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PC MUSICIAN A Musical Composition Program For the IBM Personal Computer (C) Copyright 1983, 1984 by Christopher Wiley All Rights Reserved User-Supported Software If you are using this program and find it to be of value your contribution ($20 is suggested) will be appreciated. Christopher Wiley Box 111, VAMC Prescott, AZ 86313 Regardless of whether you make a contribution, you are encouraged to copy and share this program. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION........................................................1 EQUIPMENT REQUIRED..................................................2 WHAT TO DO FIRST....................................................2 HOW TO START........................................................3 MENU CHOICES........................................................4 [1] Create a song...........................................4 Entering notes......................................6 Measures............................................6 Scrolling...........................................7 Editing.............................................7 Defining a block....................................7 Other functions.....................................8 The help screen.....................................9 Quitting............................................9 Conclusion..........................................9 [2] Play a song............................................10 [3] Save the song..........................................10 [4] Exit to DOS............................................10 USER-SUPPORTED SOFTWARE............................................11 PERMISSION TO COPY.................................................12 DISCLAIMER.........................................................12 Page 1 INTRODUCTION PC Musician is a program which transforms your computer into your own private musician. It enables you to enter music using musical notation, either from sheet music or your own original compositions. You may then hear the music played for you by your PC, change things around as needed, and finally save the song to diskette when you are satisfied. At any time in the future, PC Musician will play the song at your command! The program is a great aid to music students, allowing them to hear how the piece should sound before they attempt to learn it. Similarly, it has proven invaluable to choral singers in learning their parts. It also allows someone (like most of us) who cannot play any musical instrument to actually compose music. Page 2 EQUIPMENT REQUIRED PC Musician has been tested on a COMPAQ computer with 128K RAM and a single disk drive as well as IBM PC with 128K RAM, single one-sided disk drive, and the monochrome display as well as the color display card running 80 column text or either graphics mode. PC-DOS 1.10 and 2.00 both work fine. The program SHOULD run on: An IBM PC or COMPAQ with -64K RAM or more -1 disk drive (single or double sided) -PC-DOS v1.10 or v2.00 -monochrome or color display card -80 column text or graphics mode. It MAY run on: Any close PC compatible machine, or PC Jr., with -PC or MS-DOS v1.00 to 2.xx It WON'T run: In 40 column text mode PC Musician was written in the C programming language. Certain functions were coded in assembly language. WHAT TO DO FIRST 1. Format a diskette: Place your DOS system master diskette into drive A: and type format b:/s 2. Copy the contents of this diskette: Place this diskette into drive A:, and if you have two drives place the formatted diskette produced in step 1. into drive B:. Now simply type makecopy 3. Put this diskette into a safe place where things like kids, pets, and coffee can't get at it. 4. If you will be using the IBM monochrome display you have one more chore: place the copy diskette you made in step 2. into drive A: and type makemono 5. Now, at last, you can safely use PC Musician. Simply place the copy diskette you made in step 2. into drive A: and type musician 6. The disk drive will whir and you will see a menu. Select option [2] by pressing that number. When prompted for the name of a song to play, type one, hit the return key, sit back, and listen! Page 3 HOW TO START If your computer is off and you wish to use PC Musician the procedure is very simple. Assuming you have followed the steps above to produce your own "master" diskette containing PC Musician, all you need do is place that diskette into drive A: and turn your PC on. After the usual pause the drive will whir and you will see the PC Musician menu. We will discuss the various menu choices and how to proceed in the next section. If your computer is already on and you wish to use PC Musician you must first finish and exit from any program which you may be using. The object is to get back to the DOS or "system" level. This is indicated by the presence of the DOS prompt A> or B> or C>. If the prompt is any letter except A> then the first step is to type A: and hit return. The prompt should now be A>. At this point simply place your PC Musician diskette into drive A: and type musician. You will shortly see the main PC Musician menu which will be explained below. If for some reason you are unable to get the A> prompt the solution is easy. Just place your PC Musician diskette into drive A: and simultaneously depress the Ctrl, Alt, and Del keys. If even this maneuver fails to produce disk activity, then you'll need to reach around and turn your PC off. Wait about 30 seconds and turn the computer back on. PC Musician will load and you will see the (infamous) menu. Page 4 MENU CHOICES Although the menu for PC Musician has been designed to be simple and self-explanatory, we will discuss each of the choices in some detail in this section. Any of these choices can be selected by hitting the appropriate number, it is not necessary to hit the return key. [1] Create a song When you select this option, the screen will clear and a blank musical stave will appear. A series of questions will be presented in the lower third of your screen. These questions allow you to specify the starting conditions for the song you will be creating. We will discuss each one in turn. Bass or treble clef (B/T)? On most sheet music there are (at least) two varieties of musical stave. One marked with a treble clef, which resembles a stylized &, and which represents the upper range of notes, starting around middle C on a piano. The other (lower) stave is marked with a bass clef, which resembles a stylized 7, and which carries the lower range of notes. To respond to this question you merely type B or T. If you simply hit return, the treble clef will automatically be selected. Adjust octave up or down (U/D)? This option allows you to enter notes that are exactly one octave higher or lower than those normally associated with the selected clef. For example, the singing part for tenors is usually written on the treble stave, but the actual notes the tenor sings are one octave lower (to the immense relief of most tenors!). So, when I enter my tenor parts for chorus, I select treble clef and D to adjust the octave down. Simply hitting the return key will automatically select no adjustment. How many beats per measure? Now you are beginning to specify the time signature for your song. This is normally expressed on sheet music as one number over another in the form of a fraction, e.g. 4/4, 3/4, etc. The most common time signature is 4/4, sometimes represented as a large C, which means 4 beats to the measure and a quarter note gets one beat. Thus this question is asking you to enter the TOP number of the time signature. You may enter any whole number followed by return. Hitting the return key only will select 4. How many beats per whole note? Here you are asked for the BOTTOM number of the time signature. Again, you may enter any whole number followed by return, and just hitting return will specify 4. So, merely hitting return for both these questions will automatically select 4/4 time, which is the most common. Page 5 Enter tempo (0-9): This question is asking you how fast you want your song played. 0 represents the slowest speed and 9 the fastest. Tempo is traditionally expressed using certain Italian words which roughly correspond to these numbers as follows: 0 - Largo 1 - Grave 2 - Lento 3 - Adagio 4 - Andante 5 - Moderato 6 - Allegretto 7 - Allegro 8 - Vivace 9 - Presto You may enter any one of these numbers. In this case, simply hitting return will select 5 (Moderato), a moderate speed. Once you have responded to these questions the lower part of the screen will clear, a help message will appear in the center of the bottom line, and a square cursor will appear at the lower left of the stave. At this point, you can simply start entering notes, or you can select a musical key for your song. The musical key is simply a way of notifying the musician (in this case PC Musician) in advance that certain notes will always be played as flat or sharp unless specifically marked otherwise. This is done by placing a flat or sharp symbol on the appropriate line or space of the stave. On sheet music these symbols are usually clustered together at the left end of the stave. The way to do this with PC Musician is to move the cursor, with the arrow keys, up or down until it rests on the right spot in the stave. Then you can write a symbol at that location by hitting F for flat, or S for sharp. You will see the correct symbol appear, and the cursor will move one space to the right. You may continue this process until finished. Then, in order to draw a vertical line and separate the key signature from the actual music, you should hit the | (or \) key at the lower left of the keyboard. A long vertical divider will appear and the cursor will move right. Now you are really ready to enter your music. Page 6 Entering notes PC Musician has been designed to make the process of entering notes as easy and efficient as possible. The minimum information necessary to specify a single note is its pitch and its duration. Additional modifiers such as flat, natural, sharp, or dotted can also be added. In PC Musician as in sheet music the pitch of the note is determined by its position on the musical stave. Pitch (position) is controlled by four keys: up-arrow, down-arrow, Pg Up, and Pg Dn which are located at the right end of the keyboard. The arrow keys move the cursor one step (=one note) in the appropriate direction. The Pg Up and Pg Dn keys merely provide a quick way to move the cursor to the top or bottom line of the stave. If you wish to hear how any note would sound, just hit the space bar and the note corresponding to the cursor position will be played BUT it will not be "entered" or "recorded". Once the position or pitch of the note is set (i.e. the cursor is resting on the correct spot) you must select a duration for the note. This is accomplished using the leftmost column of Function keys, that is keys F1, F3, F5, F7, and F9. They represent respectively whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. F9 while depressing the shift key gives a 32d note. When any of these keys is pressed, the corresponding duration is selected and it's name and symbol are written in the upper left corner of the screen as a reminder. If no other modifiers are necessary you may now ENTER the note by hitting the large grey + key at the lower right corner of the keyboard. PC Musician will play the note for you and write its symbol on the stave. The note count reported in the upper right corner of the screen will increase by 1, and the cursor will move one space to the right. If further modifiers are needed for a note, they can be selected using the second column of Function keys. F2=dotted, which is when a note's duration is increased by one half. F4=sharp, which causes that note only to played as a sharp. F6=natural. F8=flat. F10=rest, which produces a rest of the selected duration. You can keep track of what modifiers are currently selected by watching the upper left corner of the screen. So the process of entering notes is most easily accomplished by resting your right hand on the numeric keypad (cursor keys) and your left on the Function keys. First move the cursor to the right spot, next select a duration, then add further modifiers as needed, and finally hit the + key to ENTER the note. Measures A measure is a section of music containing a number of notes (and/or rests) whose durations add up to the number of beats specified by the TOP number of the time signature. PC Musician will keep track of this for you and automatically draw the measure divider after you have entered note(s) which equal (or exceed) one measure full. Sometimes, you may be copying some sheet music into PC Musician, and find that the first measure doesn't contain the full number of beats (i.e. PC Musician doesn't automatically draw the divider). This is remedied by simply pressing M (for Measure) which will force the end of the measure and draw the divider. Page 7 Scrolling What happens when you reach the right edge of the stave? Well, PC Musician will perform a function called scrolling. This means that everything will be pushed to the left to make room for another note to be entered. You will find that scrolling is rather slow and may interfere with your quick rhythm of entering notes. I usually wait until the end of the measure that I'm currently working on and then hit C for Clear. This clears the stave and places the cursor back at the lower left. None of the music which you have entered is lost, you simply can't see the notes anymore. However, note entry will be much faster than if you stay at the right edge and wait for scrolling to occur. Of course, you may hit C at any time, but I find it easier to keep my place if I do it at the end of a measure. Editing PC Musician allows you the ability to go back and change your mind about a note so long as it still appears on the screen. This is accomplished by using the left-arrow and Ctrl+left-arrow keys. Pressing the left-arrow key moves the cursor one position to the left. It also decreases the note count by one. Therefore, it should be used only when the next position (column) left is occupied by an actual note symbol (not a sharp, flat, natural, dot, or measure divider). If some non-note symbol is immediately to the left, use Ctrl+left-arrow instead. This combination of keys will move the cursor left, but will NOT decrease the note count. When you reach the column of the incorrect note, use the standard note entry procedure. Now you can move back to the right by using the right-arrow and Ctrl + right-arrow keys in an analagous fashion. Defining a block PC Musician provides another method for altering your music during entry. The basic concept is that you may "define" a block or section of notes by informing PC Musician of the first and last notes of the block. Specifying the beginning of the block is done by pressing B for Beginning. A statement will appear towards the bottom of the screen asking you to enter the count (upper right) of the note, or hit return to specify the last note entered. A message will appear on the top line of the screen reminding you of your selection. Similarly, picking the end of the block is done by hitting E for End. Again you will be asked to enter the count of the last note in the block or hit return to specify the last note entered. Now that you have defined a block of notes, there are several things which you can do with them. Page 8 You may wish to hear it, to see if it really is the block you are interested in. This is done by pressing P for Play. You will be asked if you wish to hear the defined block (D) or the entire song so far (S). Hitting just the return key will request the entire song so far. PC Musician will promptly play the notes for you. You can copy or "Insert" the defined block in any location you wish by pressing the Ins key. You will be asked the count of the note AFTER which you wish the block inserted. Hitting return will cause the block to be inserted after the last note entered. The provides an easy and quick way to enter repetitive phrases (like refrains) into your music. Inserting does not affect the original defined block (i.e. the block is copied, not moved). You might also wish to "Delete" the defined block. This is accomplished by hitting the Del key. This causes the notes within the defined block to be removed from your song. Nothing will change on the screen (if the notes are still visible) nor will there be a silent "gap" left behind. The notes simply won't be there the next time PC Musician plays your song. The defined block is a very useful concept which allows you to rapidly and easily make major changes to your music in much the same way that a good Word Processor allows you to cut and paste sections of text. You may need some practice to get used to these functions, but they will soon become second nature to you. Other Functions There are a number of other functions available to you at any time while you are creating some music. They are all invoked simply by pressing the appropriate key as described below. T - pressing T for Time allows you to change the time signature of your music at any time "in mid stream". You will be presented with the same questions as at the beginning of the Create session. The new values entered will affect only those notes entered AFTER you make the change. There is no way to change the tempo or time signature for notes already entered. O - pressing O for Octave allows you to change the octave adjustment. This is not an option likely to be used often, but certain avant-garde or original music may require it. Again, the change affects only subsequent notes. P - pressing P for Play, as mentioned above, will cause PC Musician to play either the defined block or the entire song so far, as you select. You will then be returned to editing exactly where you left off. Page 9 F, S, or N - you may change your key signature at any time by using these keys. Often a composer will change keys in the middle of a composition. You must be careful to first "cancel" your original key by moving the cursor to the location(s) of the original key symbols and pressing N for Natural. Now you may position the cursor and press the appropriate Flat or Sharp key. Spacebar - pressing the spacebar will give you a "preview" of what that pitch sounds like by playing an eighth note of the pitch corresponding to the cursor position on the stave. The note is NOT entered, and any modifiers (like sharp, flat, etc) which you may have specified will be lost as signified by the disappearance of the reminder messages in the left upper corner of the screen. This feature is very useful for composing as it allows you to actually "play" your computer almost like a piano! The Help Screen At any time during the Create session, you may ask for help by hitting the ? key. You will see a screen which contains a short description of all the keys and options available to you. Hitting any key will return you to editing exactly where you left off. You may flip to the help screen as often as you like. Quitting There are two ways of quitting the Create section of PC Musician. If you are happy with your song and wish to have the opportunity to save it, hit Q for Quit. PC Musician will respond by playing your entire song and then returning you to the original menu for the program. If you wish to save your song you must select [3] Save a song. This option will be further explained below. If you are just fooling around, or you have totally botched the song up and wish to start over, hit the Esc key (upper left corner of the keyboard). This will cause PC Musician to clear off the stave and start back at the beginning with the questions about the clef, octave, time signature, and tempo. Your previous work is now gone forever! Conclusion Obviously, the Create section of PC Musician is one in which you will spend a great deal of time. It has been designed to make musical creation as easy and pleasant as possible by providing a simple, uncluttered display and a command driven system requiring the fewest possible keystrokes. Page 10 [2] Play a song When you select this option from the main menu, PC Musician will play for you! You will be presented with a list of all the songs available on your diskette and asked to type the name of the song you wish to hear (it must be present on the diskette in drive A:). Although you may see songs listed in the disk directory as "xxxxxxxx.sng" you need only type xxxxxxxx. PC Musician will keep track of the ".sng" part for you. So, just type the name of the song, hit return, and listen! After the song is over, you will be returned to the main menu. [3] Save the song After you have created a song, using option [1] and quitting with Q, you may select this option. You will be asked to enter the name you wish to give this song. Again, don't worry about adding ".sng", PC Musician will take care of that. Simply type the name, which must be eight letters or less and contain no spaces or punctuation marks, and hit return. The disk will whir and your song will be recorded on the diskette in drive A:. [4] Exit to DOS This is how you leave PC Musician altogether. If you have created a song which you wish to save, you must remember to use option [3] first before exiting. Pressing 4 will quit PC Musician and return you to the A> prompt. At this point you may do anything you wish, including typing musician to return to PC Musician again. Page 11 USER-SUPPORTED SOFTWARE User-supported software, which is also known as Freeware or Shareware, is an experiment in microcomputer software distribution based on the following principles: 1. That the value or worth of a program is best judged by the individual user actually using the program on his/her own machine. 2. That the creation and distribution of microcomputer software can be financially supported by users at reasonable cost. 3. That the copying and sharing of software can and should be encouraged. Anyone may request a copy of a user-supported program by sending a blank, formatted disk to the author of the program. An addressed, postage-paid return mailer must accompany the disk (no exceptions, please). A copy of the program, with documentation on the disk, will be sent by return mail. The program will carry a notice suggesting a contribution to the program's author. Making a contribution is completely voluntary on the part of each user. Free distribution of software and voluntary payment for its use eliminates costs for advertising and copy protection schemes. Users obtain quality software at reduced cost. They can try it out before buying, and do so at their own pace and in the comfort of their own home or office. The best programs will survive, based purely on their quality and usefulness. Please join the experiment. If you share a belief in these principles, your contribution is solicited to help make them work. User-Supported Software If you are using this program and find it to be of value your contribution ($20 is suggested) will be appreciated. Christopher Wiley Box 111, VAMC Prescott, AZ 86313 Regardless of whether you make a contribution, you are encouraged to copy and share this program. Page 12 PERMISSION TO COPY Individuals, clubs, and other non-profit organizations are granted permission by the author to freely copy these programs and documentation and share it with their members, so long as: 1. No price is charged for the software or documentation. However, a distribution cost may be charged for the cost of the diskette, so long as it is not more than $6.00 total. 2. Club members are informed of the user-supported concept and encouraged to support it with their donations. 3. The program(s) or documentation are not modified in any way and are distributed together. DISCLAIMER In no event will the Author be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use these programs, even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.