Starting Nightingale
We will begin simply. Your assignment will be to launch Nightingale by going to the Aliases folder under the Apple Menu (far upper left hand corner of the screen). Hold the button on the mouse down while you scroll through the titles under the Aliases and find Nightingale. When Nightingale is highlighted, simply release the button and the application "Nightingale" will be automatically launched.
When the program is open, select "new" when you are asked "which score do you want to open?". You will then see a screen with a grand staff and menu headings at the top: " File, Edit, Score, Notes/Rests, Groups, View, and Play/Rec." You can examine the details of these different Nightingale Menus later. You are now able to use the mouse to input a melodic line and a bass line. Do not try to enter chords at this time.
You select values (notes or rests) and the place the cursor on the staff and click as to where you want it. You can also click on " undo" in the edit menu if you don't get it placed right.
In the example provided here you can see that a Bach Invention is being put in by using the Mouse to select note values from the Palette and then placing the cursor on the staff where the note or rest should appear. You can see that the eighth-note symbol is highlighted in the Palette. Note that the cursor turns into the shape of whatever you have selected in the Palette. In this case, the cursor is the small eighth-note symbol since the next to to be put in would be an eighth-note. Don't try to drag notes beyond just the simple placement you do with the mouse. Nightingale automatically places the note where it should go and will continue to track note placements as you add more notes.
Making Accidentals With Nightingale: Entering accidentals for notes is quite simple. When you place the note on the clef, simply hold the mouse button down and raise the note (by pushing the mouse [cursor] up) which will create sharps or naturals, depending on the key signature. Hold the mouse button down while pulling the mouse [cursor] down to create flats or naturals, depending on the key signature. Pushing the cursor further up or down (while keeping the mouse button depressed) creates double sharps and double flats.
The Notation Palette
Explore the "Palette". Practice getting rid of the palette (by clicking in the upper left hand corner) and bringing it back (under the View Menu "Show Palette"). Practice expanding and contracting the palette by clicking in the upper right hand corner of the Palette. See if you can intuitively figure out what the symbols in the palette refer to. Experiment.
.You will notice that the Palette is arranged logically. The main cursor is the Arrow. You need it to locate your work on a system or a page or in a particular clef. It is your way of navigating around the page. The Arrow pointing to the note in the next box at the right is the Drag Cursor which lets you drag and place almost any element on the page. Essentially the top row are your tools: the two cursors for navigation, the dot (for adding a dot to a note value), the threader, and the tool for tying notes or creating phrases.
The left-hand column(column 1) of the Palette are the note values going from the longest value to the shortest value as you decend down the column. Clicking on a note value will enable you to enter that note value on the page. The cursor turns into the note value and you can then place the note on any staff anywhere on the page. The next column to the right (column 2) is the column for corresponding rests, while the next column (column 3) provides a heirarchy of dynamic values which can be placed on the score. With Nightingale all elements suchs dots for notes, accents, dynamics, text of lyrics, etc. must be attached to a note, so you click on the note you wish the element to apply to.
The last two columns of the standard palette provide score elements such as (column 4), in descending order) barlines, key signatures, meter, rehearsal letters, text tool, crescendo, fermata, etc. and the final column of the standard pallete (column 5) contains the repeat bars, the clefs, the grace notes, the metronome, and decrescendo, etc. The three rows at the bottom are specialized marking such as turns, trills, accents, chord symbols, accents, etc.
The Expanded palette adds three columns of less frequently used notation items such as additional clefs, slashes, pedal markings, rolled chords, a drawing tool, and so forth.
Explore each menu option at the top and look at the various commands. Some will be self evident, some will not. We will examine the menu commands later.
Develop some questions about things you don't understand. Remember that in order to add a system to the score, you click on "Add System After" under the Score Menu.
SAVE your work onto a floppy disk. Once you have notated the example (two systems is plenty) select "Save As" under "File". Click on "Desktop" and you will see the icon for your floppy disk. Click on your Icon and it will open your disk. Give your notation example a name and click on "SAVE". You will have now saved your work to Disk.
Menu Commands
The Menus at the Top of the Nightingale Screen utilize familiar aspects of the Mac Operating System. We were introduced to this menu generally when we first opened the program: "File, Edit, Score, Notes/Rests, Groups, View, and Play/Rec." The File Menu is the general menu for opening and closing files, for printing, for importing files, and dealing with the page setup. The Edit Menu contains the general editing tools for the OS, including copying, cutting, pasting, etc., and some additional editing tools are also available. The Command "Clear" is important because it lets you clear an element associated with a note or a system without erasing the note or system itself.
Practicing Making A Score With Nightingale
Practice inputting music onto a new page. Focus on using Masterpage to set up your score. Select Proteus 1 as the playback device. Do this AFTER you have given the instrument a name. You are to create a score using at least two independent parts (two independent systems) such as piano and voice or another instrument, or two instruments. Use the instrument page to add the staff if necessary and to name the instruments. It is at this time you will assign the playback device (use Proteus1) and the patch number and channel number. Use channel 1 for your first instrument and channel two for your second instrument. Don't worry about whether your patches are correct at this time. Just practice putting in patch and channel; numbers at the time you are selecting the device. When you close the instrument page, use Master Page to return to your score and when it asks "Apply Changes to Score?" click on " apply."
Select MIDI preferences and activate the feedback on note insertion at the bottom of the page by clicking on it so that an "X"" appears in the box. Now Do "Save AS" and give this work a name so that all these preferences will be saved. Be sure to Save into your folder on the hard drive, and be sure to make a backup of your work at the end of your session on your floppy disk.
Notating a Chorale with Nightingale Nightingale
An excellent way of getting to know a notation program is to use various input techniques to notate a Bach Chorale. It is generally a simple context and forces you to deal with how a program handles independent voices.
Open up a new score. You get the default of the grand score. You can set this up as the score by using Masterpage to label the staff as "Chorale". The Text tool allows you to put a title and the composer and the drag cursor allows you to drag these texts to desired spots on the page.
We can quickly fix this. First use the command from Edit known as "Select All." Once everything has been highlighted, select the command "Beam notes by beat" under the Menu"Groups". After the notes are beamed use the Flip Command (Command Key +F) while the notes are still selected. The alto voice will appear correctly beamed and stems in the right direction.
Now go to the Duration Menu and select "Remove Rhythmic Gaps/Resynchronize". This checks the MIDI voices and aligns them as they should be aligned.
Printing With Nightingale
Practice printing a score. For best results, under view enlarge to the image 400%. Then under Page Setup under the File Menu, set the Scaling to 25%. This procedure makes inkjet printers produce laser-like results. Don't save these settings when you have printed the score. When you close the work or Nightingale, it will ask save "Changes to (Your File)?" and you should say no. It is trying to save the enlargement and scaling changes which you don't want to be permanently attached to your file.