Now load up one of the snappets that you encountered in Rhythm-X #2. You are going to transpose its contents

Bringing up the “Transpose” dialogue

1. Click “Back” to the main toolbar
2. Click “Transpose…” on the main toolbar. The dialogue appears.
3. In the box next to the label “Enter number of semitones (can be negative)“, type 5 , followed by Enter. We are going to make the whole tune 5 semitones higher in step 5.
4. The three transpose buttons at the bottom of the dialogue become enabled. (If they don’t, try typing the number again).
5. Click “Transpose All”. Visualisation is turned off (e.g Any track linked to the active track is unlinked). Everything (apart from drums) are transposed. Scale shapes, chords etc, will all shift up the neck (towards the body)
6. Start playback to have a listen.
7. Click on visual feedback dropdown and select “Link track to active layer”. Click any onset on the “gtr chord” track
8. Start playback to have a listen and see the chords have all shifted.
9. Stop playback.
10. Bring up the “Transpose ” dialogue again, and this time enter -3, followed by Enter.
11. Have a listen. Stop playback.

The intention here is to present visual reminders of scale or chord shapes during playback, suitably positioned at the different parts of the music, that remain visible as long as you want. The shape could be anything, a scale, an edited scale, with notes deleted, a scale fragment.

Here is the snappet that you encountered in Rhythm-X #2. You are going to add a track to hold memos.

1. Click “Back” to go to the main toolbar.
2. On the main toolbar, click “New Track”.
3. Name the track “memo track” and click “Create”
4. Drag the horizontal line above the toolbar up towards the “guitar” to show more of this track.
5. Click “Define Part” for this track, and set it for 4/4, 8 bars, whole notes, and click “Create part”
6. Enter the toolkit, move the anchor to the 7th fret on the 4th string.
7. Click the “scales families” dropdown and choose “basic scales“.
8. Click on “Scale” and scroll down to click on “Minor pentatonic”
9. Switch to “Refine Part(s)” toolbar.
10. Click “Memo” and click on the 2nd onset of the memo track. An “H” appears at that onset, representing a memo.
11. Click “Join right”. Click on the 2nd onset three times, making it a much longer duration.
12. Click the “scales families” dropdown and choose “major scale and modes” .
13. Choose “Aeolian” from “Scale”
14. Click the “Layouts” dropdown and choose “draw box around anchor“.
15. Left-drag out a rectangle starting at the 7th fret on the 4th string, and extending to the 12th fret on the 6th string. This is a scale fragment.
16. Click “Memo” and click on the 3rd onset of the memo track.
17. Click “Join right”. Click on the 5th onset twice, making it a longer duration.
18. Click “Back” to the main toolbar.
19. Click “Link track to active layer” and click any onset of the memo track.
20. Start playback. Each memo will appear for as long as its duration lasts. Stop playback.

This is excellent for experimenting with the placement of notes within the rhythm. This can make a big difference in what the listener feels.  Time displacement shifts the melody earlier or later, by an amount you define.

Here is the snappet that you encountered in Rhythm-X #2. You are going to time-displace the guitar melody. Make sure you’re not in the Toolkit still.

1. Click “Time displace...” at the far right of the “Refine part” toolbar.
2. Use the dropdown next to “Divided by” and select “1“. Combined with the “Note value” of quarter note, this means that the displacement will shift the part by some number of quarter notes. DIfferent shift amounts can be set up using these two dropdowns.
3. Change the “Shift count” drop down to “2“. The onsets in the part will shift by 2 quarter notes
4. Click on the button “Early“. The shift, when applied, moves the onsets towards the front of the part, so their contents sound earlier in time than previously.
5. Click the “Displace” button to activate the time displacement command
6. Click any onset in the “gtr melody” part. The shift is applied.
7. Have a listen.
8. (Type CTL-Z to undo the shift).  This only has affect if playback has stopped.
9. The command remains active until you close the dialogue, or choose another Refine part command.

If you clicked on “wrap”, then the onsets that “fall off” the end of the part (with shift late) enter the part at the beginning. With shift early, onsets that “fall off” the beginning of the part enter the part at the end.