hello all, I've written a first draft of a beginner tutorial on how to use Denemo to tranpose lead sheets. It covers creating
a simple score and transposing it.
I'd appreciate any comments for correctness, parts I should expand or remove, etcetera. Don't worry about the formatting or
presentation at this point. Eventually I'd like to use it as a script for a video, but I'll present it in text form as well.
The draft is at https://tilde.team/~wakyct/denemo_tutorial.html
For convenience I've included the full draft after my signature.
thanks, George
# Use Denemo to transpose lead sheets
_Dec 4 2024_
## Introduction
### Who is this for?
This tutorial explains how to create a lead sheet transposed to your
instrument's key using a song's original score.
For example, you can follow this tutorial if you have a PDF of a song in its original key from one of the Real Books, and you
want to read that music in your instrument's key instead. I play alto saxophone so I'm going to transpose to Eb in this
tutorial, but the principle is the same for whatever non-concert key instrument you play.
Of course this tutorial also teaches you to create scores with Denemo. We won't cover all its functionality (Denemo can do a
lot!) but when you're finished you should be comfortable using Denemo and know how to learn more about what it can do.
### Why create transposed lead sheets by hand?
I think it should be said you don't have to use written music to learn a song. You can make a strong argument that it's better
to use your ears. But there are advantages to using written music so we'll ignore this question for now.
There are programs that attempt to read PDFs and convert them to a score you can edit, but I've never used one. From what I've
heard they don't save you that much work, and as you'll see creating one page lead sheets by hand doesn't take that long.
### Why use Denemo?
There are other note-engraving programs out there, such as MuseScore, Dorico, Finale, and many others. I'll assume you're
reading this because you want to use Denemo. However if you've never heard of Denemo before, I think there are two compelling
reasons to use it:
* Denemo is free and open-source. * Denemo uses Lilypond, a versatile program that can create beautiful scores, to typeset
your music.
## This tutorial and getting help
I've recorded a video, and if you scroll down you also can read the tutorial if
you prefer.
The best place to ask questions is on the Denemo-devel mailing list. There also is an IRC chatroom though it doesn't see much
activity.
## Video
## Getting started
### Download Denemo
### Prepare the lead sheet you'll transpose
I've found it's helpful to add bar numbers to the PDF of the score you'll transpose. It's not required but it does make it
easier to go back and forth between the PDF and Denemo to make sure your Denemo score is accurate. I use Xournalpp for this
basic task.
If your score has a pickup bar Denemo will not include it when it numbers the bars, so keep that in mind when you number your
PDF.
### Open the source PDF in Denemo
Go the menu File -> Open -> Open source for transcribing. I'll be using a lead sheet of _Now's the Time_ by Charlie Parker
from the Real Book.
Arrange your windows so the Denemo score and the source PDF are side by side.
Scroll the source PDF to show the first bar.
### Note entry
We are going to enter notes in two separate steps. First we'll enter all the notes as durations, then we'll go back and change
each note to their correct pitch. This isn't the only way to enter notes in Denemo, but dividing the work this way makes note
entry more efficient and less error-prone and is a good way to get started.
#### A note about navigation
You can move the cursor around in Denemo by left-clicking with the mouse, but you also can move from bar to bar by pressing
Ctrl-`<arrow key>`, and from note to note with the arrow keys. For bigger jumps you can press Alt-m to go to a bar number.
#### Durations
I'm using the term durations as shorthand for saying eighth-note, quarter-note, and so on. We enter durations using the number
keys. 0 is a whole note, 1 a half note, 2 a quarter note, 3 an eigth and 4 a sixteenth. We also enter rests by pressing the
Alt key and the corresponding number, so Alt-0 is a whole measure rest.
The default time signature in Denemo is 4/4. If your score has a different signature you can change it by left-clicking the
4/4 in the Denemo score.
Begin by entering the first duration. First click somewhere in the middle of the barlines, for example on the middle space
('c' in treble clef). Now new durations will appear in the middle of the bar and personally I find this easier to look at.
In _Now's the Time_ the first duration is an eighth note so I'll press the number 3 on my keyboard. The first bar is a pickup
bar, so I'll enter that now in Denemo by pressing the 'u' key (for 'upbeat'). You also can find this in the menu Measures ->
Anacrusis. You'll see an 'Upbeat' mark appear in the first bar, and the cursor moves automatically to the second bar.
Continue entering durations. Press a number key for the duration and Alt-`<number key>` for a rest. You'll notice that Denemo
automatically numbers the bars and you can cross-reference those numbers with the numbers in your source PDF if you have them.
As the durations appear in Denemo you may notice that the beaming doesn't follow the source PDF exactly, but don't worry about
that for now. Typically Lilypond will typeset them correctly.
Complete the first line of durations.
##### The Print View
You might be curious what this is going to look like when typeset, so go to the menu View -> Typeset Music. This will pop up
the Denemo Print View window. From now on you can check your printed score by left-clicking the refresh button in this window.
You can press 'Escape' then 'p' as a shortcut to see the Print View window.
#### Enter all durations
Scroll down the source PDF, and enter all the durations.
If you have a dotted note, press the '.' key after you press the number key,
and Denemo will dot the note.
If you have a triplet, press the TAB key before and after you enter the triplet notes, and Denemo will mark the three notes as
a triplet.
You always can backspace if you make a mistake.
When you're done press the Home key to return to the first bar.
#### Enter pitches
Now starting from the beginning, we'll change the pitch of each duration to the
correct note.
Open the on-screen piano from the menu Input-> On-screen piano. On my laptop I set this window to always be on top and place
it between the Denemo score and the source PDF. The piano has a 'C' marked on the middle C (the C below the bar in treble
clef).
Left-click on the first duration in your Denemo score. Now by left-clicking the piano keys, you'll change the pitch of each
duration to the correct note. The cursor will automatically advance to the next note as you play.
It's possible to use a hardware MIDI keyboard connected to your computer to
enter the pitches as well.
##### A note about key signatures
When you enter pitches, you should enter the actual pitch regardless of key signature. So if your score is in the key of F,
make sure you left-click on the Bb on the piano keyboard when you see a B in your score. You can change the key signature of
your Denemo score by right-clicking the natural sign below the first bar, located between the clef and the time signature. For
now, ignore accidentals and just enter the pitches relative to the key signature .
You can hear Denemo play the pitch if your speakers are on.
Continue entering all the pitches until you're done, then close the piano window and press the home key to go back to the
first bar.
#### Accidentals
You should now have all the pitches entered with the correct duration, and your key signature set. Now you can go through the
piece and add accidentals. To add an accidental, left-click on the note and press Shift-minus to flatten or Shift-plus to
sharpen. So if you want to add a natural sign to a pitch modified by your key signature, flatten or sharpen the note as
needed.
The Alt-m go-to-measure key combo is helpful here to quickly move to the bars that have accidentals (if you marked bar numbers
in your source PDF). Remember you also can use Ctrl-`<arrow key>` to move a whole measure as well.
Enter all the accidentals then press the Home key to go back to the beginning.
Don't forget to save your work with Ctrl-s.
#### Repeats and bar lines
Use the Alt-m go-to-measure to skip through the score and enter all the bar repeats and bar lines. Enter a bar repeat symbol
by left-clicking at the start or end of a measure and pressing the B key, then either the s or the e key for a start repeat or
end repeat. You also can find repeat commands in the menu Directives-> Inserting Barlines.
##### A note on Go to measure (Alt-m) and the Command Center
There actually are two Go to measure commands. You can find them in the menu Navigation-> Cursor. If your score has a pickup
bar, you probably want to use the second version, Go to typeset measure. In my Denemo I've changed the shortcut key Alt-m to
this second version. You can change shortcut keys by right-clicking on the command in the menu, opening the Command Center on
the command, and using the add shortcut button in the lower right-hand corner of the Command Center. The Command Center is a
good way to browse available commands and find what menus and shortcuts they're related to.
#### Enter coda symbols
I'll just cover the basic symbols here. To add a coda symbol, use Alt-m to go to the measure (or left-click into the measure).
Use the menu Directives-> Markings and add a standalone coda or segno.
Usually there will be corresponding text notes in the score (like "D.C. al sign"). You can add text by left-clicking into the
measure where you want it displayed above or below, then using the menu Directives-> Markings-> Text/Symbol and selecting
multi-line text. Ater you enter it you may have to right-click on it in the Denemo score to position it up or down relative to
the bar.
#### Other markings
Sometimes a score will have a mark that you don't know how to reproduce. Looking in the Command Center, the Denemo menus,and
searching on the Denemo mailing list will usually show you what need to do. For _Now's the Time_ there's a parenthesized note
in the 12th bar. This is not too hard to do using the menu Notes/Rests-> Parenthesize note. However comparing the Denemo
typeset view to the original score, the parentheses in the original look nicer to me. Is it possible to increase the size of
the parentheses?
I mentioned that Denemo uses Lilypond to typeset its music. Lilypond is a text-based representation of a score. It mixes a
markup language with programming code. Denemo lets you insert and modify Lilypond markup to alter how it typesets your music.
Using Lilypond can be a way to tweak your score when there's not an obvious way to do it wth Denemo commmands.
If we do a search for "lilypond parenthesize note" we'll find the Lilypond documentation on Parentheses, and markup like this:
\tweak Parentheses.font-size 2. That looks close to what we want. How do we add this to our Denemo score?
Right-clicking on objects in your Denemo score -- a note is a Denemo object -- will let you show an Object Inspector that can
launch the Object Editor. If you left-click the Advanced button in the Editor there is an entry field for Postfix and Prefix.
Running the Advanced editor for our parenthesized note should show '\parenthesize' already filled in Prefix. So to change the
font size, we can change this to '\tweak Parentheses.font-size 4 \parenthesize' (the value 4 works well visually to my eye).
#### Score titles and layout
Now that the music is written in Denemo, we can add a title, composer, and so on and change the typeset appearance to how we
like it.
You can add titles from the menu Score-> Titles-> Simple Titles or press the
keys s, then s again.
I usually increase the size of the score using the menu Score-> Typesetter-> Print Layout-> Score size for layout. I also like
to increase the distance between barlines using the menu Score -> Typesetter -> Print Layout -> Vertical Spacing -> Titles and
System Spacing -> System to System. I'll tweak the basic distance (a value somewhere around 20 usually works) to increase the
spacing but keep the music on one page if possible. You also probably will want to change Last title to start of movement.
In the menu Print Layout you also can change the Measures per line, and I usually try to make this the same as the original
score for ease of comparing transpositions to the original.
#### Chords
At this point the Denemo score should be looking good. For most lead sheets you'll want to add chord names above the bar so
let's do that now.
There are two main methods in Denemo for adding chords.
First there's a more compact representation where you add chord names in Lilypond syntax directly above the barlines
(basically attached to notes), using the menu Notes/Rests-> Markings-> Chord Symbols-> Chord Chart Symbol.
##### A note on Denemo palettes
Denemo is very flexible with how you invoke commands. There are the menus, keyboard shortcuts, and palettes, which are
floating windows with buttons that invoke commands. You can groups commands how you want in custom palettes, or show premade
palettes. There is a chord chart symbol palette you can show via the menu View -> Palettes-> Select a palette to show -> Chord
Symbols.
#### Chord staffs
The second method for chords is creating a 'chord staff', which looks like another line of music above the line we just wrote.
You enter chord notes on this staff and Denemo will print these as chord names above the barlines.
I've tried both methods, and since the second method seems a bit more
user-friendly we'll use it in this tutorial.
First create this staff using the menu Staff-> Add Staff-> New staff before current. Then left-click into this staff and use
the menu Staff-> Staff Properties-> Chord Symbols. You'll see 'ChordStaff' displayed above the first bar.
To make it easier to enter chords, we'll select a palette. Use the menu View -> Palettes-> Select a palette to show-> Insert
or Append chords.
If you have a pickup bar like we do in _Now's the Time_, we'll want to insert a non-printing rest in the chord chart. Click
into the pickup bar and use the menu Notes/Rests -> Rest Insertion -> Spacer (of the appropriate duration, in this case an
eighth note spacer). Denemo knows now where to start printing chord names. Also make the first bar a pickup bar like we did
before, by pressing 'u' (for upbeat).
When you left-click a button in the Insert chords palette Denemo will insert a chord at the cursor using the 'current default
duration' -- whatever the last duration was. We want to add chords in harmonic rhythm (lined up where the occur over the
correct notes). So if there's one chord in the bar, add it as a whole note duration. If there's two, we'll need to add them as
half-note durations, and so on.
In _Now's the Time_ there's one F7 chord printed over the first bar, so with the cursor in the chord staff I'll press the '0'
key to set the default duration, then backspace to erase the note and start using the chord palette. From now on left-click
the cursor into the bar line or space that's the root of the note, then press the button in the palette for the chord quality.
In this case I left-click into an F on the bar and press '7' on the palette.
My next chord is a Bb7 in bar 5, so I repeat the steps, left-clicking on the middle B and pressing the '7' on the palette.
You'll see the root name of the chord printed above the chord staff. If we switch to the typeset view we should see the chord
names.
Fill in the rest of the chords, changing durations and inserting non-printing spacer rests as needed so the chord names are
typeset over the correct notes.
#### Transposing
Congratulations! At this point the score is done, but of course the whole point of entering the score was to be able to
transpose it. Currently the score for _Now's the Time_ is in the key of F for concert instruments, but I want it in the
correct key for alto saxophone (the key of D).
Use the menu Score-> Typesetter-> Transpose on print (text input). We want to input the interval to transpose by. If our
original score is in F, for Eb instruments we enter F D' (the quote indicating an octave above, changing where on the barlines
Denemo prints the notes).
If you view the typeset music the score should now be in the correct key. Now's a good time to add a title (pressing key s, s)
to indicate what instrument the score is for. Then in the Print View we can save this transposed score to PDF and we're done.
