write lyrics to accompany the scores, and print them on paper.

2. Quartet SongWriter Toolbar

Function Buttons

Clear All notation from the Songwriter window

Open files with this button. When the filter is set to SNG the playable music file loads in the Composer window, and notation to load in the Songwriter window. When the filter is set to LYR, it opens the desired Lyrics/Text file.

Save text to the working file. Quartet Songwriter uses a working file named "Default.lyr" located in the "songs" directory

Save text to a *.LYR file name of your choosing

render notes on Composer to printable notation

Reset text on all pages to the latest edits

Open the Text Edit window

Open th e Print Dialog

Close Quartet Songw riter

Here is an illustrated guide to creating your own sheet music:

1. Opening Quartet SongWriter

Click this button on the main toolbar of Quartet X2 Composer to load Quartet Songwriter.

On opening, a blank page will appear which is set up as it appeared when the program was last used.

2. Setting up Page Layout

Quartet Songwriter opens accompanied by the floating "Notepal" Toolbar.

The Note Setup tab lets you change some basic features of your sheet music.

All values are relative, and bear no relationship to any standard measures. The reason for this is that the printed output may vary considerably from the scale on the monitor, depending on your screen size, printer settings, and page setup.

Start by adjusting the settings in Note setup and comparing them against printed test pages. Do this until you are satisfied with the setup values.

Line Height is the vertical distance between the bottom line of a staff ant the top line of the next staff.

Values can range from a low of 10, which is roughly equal to the spacing between the lines on a staff, to a high of 120, roughly equal to the height of a staff multiplied by 3. This setting will depend on your preference, and how many lines of text you want to add below a staff.

The suggested value is 40, roughly equal to the height of a staff.

Bar width is the horizontal spacing between bar lines. The range is 20 to 200. The value you choose will depend on how many individual notes you need to fit into a bar, and how tightly or loosely spaced the notes will be. In general, 80 to 100 should be acceptable for most purposes.

Page Header is the distance between the top of the page and the first staff. The suggested value is 40, but this setting will obviously depend on your personal preferences.

Page width is adjusted by varying the width of the Quartet Songwriter window, the same way you adjust the size of any window on your PC, by dragging your mouse over the edge of the window. Individual sheets of notation will align themselves with the size of the window. The larger your window, the more notes can be written on a staff. However, this will likely result in a scale reduction on the printed output. Therefore you must set your window to the size most suited to your printed output. Once you have found a size you like, the pages will always come out in that size, until you change it.

3. Notation Setup

Joining Notes

Quartet Songwriter gives you the option of joining notes or leaving individual notes. When eighth, and sixteenth notes appear alone, they have small curved lines called flags. Two or more of these notes together may be joined by lines called beams. You have the option to decide if you want to join these notes, and if so, whether to join 2, 3, or 4 note combos.

Place a checkmark in the "Join Notes" checkbox, then click on one of the numbered buttons to determine which note combo is to be joined.

Key Signature

The current edition of Quartet Songwriter gives you the option of selecting the key signature for the Major Scales only. This means that you can select any of the following key signatures, using the selection box marked Key: C, G, D, A, E, B, F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat

The Default key is C Major, which means that all Accidentals are identified. When you select any Key, its Key signature will be written on the staff, along with the respective accidentals, as illustrated below:

A series of notes in the key of C Major

A series of notes in the key of E Major

4. Score Setup

General Instructions

Some elements of a score have been predetermined by Quartet Composer and are therefore glossed over in the discussion about Quartet Songwriter. In particular, when rendering notation from a SNG file previously saved by Quartet Composer, virtually all the main elements required to produce sheet music have already been pre-determined, with the notable exception of Lyrics, if any.

When loading from a SNG file no changes are required in Score Setup, unless you want to render part of the file only. Prior to rendering notation, the program determines the staff configuration and channel composition automatically.

If you are rendering notation from a score which has not been saved, you need to adjust the Notepal settings to conform to the score configuration.

Set up the Staff Configuration to reflect the number of Treble, Bass, Percussion channels in use (to a maximum of 5 combined).

Set up the Channel #s to reflect the actual channels in use, and identify them as Treble, Bass, and Percussion.

Note that in case of Channels 1 to 8, if a channel is designated as Treble, depress the corresponding Channel Number button. If a channel is designated as Bass, depress the corresponding Channel Number button And the green button immediately below.

Percussion can only be written on channels 9 to 12. So depress the corresponding channel any percussion notes are written on.

Time Signature

The Time signature is determined by Quartet Composer, using the Setup Toolbar. It is automatically interpreted by Quartet Songwriter whenever notation is rendered. Therefore, the values for a whole note, half note, and so on, are predetermined, as well as the number of beats per measure, the value of the smallest note in a measure, etc.

5. Creating Notation

You can render notation from existing SNG files, or unsaved notes on the Composer tableau

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar and set the filter to SNG, to open the desired music file. This causes the playable music to load in the Composer window, and notation to load in the Songwriter window. Score setup is automatic when loading from a file.

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to render notes on Composer to printable notation format. Before loading, you must adjust the Score Setup to reflect the correct staff configuration and channel selection.

This same button can be used to reload notation each time any changes have been made, while "tweaking" the work.

To render specified parts of a SNG file as sheet music format, change the settings marked Define Score Length in the Score Setup tab. Start and End settings denote the bars as numbered in Composer. Use the selectors to set the Start setting to the starting Bar and the End setting to the last Bar in your notation.

6. Writing Lyrics

Open the Text tab of the Notepal Toolbar

Click on the button marked Line Text to display the Text Entry box on the current Notation page.

The Text Entry box is designed to permit a single line of text to be placed on the page at a time, in any location of your choice. To move the box around on the page place your curser in the box, and right-click the mouse in order to switch from Write to Drag mode. While holding down the mouse-button, drag the box over the page to relocate it. Then release the mouse-button. The box is now ready for Text entry. You can change the Font and size of text to suit your needs. Each line can be a different font and size, if you wish.

Write your line of Text. When finished, click the Enter key once to transfer the text to the page. Then relocate the Text Entry box to the next location and repeat the process. Successive locations do not have to be in any particular order or spacing arrangement, since the co-ordinates of each line are mapped precisely. However, you should avoid overlapping lines, or spacing multiple lines horizontally in the same space, since this may result in confusion.

Please Note: Each click of the Enter key will cause an additional line to be added to the page. This may not be obvious unless you move the Text Entry box between clicks. But you need to take care not to add unwanted lines of text to your page.

7. Editing Lyrics

You can edit text in the following ways:

a. Inside the text entry box before transfering to the page, or between transfering successive lines.

b. Before the text is saved to disk the first time, it can be edited directly on the page. Simple place your curser on the text and edit the same way you edit in the text entry box.

c. After the text is saved to disk, editing is slightly more complicated.

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter Toolbar to expose the Text Edit window at the top of each page. All the text on that page appears in the order in which it was entered, regardless of its actual page location. You can edit the text in each line; you can replace it with new text, or erase lines. But each line in the text edit window is mapped to aprecise location. So if you erase a line, make sure you leave a blank space to replace it.

When finished editing, click the Enter key to save the edited text to disk. Repeat this procedure with any other pages that need to be edited.

8. Saving Lyrics

Lyrics and text used on notation pages are saved in files with the suffix ".LYR"

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to save text to the working file. Quartet Songwriter uses a working file named "Default.lyr" located in the "songs" directory

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to save text to a *.LYR file name of your choosing.

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to reset all pages and text to the latest edits.

Lyrics and text are saved separately from SNG files. The advantages of this are obvious. You can have different sets of lyrics for a given tune. The sheet music is not encumbered by having the lyrics permanently attached.

On the other hand, handling music and lyrics separately requires some words of caution. Lyrics are mapped, line by line to a specific Score setup. That score setup is saved along with the text. When a *LYR file is opened, the score setup is reconfigured to identical conditions, line by line. Therefore any permanent changes to a lyrics file should be made with regard to, and in the presence of the SNG file to which the lyrics belong. In addition, you can't alter line spacing or page width after saving lyrics without major surgery to the text, or rewriting the text entirely.

9. Opening Files

If you are working with existing SNG files to create lyrics to accompany the music, you should open the SNG file first, followed by the LYR file

Then click this same button again and set the filter to LYR, to open the desired Lyrics file.

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to render notes on Composer to printable notation format.

10. Printing Sheet Music

Printing your sheet music is the final step in the process.

Make sure your printer is turned on.

Click this button on the Quartet Songwriter toolbar to open Print Dialog.

Your settings will depend on your printer and its capabilities. Adjust the settings to your requirement.

Click the Print button to begin printing.

Back: So you want to be a recording artist

[Home] [Top of Page] [Contact] [Recommend this site]