Sibelius G7 DEMO USER UIDE

G7

Demo User Guide

G7 Demo User Guide

Edition 3.3
July 2004

Demo User Guide written and typeset by Daniel Spreadbury.

See the

About G7 dialog for full G7 credits.

G7 copyright © Sibelius Software Ltd and its licensors 1987–2004
G7 Demo User Guide copyright © Sibelius Software Ltd 2003–2004
Published by Sibelius Software Ltd, The Old Toy Factory, 20–22 City North, Fonthill Road, London
N4 3HF, UK

All rights reserved. This User Guide may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic,

recording, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise – in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. Although every care has

been taken in the preparation of this User Guide, neither the publisher nor the authors can take responsibility for any loss or damage arising from

any errors or omissions it may contain.

G7, Sibelius, Scorch, Flexi-time, Espressivo, Rubato, Rhythmic feel, Opus, Inkpen2, magnetic, the G7, Sibelius and double helix logos, G7music.net,

‘The fastest, easiest way to create, play and post tab’ and ‘Play, write and publish songs’ are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Sibelius Soft-

ware Ltd in the USA, UK and other countries. All other trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Further information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Running for the first time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Finding your way around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Starting a new score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Tab input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Working with lyrics and chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

More to try . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

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4

Introduction

Introduction

Thank you for trying G7. Over the next few pages we’ll tell you what G7 can do for you and how to
use this User Guide.

What can G7 do for me?

G7 is the first tab and notation software designed specifically with guitarists and songwriters in
mind. It’s easy to use and so fast to learn that it’ll change the way you play and write music.

If you’re a guitarist, you can create tab or notation instantly using the on-screen fretboard display,
or by playing your MIDI keyboard or guitar directly into the computer using G7’s Flexi-time fea­ture. G7 also loads ASCII tab and MIDI files. You can even scan in notation and turn it into tab so
that you can play it, and the on-screen fretboard will show you how to finger the music as it plays
back.

If you’re a songwriter, you’ll quickly be able to write out songs, add chords, generate accompani­ments, hear them play back, and then make audio tracks for burning onto CD, print them out at
publication quality, post them on the Internet, or send them to your friends in MIDI or ASCII tab
format.

If you’re a teacher, you can create educational materials incorporating pictures and colored notes,
or show your students how to play particular pieces using G7’s expressive playback and on-screen
fretboard.

Whether you’re writing for solo guitar or a rock band, G7 will help you produce the results you
want quicker and easier than ever before. With comprehensive support for fretted instruments
from guitar to sitar, from dulcimer to dobro, the only limit is your imagination.

Restrictions of the demo version

This demo version is identical to the full G7 program, except that:

* Kontakt Player, which provides high-quality sample playback, is not included

* saving, exporting and Internet publishing are disabled

* you cannot submit your music for publication on G7Music.net

* you cannot scan printed sheet music using Neuratron PhotoScore Lite

* you can only print a single page (which is watermarked)

* the Guitar Guide, an interactive resource describing different types of guitars, playing tech-

niques and musical styles, is omitted

* most of the 20+ high-quality textures for changing the appearance of the paper and desk in the

main editing window are not included

* some example scores, manuscript papers (templates) and the full on-screen help are omitted.

To find out more about what G7 can do, watch the video tutorials and read the comprehensive fea­ture list at

www.G7info.com.

5

G7 Demo User Guide

About this User Guide

This User Guide isn’t a comprehensive guide to using the G7 demo; it’s designed to introduce you
to the basic operations of the program. The full version of G7 is accompanied by a 200-page
printed manual and extensive on-screen help.

Typography in this User Guide

* Names of computer keys, menus and dialogs are written like this.

* Items in menus and sub-menus are denoted with >, so “choose File > Open” means “choose

Open from the File menu.”

Basic terminology in this User Guide

If you know how to point and click with your mouse, you probably know enough about using com­puters to use G7. Here are some computer terms used in this User Guide:

* G7 is almost identical on Windows and Mac, but where there are differences, mainly in key-

board shortcuts, the Windows convention is listed first, e.g. “Type
down the
ter, don’t type

* Similarly, “Alt+click or z-click” means hold down the Alt (Windows) or z (Mac) key and click.

* On Windows, to “click” something means to move the mouse arrow over it and click the left

Ctrl (Windows) or X (Mac) key and type A. (Even though A is written as a capital let-

Shift unless explicitly told to do so.)

Ctrl+A or XA” means hold

mouse button. To “right-click” something means to point at it with the mouse and click the right
mouse button.

* To “drag” something means to point at it with the mouse, and then click and hold the left mouse

button (or the only mouse button on Mac) while moving the mouse. To finish dragging, just let
go of the mouse button.

* A “dialog” is a window that asks you for information, with buttons for you to click when you’ve

finished. Most dialogs are accessed by choosing menu items with the mouse, or by typing the
appropriate keyboard shortcut.

* The “numeric keypad” is the rectangle of numbers and other characters at the very right-hand

side of your computer keyboard (unless you have a laptop computer; laptops don’t usually have a
separate numeric keypad.)

* “Return” is the large key to the right of the letter keys. On some keyboards it is labeled with

“

Enter” or a special arrow symbol, but we always call it Return.

* “Enter” is the large key at the bottom right of the numeric keypad. On some keyboards it is unla-

beled, but it still means

* Some keys are labeled differently on different keyboards. We’ll use the standard symbols for

Enter.

these keys on Mac, but here are the corresponding names which may appear on your keyboard:

Mac symbol Mac name Windows equivalent

X Command Ctrl (“Control”)
x Shift Shift
z Option Alt
R Return Return
E Enter Enter (on numeric keypad)

(on main keyboard)

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Further information

Further information

G7info.com

The G7 website,
demonstrations of key features of the software, plus reviews and details of who’s using G7. You can
also get basic technical help information by searching the online Help Center.

Buying G7

For information about buying G7, click the toolbar button shown on the left, contact your local
Sibelius dealer, see

* North, Central & South America: 888-474-2354 toll-free, email: [e-mail]. For techni-

cal problems, see overleaf.

* UK: freephone 0800 458 3111 ([phone] from outside the UK), email:

[e-mail]. For technical problems, see overleaf.

* Australia: 08 82 771 722, email: [e-mail]

*

Austria: 01 667 4539, email: [e-mail]

*

Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg: 09 348 5508 (0032 9 348 5508 from outside Belgium), email:

[e-mail]

Czech Republic & Slovakia: 0501 454 769, email: [e-mail]

*

* Denmark: 0 86 190 899, email: [e-mail]

*

Finland: 09 25 86 34 40, email: [e-mail]

*

Germany: 030 789 07990 email: [e-mail]

*

Greece: 01 228 2160, email: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

*

Hungary: 1 467 3310 / 1 469 0699, email: [e-mail]

*

Iceland: 0354 552 1185, email: [e-mail]

*

Ireland: 01 453 1233, email: [e-mail]

*

Italy: 06 3036 3456, email: [e-mail]

* New Zealand: 09 810-8960, email: [e-mail]

*

Norway: tel: [phone], fax: [phone]

* Poland: 048 22 646 9708, email: [e-mail]

*

Singapore & Malaysia: tel: [phone], email: [e-mail]

*

South Africa: 011 792 8402, email: [e-mail]

*

South Korea: 02 763 5680, email: [e-mail]

*

Sweden: tel: [phone], fax: [phone]

* Switzerland: 032 322 5274, email: [e-mail]

*

Other countries: [phone], email: [e-mail]

www.G7info.com, contains additional information about G7, including video

www.g7info.com, or contact:

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G7 Demo User Guide

Technical problems

If you have any technical problems running the G7 demo, please first try searching the Help Center
at

www.G7info.com. If you are unable to find a solution to your problem, please contact:

* North, Central & South America: 1-888-280-9995 toll-free (outside of the USA phone [phone]-

0600) Monday to Friday 7am–4pm PST (except holidays), email:

*

United Kingdom: 020 7561 7997, Monday to Friday 10am–5pm, email:

[e-mail]

Other countries: contact the appropriate distributor for your country in the first instance (see

*

[e-mail]

previous page).

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Running for the first time

Running for the first time

Having successfully installed the G7 demo, now run the software for the first time:

* On Windows, choose Start > Programs > Sibelius Software > G7 Demo.

* On Mac, navigate to the G7 Demo folder inside the Applications folder on your hard disk, and

double-click the

Splash screen

A pretty G7 graphic appears for a few seconds, accompanied by a brief musical excerpt. (Should
you want to silence this music at a later date, switch off

ences

dialog; this dialog is in the G7 Demo menu on Mac OS X.)

The Devices dialog

Next, a big dialog called

G7 icon.

Play music at start in the File > Prefer-

Devices appears:

The top half of the dialog, labeled

* There may well be two or more things listed – such as an internal soundcard and an external

Playback Devices, lists any playback devices you have.

MIDI device. External MIDI devices are normally referred to by the port, and include the words
“MIDI Out.”

* Click Test on each device listed to see how it sounds. You may get no sound if the device is not

properly connected, e.g. if your speakers are not connected to your soundcard or are not
switched on.

* If more than one device is listed, you probably just want to play back through the best-sounding

one of them. To do this, click in the

Use column on the other devices, to turn them to No.

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G7 Demo User Guide

* On Mac, you may see only one device (QuickTime Music) listed the first time you run G7. If you

don’t have any external MIDI devices, this is fine – but if you do have external devices, you
should click the
or

OMS or FreeMIDI (on Mac OS 9).

Change button in the dialog to choose either Mac OS X MIDI (on Mac OS X),

The bottom half of the dialog, labeled

Input Devices, lists any MIDI input devices you have – i.e. a

MIDI keyboard or MIDI guitar.

* In the event that you have two or more input devices, you can select the one you want to use in

the small panel on the right of the dialog

* Switch on MIDI Thru if and only if you have a keyboard with no built-in sounds – this will make

G7 play back notes played on your keyboard using your soundcard or other playback device

* There is a useful indicator which lights up green when you play on a MIDI keyboard or MIDI

guitar. Use this to check that your keyboard or guitar is plugged in correctly.

Now click
log again by choosing

OK. If you need to change any of these settings again in the future, you can find this dia-

Play > Devices from G7’s menus.

Quick Start

The next (and final) thing that appears is the Quick
Start dialog.

This useful dialog allows you to open any of the last
five songs you were working on, or to start working
with a new score in a variety of ways, e.g. by importing
a MIDI or ASCII tab file, or by scanning some printed
sheet music.

At the bottom of the dialog is the Tip of the Day, which
hopefully tells you something useful you didn’t know
already.

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If this sort of thing annoys you, switch off

at the start

, and G7 won’t display the Quick Start dia-

Show this

log the next time you start the program. (Should you
decide that you do want this dialog to appear when you
start G7 after all, choose

Show this at the start back on.)

File > Quick Start, and switch

Finding your way around

Finding your way around

Opening a score

To introduce you to the look and feel of G7, let’s open one of the supplied example scores (this is
the word we use to refer generically to files you create in G7).

Click the

Ctrl+O or XO). In the dialog that appears, follow the Example Scores shortcut (inside

the

(On Mac, the Scores folder is inside the G7 program folder; on Windows, the Scores folder is
inside your

When you’ve opened the score, the music appears, looking somewhat like this:

To ol b ar

Open button on the toolbar (shown on the left), or choose File > Open (shortcut

Scores folder), select one of the scores, then click Open.

My Documents folder.)

Menus

Score view

Navigator

Let’s just take a moment or two to explore the display.

Score view

The bulk of the screen is taken up with the music itself. G7 is completely WYSIWYG (What You
See Is What You Get) – in other words, when you print your score, it will look exactly the same as it
does on the screen. You can think of the screen as a virtual desk, with all the pages of your score
laid out side by side.

Fretboard Keypad

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