9. The Score

Editing notation

The Score is written from the song, so most of the time you change the music and the notation follows. When you want it written differently without changing what plays, you tell the score how: these choices are kept on the notes themselves, so they move, copy and undo with them.

Changing notes

Select notes in a Score pane as in an Editor: click one, Shift-click for more, drag a rectangle round them, or ⌘ACtrl+ACtrl+A (⌘A on a Mac) for all. Then:

• ↑ and ↓ move them a semitone, with Alt (⌥ on a Mac) an octave. A fretted note keeps its string while the fret is on the neck; a drum hit moves to the lane above or below.
• Drag a notehead up or down to move the notes by steps of the key, or across to move them in time, by the grid.
• ← and → select the note before or after in its voice; with Alt (⌥), they move the notes a step earlier or later.
• The digits set how long they are, as in note input: 5 a quarter, 4 an eighth, . a dot on or off.
• ⌫Backspace, DeleteBackspace, Delete (⌫, ⌦ on a Mac) deletes them.

Each change is one undo step, and the tab changes with it, since it’s the same song.

Spelling, stems, beams and cross-staff

Available on every platform.

With notes selected in a Score pane:

• J respells a black key: a G♯ becomes an A♭, and an A♭ a G♯. Press it again to go back to the spelling the key gives. The spelling stays with the note even if its pitch changes later; a note on a white key is left as it is.
• Shift+X flips the stem away from the side the score puts it on, then to the other side, then back to where the score puts it. A note in a beamed group takes the whole group with it.
• / changes the beam: broken before the note, then joined across the beat, then back to how the meter groups it.

These keys work with a keyboard on every platform, and a right-click on a note in the Score has them as menu items: A Semitone Up, A Semitone Down, Respell and Flip Stem. Worked by touch, the tray’s Note tool has them as buttons: Respell, Stem Up, Down or Auto, and Beam Break, Join or Auto (on a phone, with the tool at its full height). See The note inspector.

A chord on the other staff

On a grand staff, a piano’s left and right hands are written on their staves by pitch (or by voice, when the track names its left hand in its menu’s Left Hand). To write a chord on the other staff, keeping its voice, rhythm and beam:

• Press ⇧⌘↑, ⇧⌘↓Ctrl+Shift+Up, Ctrl+Shift+DownCtrl+Shift+Up, Ctrl+Shift+Down (⇧⌘↑, ⇧⌘↓ on a Mac) for the staff above or below; the same key again puts it back where the score decides.
• Or right-click the notes and choose Staff: Automatic, Staff Above, Staff Below, or Its Own Staff, which keeps them on their staff where the score would have moved them across by itself.

A beam joining notes on both staves is drawn between them. The score also crosses a chord by itself when it would need three ledger lines towards a staff that’s silent at that moment.

The same menu has Clef from This Bar, to hold a staff in another clef from the bar on.

Moving dynamics, words and chord symbols

Available on every platform.

The score places its words for you: dynamics, a note’s words, technique text, fingering and chord symbols (with their diagrams). When one sits badly, drag it where you want it in a Score pane. It keeps that offset from its note or chord, so it goes along when the music moves. Each drag is one undo step.

To put one back, right-click it and choose Reset Position.

A song read from a PDF or a photo keeps its page’s stems, beams and staves as printed; Lay Out Fresh takes them all away again. See Page view and breaks.