Compose It Yourself Help Page

ComposeItYourself (CIY) attempts to be very simple use.  You drag a musical element (note, rest, sharp, dot etc. etc.) from the palette to a staff, either the treble clef or the bass clef.  We have tried hard to allow you put notes wherever you desire to locate them.  Note that the score scrolls infinitely to the right, and the palette scrolls with it.

At CIY we desire that you have fun playing with music.  On this page we describe the basics of what we like to call playflow.

Key Signatures:

The key signatures drop down will set the key for the score you are about to compose. Please note that once you have dropped a note, changing the key does not change the pitch of a previously dropped note.  (Someday perhaps it will :)

NOTES:

A note can be dragged to either clef and they will be centered on a line or space depending on where the drop occurs.  If you create a chord (simultaneous sounding notes, cluster etc. etc.) then there is some involved placement and formatting that occurs.  Also if a note is dropped out side of a clef, it will be automatically centered at a predefined location. 

The direction of the stem of a note will be determined by where it is placed on the staff and if part of a chord then the other notes in the chord will determine the stem direction.

RESTS:

A rest can be placed on either clef and the centering is more controlled for rests than notes.  The whole and half rest doc on the appropriate lines.  The quarter and eighth rests doc on the clef appropriately.

SHARP, FLAT, NATURAL (accidentals) and DOT:

These must be dropped right over the note.  It may take a few attempts to get it right. The location of the accidental or dot is determined by the CIY engine. 

MEASURE BARS:

Measure bars can be paced anywhere on the score you desire for them to be placed.

TRASH CAN:

To the right of the palette is a trash can, any object can be deleted by dropping it on the trash can.

REGENERATING SOUND

If you desire to hear what your composition currently sound like, press the ìRegenerate Soundî link, wait a few moments and the server will serve up a sound file that any player should be able to play.  We have had success with Quick Time, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player, under IE 6.0 and FF 1.0 and 1.5.

You can replay the already generated sound by pressing the play button on your player.  Or if you have changed the score, you can press the ìRegenerate Soundî as often as needed, but please wait for at least a minute between regenerations as the server does take some time to render and serve up your musical composition

Drag & Drop and Click & Sprinkle:

In Drag & Drop mode each item from the palette that is used returns to the palette after it is dropped.  In Click and Sprinkle mode the palette item STAYS where the drop occurred so it ready to be moved just a little bit and then dropped again to allow for quick creation of your score.

M.M.:

The M.M. with a quarter note is the setting for the tempo of the rendering of your score.  The number in the box represents how many beats (times the quarter note will sound) in a minute. The higher the number the faster the tempo of the score and the lower the number the slower the score's tempo.

STARTING OVER:

Clicking the Start Over link will clear all the notes from the score, and allow you to begin a new score.

HINTS:

If something is not working as expected, pressing F5 or hitting the refresh button can often help.  You will not lose your work doing this as the score is saved on the server.

There is a session timeout on the site, so if you hit the end of this time, your work will be lost.  We are working to cache your score, so when you come back it will still be there, but at this moment it goes away

History:

9/2/2006                      Nate                            Initial help information.