Category : Music and Digitized Voice
Archive   : PC-MUSAK.ZIP
Filename : MUSICIAN.DOC

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.