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Originally Posted by Andrew Jones  Say you were gonna write down a Slapped line How do you write the "T" and "P"'s below the note stems?
Also what about "H"'s and "S" hammers and slides above the articulations? |
The obvious answer would be to use the text tool (The "A" icon in the main tool palette) and it's fine that way if you are going to write just a few letters: Enter the text tool, double click on the place you want the letter to appear, write it down and click outside the text block to finish. But if there are lots of Ts or Ps, the most practical way to put them in the document is creating a metatool in the articulation tool. Let's work with the "H" for this example. First we need to create it as an articulation:
Click on the articulation tool (The whole note with an accent) and then click on one note that will receive the "H". The "Articulation selection" window will appear. Click on "Create..." and you'll see the "Articulation designer" window. Since we're going to create a common letter, then click on "Set font..." and choose a regular text font (i.e. Arial 12). Click on OK and then click on "Main..." (We're still within the "Articulation designer" window) and choose an "H" from the characters list. Click OK. Now in "Position:" (We're still within the "Articulation designer" window) select the option you prefer (i.e. "Below note"). You may also choose additional options in "Positioning". Click OK and you'll see that the "H" has been added at the end of the list in the "Articulation selection" window. Select it and it will be assigned to the note you first clicked.
OK, now you've created the "H", but it doesn't seem very practical since every time you need it you must enter the articulation tool, click on a note and select the "H". The practical part comes with the use of metatools: Keyboard shortcuts that make the task of assigning articulations much faster. If you look into the "Articulation selection" window, you'll see that each item in the list is a box in which you'll find the symbol, the order number and, in most cases, a character between parentheses. That character is the default metatool for that symbol. Of course, the "H" doesn't have one since you've just created, so we're going to assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
Ideally, the shortcut for this example should be an "H", but notice that it's already assigned to an "harmonic" mark (#22 in the list). Now we're going to assign that letter as a metatool for our new symbol, but the "harmonic" will lose it. If you don't need it for that, great. If you assign harmonics with an "H", then you must choose a different character.
But let's assign the keyboard letter "H" to our new articulation symbol: Click on the articulation tool, press the "shift" key and, while depressed, press the "H". The "Articulation selection" window will appear again. Double click on the "H" you created and that's it. If you look in the "Articulation selection" window, you'll see that now the "H" has an "H" assigned as a metatool and the harmonic has nothing.
So, what's the advantage here? After you've put all the notes in your piece, then enter the articulation tool. Press the "H" and, while depressed, click on the destination note. The "H" will appear. If you already created the "T", the "S" and the "P", it's just a matter of pressing those keys and clicking on the notes. Of course, you can also use an S for staccatos, an A for accents, an U and a D for bowing marks, numbers from 1 to 5 for fingerings and so on. The changes and/or additions you make will be saved into the articulations library
for that document only. Every time you create or open a different one, the default library will appear.
Again, the method above makes sense if you must put lots of Hs, Ps, Ss and Ts in your document. If not the case, then just use the text tool.
It seems like a long, tedious and unnecessary procedure at first, but it will save lots of time. Hope I've been clear in my explanation. Please let me know.
