User:Sluffs

My Editing

I'm adding scales and exercises. I will be replacing previous uploads with new versions in an attempt to standardise the images. The scales in particular need attention. The original staff-tab layout I chose was too crowded which only became noticeable when I tried to create a scale starting from the low E string where upon I discovered that the note from the staff "touched" the top line of the tab. This was the standard layout of the staff-tab given by the Sibelius software that I will be changing to a custom layout. I'll give details of any custom settings I've used here.

Software Used

• Sibelius
• Microsoft Photo Editor
• Photoimpact

All scales, exercises and chord diagrams are first created in Sibelius. The image is then exported as a bmp graphics file which is then opened in Photo Editor. Microsoft Photo Editor is a program that accompanies Microsofts Office Suite though on my version it is not installed by default and I have to do a custom install. Microsoft Photo Editor is a very basic photo editor and I use this for cutting the images to the clipboard. I then paste the cut image as an object onto a template in Ulead Photoimpact (mid-range graphics program designed for home-users rather than professionals). Though Photoshop is the industry standard for graphics; I find that Ulead Photoimpact suffices for most tasks.

It must be noted that Sibelius is a full-featured score designer aimed at the publishing market. It is used extensively throughout the UK education system. My simple use of its features belie what is essentially a flexible and powerful scoring program that is capable of producing full orchestral scores at a professional standard for printed books.

Photoimpact

Grid Settings:

• Horizontal spacing = 10
• Vertical spacing = 10

I don't use the Align (Center Both) on the Object menu of Photoimpact for chord diagrams. I found that in using a 150px square as the template led to a problem with entering text; like fingering or fret numbers which looked squashed. To allow the text to fit in I have had to pull the object (all the chord diagrams are cut out of the bmp file I exported from Sibelius and then pasted as an object onto the 150px template) slightly off-center. At the grid settings above and with a zoom of 600%, I chose to align the object "4 squares up and 4 squares from the left". I may look into increasing the chord diagrams to 175px or 200px at a later date so as to be able to "truly" center the object using the Center Both command on the Object menu of Photoimpact.

Sibelius

I've set a value of 6.5 in the Engraving Rules (Sibelius software) for the spaces between the staff-tab variant I use (Sibelius has a default of 5.5). This removed the problem of the low E in standard notation "touching" the top-line of the tab when I created scales using the low E.

For exercises with just Tab; the space bwtween "Systems" (Sibelius terminology for distinguishing between Tab and Staff) has been increased to 11.5 (default is 9.5) in the Engraving Rules. This is to allow Chord letters to be entered. This does mean that the Italian Wikibook editors may be reluctant to use some of exercises due to the use of the English system. The Italian music system is called "solfeggio". An example of the type of exericse I create with Tab and english Chord letters is to be found in the Rock section: Exercise 1.

Exercises

All the exercises I create are designed to show some point of technique or use. I read and write music to a reasonable level which has allowed me to avoid plagarism or referencing other authors when designing these exercises. The Jazz exercises came from jamming along to Jazz recordings and then taking a few of the newly acquired chord shapes I had picked up and forming them into a jazzy-blues exercise for myself. I was listening to "All Blues" by Miles Davis at the time. Playing along to recorded music is something I've been doing for decades. Always puzzles me when I meet other guitarists who don't regularly play along to recorded music. You gain so much from doing it. I spent a long time with a video of a live concert by Hendrix. I noticed that he was always incredibly accurate with his "bends". So I set out to grab his "accuracy" by watching and playing along to "Red House" over and over again. After doing that I would like to propose that Hendrix have the title of "wild man of rock" changed to "incredibly accurate at bending and wailing". My exercises reflect my musical journey and I hope they may prove useful.