Composition tools - Rhythmic variations |
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Purpose of this tool [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
This feature is present in all versions of Pizzicato. The idea
is to be able to change the rhythmic structure of one or more
measures, by replacing existing rhythms with a selection of
rhythmic variations. It does not however modify the pitches of
the notes involved.
It can also convert rests or empty measures with a given
pattern. If more than one pattern is selected, the program will
randomly use the selected patterns to fill the selected measures.
Using the rhythmic variations tool [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
To use this tool, you must first select one or more measures,
with the selection tool
from the main palette (in the Tools
menu) or by selecting all.
- Starting from a new document, select the whole score with
Edit, Select all. Go in the Edit menu
and choose Apply rhythmic variations... The
following dialog box appears:

The left part shows the list of possible variations to
apply and the right part lets you define the set of possible
variations that will populate the list. Here are the various
options.
- In the Basic duration(s) frame, you can
check which rhythmic values you want to detect for a
change. The default value here above shows only the
quarter note and the 4 possible transformations all
starts from a quarter note. This means that the
program will find any quarter note in the selected
measure and replace it by one of the 4 rhythmic
patterns shown. If you select for instance also the
half note, you will get:

You can also check the Dotted box, which will
make all these rhythmic values dotted.
- The next two check boxes specifies which of the notes
and/or rests will be converted. If you check
also the rest, then any rest will be converted to the
existing rhythmic patterns, with a default pitch
value to the middle of the staff or to the last note
found before that passage. An empty 4/4 measure will
be considered as a whole rest. If you check the Whole
note in the previous frame, then the empty
measures will be filled by the choosen patterns.
- The Split by frame determines the division
factors used to propose rhythmic variations. The
program will take all possible combinations that
fills the value to be replaced. For instance, if 2
and 4 are selected, a half note can be split into two
quarter notes OR 4 eighth notes OR 2 eighth notes + 1
quarter note OR 1 quarter note + 2 eighth notes. For
tuplets you can select values 3 or 6, as well as
irregular groups of 5 or 7 notes.
- Rhythm splitting is checked by default. One
rhythmic value is then split into several other
rhythmic values.
- If you check the Rhythm merging, the reverse
operation is now possible. This means for instance
that 4 eighth notes found in the selected measures
example may be merged into one half notes. You should
use only one at a time, splitting or merging,
even if the use of both is possible.
- By default, the rhythmic values are only split into
notes. By checking the Include rests box,
the program will create all variations that also
include the corresponding rests. For instance,
splitting a half note with a factor of 4 and
including the rests will give you:

- The next two check boxes enable the use of
syncopations. Level one is for instance a half note
starting on beat 2 of the measure. Level 2 is for
instance a half note starting on the second half of
the first beat of a measure.
- The two buttons Select all and Select
none let you select all or no variations from
the list. Selected variations appear with a
background color. You can select or unselect
variations individually simply by clicking on them:

Only the selected variations will be applied. If more
than one variation is selected with you click on OK,
they are applied randomly.