On Screen Piano Keyboard

Command Location: View Menu / Keyboard

The On-Screen Piano Keyboard w ill highlight notes and chords from the current score. It can be used as an aid to reading and playing the score (especially solo piano music) allow ing you to quickly and easily visualize chord shapes and fingering.

In Edit Mode, notes can added directly to your score w ith Note Entry via the On-Screen Piano Keyboard.

Moving and Sizing the Keyboard

The On Screen Piano Keyboard w orks in a similar w ay to the other standard Window s toolbars found in MidiIllustrator, but unlike most toolbars it can also be sized dynamically even w hen it is ‘docked’.

The keyboard can be docked or floated. When MidiIllustrator first starts the keyboard is docked at the bottom of the screen. As you resize the program's main w indow the keyboard w idth and height change by proportion to the main w indow size. MidiIllustrator w ill alw ays try to make the best use of space w hen displaying the keyboard and its proportions w ill alw ays be managed automatically.

You can use the title bar (on the top of the keyboard) to drag the keyboard to the top or bottom of the program w indow . When docked, MidiIllustrator w ill resize the keyboard in the context of the main w indow and other moveable w indow s such as the List Bar.

If the keyboard is floating on the page, it can be moved to any part of the screen w ith a simple click anyw here on the keyboard and by dragging it to the required location. The keyboard can also be resized by clicking and dragging any edge of the keyboard. Key Highlighting

The piano keyboard highlights keys under the follow ing circumstances:

In general, the notes from all visible staves w ill appear on the keyboard as they are sounded. Alternating staff notes are displayed in alternating colors. This is particularly useful in solo piano scores w here left and right hands are clearly distinguished.

Selecting Staves w ill affect the notes w hich appear on the keyboard during playback. If any staves are selected, only the notes from those staves w ill appear on the keyboard. Remaining visible staves w ill be ignored. This allow s you to display multiple staves on the screen, and a different selection of staff notes on the keyboard.

When MIDI In is received from an external midi device, such as a MIDI Piano Keyboard. In Step by Step mode the next note or notes to be played. Colors are applied using the same rules as during playback (alternating staff colors).

Keyboard Highlighting Colors

You can edit the keyboard colors, including piano key highlighting colors used to show w hich keys are being pressed during playback (such as left and right hand piano playback keys) via the Keyboard Options tab in the Program Options dialog.

Full Size Keyboard

You can sw itch betw een displaying a Full Size Keyboard (88 keys) and a cropped display of the centre four octaves of the keyboard (tw o octaves on

either side of Middle C). Performing

Hands Read more about the On-Screen Piano Keyboard Performing Hands. Show Note

Names These can be displayed A-G or using Solfege note names. Highlight

Middle C

This w ill place a small * marker on Middle C to assist w ith finding your place on the keyboard.

Menu Commands

You can access the keyboard’s menu of commands via the View Menu or by right clicking anyw here on the keyboard.

The Keyboard Menu commands allow you to: show /hide the On Screen Piano (OSP) Keyboard dock the OSP keyboard in position

toggle betw een the full size OSP keyboard and the cropped keyboard

show note names on the OSP keyboard keys. These can be displayed A-G or using Solfege note names.

show finger numbers on the OSP keyboard keys during playback (finger numbers must be assigned to notes before the finger number can be show n on keys as they are played) show /hide Performing Hands on the keyboard during playback (fingering must be assigned to notes before they can be played)

edit the keyboard colors, including piano key highlighting colors

View the Help Contents Page. Visit the MidiIllustrator Website at http:// w w w .MidiIllustrator.com.

5.3.4.1 Performing Hands

Command Location: View Menu / Keyboard

Performing Hands are a feature of the On-Screen Keyboard. Watch your score performed on the keyboard by MidiIllustrator's talented hands w hich can perform even the most technically challenging pieces!

Once finger numbers have been assigned to a range of notes in the score, MidiIllustrator's hands can perform even the most demanding pieces (finger numbers do not have to be show n on the actual keyboard keys in order for performing hands to be displayed).

The scenario for the most successful display of performing hands is w ith piano pieces w here notes have been assigned finger positions specifically for performance on the piano. How ever w hen displayed, MidiIllustrator hands w ill try to play any number of instruments and musical ideas (voices) spread over any number of the visible staves in the score. The hand w hich w ill be assigned to play a given stave is determined by the hand assignment in Staff Manager. See finger numbers for more information.

The performing hands endeavor to play most chord shapes over most ranges though certain spans may be deemed unreachable in w hich case no fingering w ill be attempted giving the appearance that some notes are simply being ignored during playback... This can happen particularly if notes from multiple voices in a staff have been assigned fingers for a single hand, in w hich case the performing hands w ill not be able to correctly finger all of the notes (the default behavior w hen analyzing fingering automatically is for low er voice notes in any staff to be assigned to the left hand and upper voice notes to be assigned to the right hand).

Performing Hands can also be show n in Step by Step Mode w hen finger numbers have been created for the score.

Fill Hands Option By default, the hands are draw n as solid objects as this gives them the most natural appearance, how ever they can be displayed hollow (outline only) in order to give better visibility of the keyboard beneath the hands.

View the Help Contents Page. Visit the MidiIllustrator Website at http:// w w w .MidiIllustrator.com.