Songs
for Praise
Desperate
Measures
I
accumulated this quick reference by combining a lot of scratch papers.
It is written on a 25 staff Personal Composer score. To understand it
you need to know that Personal Composer can show 4 MIDI instrument
voices per staff…2 upstem and 2 downstem. Here’s a partial list of what
is shown:
1.
Page R shows how to do headers &
footers, page numbers, and other things that should appear on every
page.
2.
Page DM/1 shows a
25 staff layout in 8 ½ X 14” legal size for the full symphony
orchestra I used in writing “Osiris.”
(The printing company can expand it to 10 X 14” or
other sizes. They wanted single sided masters.)
If you use Personal Composer (
pcomposer.com ), save
as “yourname.pc, delete
everything you don’t want,
and
you have a template for writing orchestral music that has all of
the staff, staff names, MIDI, & pan setup done.
3.
Instrument ranges,
which
staff, & other data about instruments.
4.
How to write for
& transpose staffs & keys for Clarinet & French Horns.
5.
Port/Channel/Patch
assignment for each instrument.
(I use Ports A & B with 16 MIDI
Channels / Port, with a Creative Audigy Soundboard.)
6.
Order of Sharps #
& flats b.
7.
Tempo names &
MIDI settings.
8.
Volume names ( mf ) &
settings.
9.
Number of sharps #
& flats b in major & minor keys.
10.
Major & minor
chords in each key.
11.
Piston’s chord
progressions & Strong chord progressions.
12.
Modulating key
changes & cadences at end.
13.
Harp pedals &
how to write them in PCHarp font.
14.
Contrabass sounds 1
octave lower than written.
15.
String notes for
Violin, Viola, Cello, & Bass
16.
MIDI
Pan Control pan settings for orchestra.
17.
Circle of fifths.
18.
Violin finger
positions, & open strings for violin, viola, cello, & bass.
19.
Guitar capo key
changes.
20.
Choral voice ranges.
21.
Page DM/3 shows
other chord information…a work in progress.
22.
Don't
forget to have 8 1/2x14" Legal size paper to print it.
