1 - Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

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1.1

Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

A Brief Introduction to Notation

In a broad sense, the term notation can be applied to any system that uses written symbols to represent
musical notes. Thus, the piano roll view of REAPER's MIDI Editor can be seen as a type of notation, as is the
use of guitar tabs, which you might have encountered elsewhere. However, in practice the term notation is
often used to refer to modern staff notation. This was developed for use with European classical music, but is
now widely used to represent music of many genres. This chapter will focus on the use of REAPER's notation
editor for modern staff notation. First, here is a general introduction.
The practice of notation writing is sometimes also known as scoring. Notation is a huge subject about which
there is much to learn, and the journey from complete beginner to competent achiever can be a long one. Many
books are available on the subject, including Music Notation (Theory and Technique for Music Notation) by Mark
McGrain and Music Notation and Terminology by Karl Wilson Gehrkens (available on line as a free download
from Gutenberg). A handy short general introduction to understanding music theory and notation can be found
on line at method-behind-the-music.com and some introductory tutorials at www.musiciansplace.com/harmonics/course-1/staff-notation.html.
If all this intimidates you, don't let it! You don't need to be able to read or write musical scores to be a
musician. Robert Johnson, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Tommy
Emmanuel and many, many others are all proof of that!
This User Guide does not aim for the impossible goal of teaching everybody everything they could ever wish to
know about notation scoring and editing, in just a few pages! Its purpose is to help you to learn how to start
using REAPER's notation editor with such knowledge and skills as you can bring to the table.
Below are illustrated some of the basic elements and terminology of notation scoring:

The staff is the five line grid on which notes can be written, and which is used to display the notes. If a MIDI
item recorded using a keyboard or created by hand within the MIDI editor is opened in the notation editor, then
that item will be automatically scored. You can also edit that score, or add to it, within the notation editor. The
staff is divided into a number of measures for the duration of the piece. The number of beats to a measure is
itself determined by the time signature (see also below).
On the left end of the staff is displayed the clef. For the treble clef the first (lowest) line of the staff
represents E this goes up alternately thru grid spaces and lines to F, G, A,
B, C, D, E, and F. The bass clef uses the same musical alphabet but
goes up G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Where a note needs to be
displayed above or below the range covered by the staff, this is done
using ledger lines.
A different symbol is used to represent each note, shown above (left to right) from double whole note (breve)
thru whole note (semibreve), half note (minim), quarter note (crotchet), one eighth note (quaver), one
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Up and Running: A REAPER User Guide v 5.20

sixteenth note (semiquaver), one thirty-second note (demi-semiquaver) and one sixty-fourth note (semi-demisemiquaver). Above you can see where ties have been used to join together two or more adjacent notes of the
same pitch, effectively creating a single longer note.
To the immediate right of the clef are the key signature (if present) and the time signature. The key
signature designates notes to be played higher or lower than its corresponding natural note. The time
signature determines how many beats there are per measure, and what kind of note gets the beat. For
example, in 4/4 time there are four beats per measure with the quarter note getting the beat. In 3/4 time also
the quarter note will get the beat, but with only three beats in a measure.

1.2

REAPER's Notation Editor: a First Look

The single most important thing for you to understand about REAPER's notation editor is this:
It is a fully integrated part of the MIDI Editor, not a stand-alone module . Any changes you make
when editing will be to the MIDI item itself, and will show up in every view. This architecture has a number of
significant advantages, such as:
If you are familiar with working in, say, piano roll view, then learning to use the notation editor presents a
significantly less steep learning curve than would otherwise be the case. Indeed, you would probably be
unwise to attempt to use the
notation editor without first
getting to know the MIDI
Editor, and especially piano roll
view.
You can make your edits (such
as moving, copying or
modifying notes) in whichever
view you find it easiest to work.
The results of the edits will be
visible (and audible) in any
view.
The MIDI Editor's different views are
selected from the View menu. The
different modes (already introduced
in Chapter 13) are:
Mode: piano roll (Alt 1)
Mode: named notes (Alt 2)
Mode: event list (Alt 3)
Mode: musical notation (Alt 4)
Consider the example on the right.
This is a fairly simple MIDI item. It
could have been imported from an
external MIDI file, recorded using a
keyboard, or crafted in the REAPER
Midi Editor piano roll view or musical
notation view. It is shown here in
piano roll view (top) and musical
notation view. When you switch
between views, you are seeing
exactly the same notes each time.
You can also see that the MIDI editor
environment is also the same. For example, the menus and toolbars are the same, as is the essential MIDI
Editor functionality. In either of the two view shown here, for example, you can add, delete or move notes.
Note that a MIDI item can be displayed in only one view at a time (e.g. musical notation mode or piano roll
mode, but not both at once), although different items may be open at the same time in different views in
separate MIDI Editor instances.

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1 - Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

Note also that the he methods employed when working within the different views (or modes) are as far as
possible, the same.
For example, use double-click
to insert a new note. Use
right-click-drag to select a
series of notes (marquee).
You can perform tasks on
your selection such as delete,
move, copy, quantize or
humanize, and so on.
As you will see later in this
chapter, musical notation
view also incorporates a large
number of extra features that
are specific to scoring music.
First, let's return for a
moment to our simple
example.
In this case, we have added
some more notes in the piano
roll view (shown here as
selected).
When we switch to musical
notation view, we can see
that the edits are also
displayed there.
Thus the process of working
and moving between the
different modes is quite
seamless.
If you are working with
projects which contain more
than one track with MIDI
items, and/or more than one
MIDI item per track, it is
important that you
understand your options for
managing how the MIDI Editor (including musical notation mode) can handle these. You might already be
familiar with this, from sections 13.26 to 13.28 of this guide. If necessary, refer back to these sections, but
there follows a brief summary.

1.3

Opening MIDI Items in the Notation Editor

Under Options, Preferences, Editing Behavior, MIDI Editor you can specify whether you want one MIDI
editor instance opened for each item, for each track, or for the entire project. When in musical notation mode, it
can often be helpful to have all MIDI items open together.
On the same page, you can also
determine what happens when you
open a MIDI item in the MIDI Editor,
either by double-clicking, or using
the Open in built-in editor
command. The options are to open
the clicked item only, all selected
MIDI items, all MIDI items on the
same track, or all MIDI items in the project. There are a number of other options, shown above.
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1.4

REAPER's Notation Editor: A Closer Look

Once opened, musical notation mode can be selected (View menu) and the option to view the track list should
be enabled from the
Contents menu. This
can be used, amongst
other things, to
determine which items
are visible and
optionally editable, as
well as which is to be
used when inserting
notes (see 13.26 to
13.28).
Shown here is an
example of a folder with
a synth inserted in its
FX chain and three child
tracks, each containing
a MIDI item. All three
are open together in the
MIDI Editor's musical
notation view. By
looking at the panel on
the right you should just
be able to see that all
three items are visible in
this window. The first of
these is the only one
currently selected as
editable and it has also
been selected for inserting any new notes.
Let's look first at some of the things that you can already see here:
If more than one track is visible, track names are displayed to the left of the staff. Both track and item
names are visible in the track list panel. Clicking on the track name (in the notation or in the track panel)
will make that track the target track for inserting e vents, and will make the items on that track editable.
Notes that are not currently editable are shown in a lighter shade of gray.
There are two boxes at the top left corner of the display, just below the toolbar. If you hover your mouse
over any note, these boxes will display that note's time position and pitch.
The tempo is displayed above and slightly to the right of the time signature.
To the right of the page, at the end of each pair of rows there is a pitch cursor in the form of a small gray
triangle. This shows the current pitch that will apply when keyboard actions such as insert note are
applied. An accidental (sharp or flat) will be shown beside it if the pitch is not in the current key. This
symbol is editable by dragging up or down with the mouse.
Now let's take a look at some other things that might not be as immediately apparent.

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1 - Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

You can see several things in this illustration. They will all be explained shortly.

Lyrics have been added just below the first staff.

Notations (in this example, crescendo, play very soft, and dimuendo) have been made above the staff.

A selection time selection and loop has been made. This could initially have been done in arrange view,
but can also be edited in notation mode. For example, you can grab the handles with the mouse to adjust
the start and end points of the loop.

Some notes also display colored bars. These are the currently selected notes. How they are colored will
depend which option you have set channel or velocity or pitch, etc. Setting color to velocity can be
especially useful, as in notation (as opposed to piano roll view) there is otherwise no way to idisplay
velocity.
Example
Before digging any deeper, familiarise yourself with the basics of the musical notation mode environment. Make
a copy of one of your MIDI projects, then, as a first exercise, strip it back to a few simple MIDI items on no
more than two or three tracks.
Open this in the MIDI editor and get used to the feel and flavor of musical notation mode. Don't yet be too
ambitious: restrict yourself at first to simple tasks like adding or deleting notes, moving or copying loop
selections, etc. Get to grips with switching between modes and editing in both. Don't worry if you mess it up
occasionally it's just a scratch pad!
We'll get to explaining how you manage the other (and perhaps more interesting) features shortly, but there's
one other point worth making first.
Notation Editor Views
There are two views within the notation editor page view and row view.
Page view is automatically selected if you choose to display only a single track. The timeline flows from left to
right and top to botto0m.
Row view is automatically engaged when more than one track is made visible. Multiple tracks are displayed in a
single staff row. The timeline flows left to right and the tracks are displayed top to bottom.
If you wish to display a single track in row view, set the action Notation: Page view (whole measures,
multiple staff rows, when when one track is visible) to Off.

1.5

Basic Note Selection and MIDI Editor Tasks

Basic note selection and MIDI editing tasks are

covered in detail in Chapter 13 of this guide. The
menu shown on the right displays editing commands
that can be applied to a note or selection of notes.
In addition, there are a number of mouse and
keyboard shortcuts. Be aware that most mouse
behaviors that work in the piano roll will also work
in musical notation mode.
A brief summary table is provided below for your
convenience. These tasks are not specific to musical
notation view. They can be carried out in piano roll
mode, named note mode or musical notation mode:
if you need further information about any task,
please refer back to Chapter 13.
Add a note: Double-click: in notation view this is
on the staff.
Delete a note: Double-click on the note.
Select a note for editing: Click on the note.
Select a range of notes: Right click and drag
around the selection.
Add to an existing selection: Hold Alt and Ctrl while right clicking and dragging around notes.
Perform task on note or note selection: Choose Edit command from menu, then select task.
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Move a note: Click and drag note to new position then release.
You should also make sure you understand the purpose of the MIDI Editor's other controls, especially those
located near the bottom of the window, to the right of the transport bar. These are labelled Grid, Notes,
Scale, etc. For example, the Notes drop down list sets the default length for new notes when they are inserted.
If necessary, refer back to Chapter 13, section 13.6.
Make sure you are also familiar with the MIDI Editor's zoom and scroll controls. In addition to the various
buttons and sliders displayed in the MIDI Editor window, the following mouse actions are also useful:
Mousewheel: Horizontal Zoom
Ctrl Mousewheel: Vertical Zoom
Alt Mousewheel: Horizontal Scroll
Ctrl Alt Mousewheel: Vertical Scroll
Tip: remember that all of the MIDI Editor's functionality that you might have used in piano roll or named note
view is available to you when working in musical notation
mode. These include:
Actions: The MIDI Editor actions list includes many actions
that are specific to notation mode. The actions list is covered
in more detail in Chapter 15: some time spent browsing thru
this list could prove to be time well spent.
Mouse modifiers: MIDI editor right-drag modifiers and
MIDI piano roll left-click, left drag and double-click modifiers
can be used in musical notation mode. Remember that you
can custom these to suit your own requirements. This
includes in some contexts assigning actions from the actions
list to mouse movements.

1.6

Notation Editor Specific Tasks and Functions

Before delving too deeply into the notation mode's editing capabilities it's worth pausing to take on board a few
important points:
If you have several MIDI items open together in a single
notation editor you should display the track list (Contents,
Track list). This enables you to make sure that any item that
you wish to work on is at least editable, and, for many
actions, also selected as the target for inserting events. One
simple way of doing this is to make it the only item visible at
the time (see right).
Each MIDI item can have its own key signature, or no key signature. If no key signature is specified for
an item, it will take its key signature from the previous item on the same track. If there is no previous
item on the same track and no key signature defined, it will not have a key signature.
Only a relatively small number of the commands that are exclusive to musical notation view affect the
actual MIDI notes themselves. These include deleting and inserting notes and setting tuplets. Other
actions such as articulations, lyrics, notations, etc. will only affect what is drawn on the page, not the
underlying notes themselves.
The following summary table outlines the various tasks and functions that are available to you specifically in the
musical notation view. They are accessed by right-clicking in the appropriate place.

MIDI Item Editing Commands and Actions

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1 - Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

In order to do this

You need to do this ...

Change a clef.
Right-click over an existing clef and select from menu.
Options are Treble + Bass, Treble, Bass, Alto,
Tenor, Treble -8, Treble +8 or Percussion.

Change time signature

and/or rhythm pattern.

Insert a tempo or time

signature change at the
start of a bar.

Right-click over existing time

signature, choose Edit tempo/
time signature/rhythm pattern
from menu. You can change tempo,
the time signature and/or the
rhythm pattern.
Click OK to confirm.

Right-click on the staff at the start of the

bar (but not on any note) and choose
Insert tempo/ time signature/
rhythm pattern from the menu.
This displays the same dialog box as that
shown immediately above.

Split MIDI item in order Right-click on the staff just after the start of the bar (but not on
to insert a key change at any note) and choose Split MIDI media item (to set a new
some point.
key sig using the MIDI Editor dropdown) from the menu.
The item is now split (indicated by double vertical line, as shown
here).
To set the key signature, enable the Key option (located in
the row of dropdowns at the bottom of this window).
Select a key from the dropdowns (e.g. D# Natural Minor).
The key signature that you selected will be displayed on the
staff (see right).

Text Editing Commands and Actions

In order to do this

You need to do this ...

Insert lyrics.

Hovering your mouse in the vacant area just below the Clef staff will display a
faint blue lyrics lane. Right click just there at the required position and you can
choose the Insert lyrics command. Type your text and press Enter.

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In order to do this

You need to do this ...

Edit lyrics

Right-click over existing text, choose Edit lyrics. Make your changes and press
Enter.
Lyrics can also be edited in event list mode (as, of course, can other events).

Remove lyrics.

Right-click over existing lyric text, select Remove lyrics.

Insert notation.

Hover your mouse just above the top of

a staff to reveal a pale blue notations
lane. You can right-click here to add a
notation.
Right-click above the staff at the required
point, choose Insert notation from the
menu, then select from the following:
Text (type your own), P (soft), M
(moderate), F (forte, loud), PPP (very,
very softly), MP (mezzo piano,
moderately soft), MF (mezzo forte,
moderately loud), FF (fortissimo, very
loud), FFF (forte fortissimo, as loud as
possible), Crescendo (gradually increase volume), Dimuendo (gradually reduce
volume).
An example of how this is displayed is shown
here. Again, remember that these notations
are performance instructions only: they do not
affect the MIDI data that is stored and saved
in the file.

Remove notation.

Right-click over a notation and from the menu choose Remove notation.

1.7

Working with Notes and Note Selections

A number of commands specific to musical notation view are

available from this view's own context menu. Select a note (or series
of notes) and right-click to display this menu, shown here (right).
Note that some of these (notably accidentals and articulations) do not
affect the notes as they are stored in the file: they merely represents
instructions that will be displayed on the score.
It is well beyond the scope of this User Guide to attempt to teach
music theory. Nevertheless, for those that need to learn more, the
information in the table below might serve as a starting point by
introducing you to some of these terms. These comments are offered for information and guidance only, and
are not intended to be comprehensive or water-tight definitions.
Option...

Comments ...

Accidentals.

Accidentals (sharps and flats) are an instruction to raise or lower the pitch of a
note by half a step.
Note that they are an instruction only: changes to the actual note itself can be
made using the techniques explained elsewhere, such as using shortcut keys on
notes/note selections, for example, Move notes up/down (Ctrl Up, Ctrl Down)
or by assigning such actions as mouse modifiers.

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1 - Music Notation and REAPER's Notation Editor

Option...

Comments ...

Grace note.

A grace note is an extra note that is added as an embellishment and which is not
essential to the harmony or melody. Select the note, then right-click and choose
Grace note from the menu.
Grace notes will affect the actual MIDI events.

Tuplet.

A tuplet is an irregular rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a number of
subdivisions which differ from those usually allowed by the time signature.
The full range of tuplet options available within the musical notation editor are
3:2 (triplet), 4:3, 5:4, 6:4, 7:6, 8:6, 9:8, 10.8. Be aware that for any particular
note, not all of these options might be available. For example, a quarter note
(crotchet) can be divided into three (triplet), five (quintuplet), six (sextuplet) or
seven parts (octuplet). w
A tuplet is inserted by selecting an option from the tuplet sub menu. To remove a
tuplet, use the Remove tuplet command from the same menu.
Tuplets will impact on the actual MIDI events, for example by changing the
original note position or length.

Phrase

Think of a musical phrase as being conceptually similar to a phrase in the English

language. Take the example of the old Irish song, Cockles and Mussels. The
words alive alive oh can be seen to make up a phrase. They belong together,
and the end of that phrase would be a suitable place for a very brief pause.
Likewise, the musical notes accompanying those words can be said to make up a
musical phrase.
To define a phrase, first select the notes
then choose Phrase, Make phrase from
the right-click context menu. Phrase.
Remove phrase can be used to remove
a phrase from a note selection.
A phrase is indicated by a curved line, as shown here.

Clef

Use this command to move a note or selection of notes from the treble clef to
the bass clef, or vice versa.

Articulation

Articulations are used to indicate how individual

notes within a passage are to be played for
example emphasised (Accent), brief and detached
(Staccato).
The options on this menu are shown on the right.
These are instructions only, articulations do not
affect the actual MIDI events.

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