5. Clips and structure

Tempo, time and key

Tempo, time signatures and key signatures belong to the whole song: every track plays and is written in them. A song starts with one of each, and can change any of them at a bar.

Tempo, time signatures, pickups and keys

Available on every platform.

They are all set from the ruler’s menu: right-click the ruler of an Editor or Arranger pane at a bar (below the markers’ row). The menu acts on that bar. The Signature, Key and Tempo song rows show them under the ruler, to read and drag.

Tempo

• Set Tempo Here… types a tempo, in beats per minute (10 to 999), from the start of that bar. On the first bar it sets the song’s tempo.
• Remove Tempo Change, on a bar where one starts, removes it: the tempo before it carries on.
• Ramp to Next Tempo Change makes the tempo in force there slide steadily to the next change, for an accelerando or a ritardando, instead of jumping. Choose it again to hold the tempo.

In the Tempo row you can also drag a change up or down, or along, and double-click the line to add one there (Song rows).

Practice speed slows the song down or speeds it up without changing its tempo.

Time signatures

Time Signature sets the bar’s signature, from 2/2, 3/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 3/8, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 and 12/8, or Other…, a field for any other (type it as 5/8 or 11/16: a count up to 99 over 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32); it lasts until the next change. The notes stay where they are in time, and the barlines move round them. Remove Time Signature removes a change (the first bar always has one).

A song imported from Guitar Pro, MIDI or MusicXML keeps its own time signatures, whatever they are.

A pickup bar

A song that starts on an upbeat begins with a short bar, a pickup. To write one:

1. Give the first bar a shorter time signature (2/4 before a song in 4/4, for a two-beat pickup), and set the song’s own on the second bar.
2. On the first bar, choose First Bar Is a Pickup.

The Score then writes the pickup in the time signature of the bar after it, states the signature once, and numbers bars from the first whole one. Playback doesn’t change. The item is available only while the first bar is shorter than the second; choose it again to count the first bar as a bar like any other. Pickups in MusicXML and Guitar Pro 6–8 files come in already marked.

Key signatures

Key Signature › Major or Minor sets the key from that bar, from 7 flats to 7 sharps (“G (1♯)”, “E♭m (6♭)”). Remove Key Signature removes the one set at that bar.

The key decides how the Score writes and spells the notes, and how chord names are spelt. It doesn’t change what plays. To move the music to another key, use Transpose, which moves the key signatures with it; to play in another key without changing the song, see Playing in another key.

Moving and removing changes

In the Signature and Key rows, drag a change (any but the first bar’s) to another bar, OptionAlt-drag to copy it, or drag it out of the row to remove it. Every change is one undo step.

The same menu inserts and deletes bars: see Inserting and deleting bars.