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ASME Conference

2011

Sibelius: Worksheets & Flashcards

Katie Wardrobe

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Starting out
To create your own custom worksheets, start a new score (File > New). In the Manuscript list, choose
treble staff (or bass staff) and then work through the remaining steps to set up your score.

Escape, Escape, Escape!

When working in Sibelius its VERY IMPORTANT to press the Escape key twice when youve completed any
action:

Pressing Escape the first time exits whatever mode youre in (note entry mode, text editing mode
etc)

Pressing Escape the second time deselects whatever it was you were working on (the note, or the
text object etc)

So, if you get into the habit of pressing Escape early on youll be a much happier Sibelius user!

Intervals or Name the Note Questions

Splitting the bars up:

Make sure there are 4 bars in the line by selecting the barline at the end of bar 4 and pressing Enter

Next, select the barline between the 1st and 2nd bars and go to Layout > Break > Split System to
create the break

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Repeat for the remaining bars in that line

Add a semibreve into each bar

Centralising the notes:

Select all four bars (click in the first bar and then shift-click on
the last bar) and then go to Window > Properties

Click on the General tab and then increase the x value with
the up arrow until the notes are in a central position

Adding a line for the answers

Press L to open the Lines menu

Select the plain horizontal line from the Staff lines box on the left

Click in the score underneath the first bar. You

will need to adjust the position and length of the line

Repeat with the remaining bars

No barlines or time signature

In this example, students need to add in the barlines and time signature. When creating the question in
Sibelius, youll need to put in both the time signature and barlines first so that Sibelius groups the notes
correctly. Then you can hide them in your score so that they dont print out.

For a 4-bar rhythm, first make sure there are only 4 bars in the line by selecting the barline at the
end of bar 4 and pressing Enter

Add a time signature by pressing T to access the Time signature window. Select 4/4 and be sure to
uncheck the Allow cautionary box. Click OK (you mouse pointer will turn blue) and you can click at
the beginning of the line to add the time signature into the score

Create a rhythm or melody that fills the 4 bars

Next, hide the time signature: click on it and then go to Edit > Hide or Show > Hide

Create invisible barlines by selecting each one and going to Create > Barline > Invisible

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Short questions (indenting staves)

If you are working with a melody or rhythm which is only a couple of bars long, it can look strange if it is
stretched across the width of a page. You can indent the left and right ends of the stave to make the bars
shorter.

Create your short rhythm or melody first. Select the barline at the end of the question and press
Enter

To indent the system on the left side, click at the very left hand end of
the staff. A small purple handle will appear just next to the treble clef
and you can click and drag it to the right

To indent the right end, you need to locate the secret hidden handle (!)
which is level with the middle line of the staff and positioned a few
millimetres after the staff ends. Once youve located it, you can drag the
right end in

Stick notation (no stave lines; no clef)

Create the rhythm

Because this is a rhythmic example, I created my rhythm using only the F space

Remove the treble (or bass) clef
Press Escape to make sure you have nothing selected

Press Q to open the Clefs menu

Choose the null clef option and click OK

Click in the score on top of the current clef

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Remove the Stave Lines

Press Escape to make sure nothing is selected

Go to Create > Other > Instrument Change (Sibelius 5 and 6)

In the Choose from box, select All instruments. In the

Family box, select Others and in the Instrument box, select
No instrument (barlines shown). Uncheck the two boxes at
the bottom of the window (see image)

Click OK (the window will close and your mouse pointer will
be blue)

Click just before the time signature. The staves lines will
disappear apart from a small section under the time
signature

Remove residual stave lines

Click and drag the vertical blue box to the left to completely
remove the stave lines (if you cant see the blue box, go to View >
Hidden Objects)

Stick notation without noteheads

Select the bar (or multiple bars) containing the notes you want to change

Go to Window > Properties

Click on the Notes tab

Select Notehead 25 from the drop-down menu

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Empty stave

Select the barline at the end of the bar and press Enter

Hide the semibreve rest by selecting it and going to Edit > Hide or Show > Hide

Hide the time signature in the same way: select it and go to Edit > Hide or Show > Hide

Note names inside noteheads

Select the bar or bars containing the notes

Go to Plug-ins > Other > Add note names to noteheads

Note names above/below the staff (automatically!)

Select the bar or bars containing the notes

Go to Plug-ins > Text > Add note names

Under Text style, choose Lyrics for note names below the staff
(as pictured above). If youd prefer the note name above the
staff, choose Technique

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Text for Questions

Add in the text that tells students what to do:

Go to Create > Text > Other staff text > Plain text (or Boxed text). Your mouse will turn blue

Click in the score where youd like the question to appear and type the instructions. Dont worry
about exact positioning you can adjust that afterwards

Press Escape once youre finished. To reposition the text, just drag it

Using Musical Examples in Word (or Powerpoint, IWB software)

Sibelius makes it easy to select a small (or large) part of your score and copy and paste it into another
program such as Word or Powerpoint as a graphic. There are many uses for this including:

Citing musical examples in an essay

Creating rhythmic or melodic flashcards

Including musical examples in Powerpoint (or Keynote) presentations or IWB software

Step by step:
Create your musical examples/questions in Sibelius and then type Alt+G
(Opt+G on Mac). The mouse pointer will turn into a crosshair and you can
drag a box around the bar, phrase or single note youd like to copy to Word

Type Ctrl+C (C) to copy it, switch to Word and then type Ctrl+V (V) to
paste. The music will appear in your Word document where the cursor was.

Adding images (graphics)

Sibelius is able to import images in the TIFF format. If your image is another format such as JPEG or PNG
youll need to convert it first (do a Google search for online image converters).

Its quite simple to add images to your worksheets and scores:
Select an object (ie. a note, rest or bar) in your score where you want the graphic to appear

Go to Create > Graphic

Select the image and click Open

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Kodaly tip: melody with lyrics and auto sol-fa

Input the notes of the melody

Lyrics: select the first note and press Ctrl+L (Cmd+L)

Type the lyrics: use a space between words or a hyphen between syllables

Sol-fa: select all bars (click on first bar and shift-click on last bar) and then go to Plugins > Text > Add
Tonic Solfa

For sol-fa that appears above the stave, click on the drop-down box next to Main Text Style and
choose Lyrics above staff (Sibelius fills in the sol-fa for you)

Kodaly tip: 2 ta time signature

Setup your score with a regular time signature. We will end up hiding this time signature and
placing a fake one over the top

Hide the time signature by selecting it and going to Edit > Hide or Show > Hide

Well create the fake 2-ta time signature in two steps.

Step 1: Create the 2

Go to Create > Text > Other Staff Text > Time signatures (one staff only)

Click at the beginning of the stave and type 2

Press Escape

Step 2: Create the crotchet (ta)

Open the Symbols menu by pressing Z

Select the crotchet with the downward pointing stem

(see image) and click OK

Click in the score, just below the number 2 you

created

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If youre using Sibelius 6, the Magnetic Layout feature will prevent you from placing the crotchet
close to the number 2. Turn Magnetic Layout off for this object by right-clicking on the crotchet and
going to Magnetic Layout > Off

You can then fine-tune the position of the 2 and the crotchet by using the arrow keys

Kodaly tip: Creating zaa

Create your song with a normal crotchet rest

Hide the rest by selecting it and going to Edit > Hide or Show > Hide

Press Escape

Go to Create > Text > Other staff text > Plain text and type the letter Z on the stave (dont worry
about the size or position at this stage)

Press Escape once (the Z should be still selected - blue)

Go to Window > Properties and click on the Text tab

Change the font to Arial and increase the font size (to around 15)

Fine-tune the position of the Z with the arrow keys

Removing Empty (Extra) Bars

Method 1

Click on the first bar you want to delete

Shift+click on the last bar you want to delete. You should have a blue box around all the bars

Go to Edit > Delete bars

A message will appear asking whether you want to delete these bars from the score. Click Yes

Method 2

Hold down the Ctrl () key and click on the first bar you want to delete. A double purple line
should appear around the bar

Ctrl+Shift+click (Cmd+Shift+click) on the last bar you want

to delete

Press Delete

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Formatting Tips For Worksheets

In terms of formatting, a worksheet works differently to a regular score. The staves and systems in a regular
score are usually evenly-spaced on every page and Sibelius has some excellent quick ways to achieve a
uniform layout.
Tip: in a regular score, DO NOT drag the staves to create more room in your score. Formatting adjustments
are best made in the House Styles > Engraving Rules > Staves menu.

In a worksheet you often need varying amounts of space between each question and this is the exception
to the Do not drag staves rule (see Tip above).

By default, Sibelius justifies the staves on a page that is, it spreads them out evenly from top to bottom of
the page. Because you often need complete control over moving staves in a worksheet or test paper, you
may like to turn off justification:

Go to House Style > Engraving Rules and click on Staves in the column on the left

Where it says justify staves when page is at least 65% full, change that number to 100%

As soon as you click OK, the staves on your page may squish up a little (its a good idea to turn off
justification when you first start the worksheet), but you now have the freedom to move them up
or down as you wish

Fine-tuning adjustments
If you only need to make more room for a couple of questions on your page, you may like to try this tip:

Move a single stave freely amongst the other staves on the page by holding down shift while you
drag the stave up or down

The Worksheet Creator

Sibeliuss Worksheet Creator is a little-known gold mine of over 1700 ready-made worksheets, quizzes,
songs, rounds, posters and lots more. Here are some of my favourite things:

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01 Elements of Music

01 Notes & Rests > 01 Note Duration > 01 Match

Notes with Names

03 Timbre/Tone Colour > 01 Match Pictures with

Instruments Names > 01 Match Common
Instruments

07 Intervals, Chords, Progressions and Cadences

08 Score Analysis

09 Conducting > 04 Conduct the beat in 4

03 Selected Repertoire

04 Songs for Teaching

05 Rounds and Canons

06 Poetry for Lyrics

04 Reference

01 Encyclopaedia of Scales and Modes > 01 Useful Scale Libraries

02 Chord Library

05 Posters, Flashcards and Games

01 Posters

Tutorial Videos
Ive made a few Sibelius tutorial videos which can be found on Youtube. If youd like to be informed when
new videos are made, you can sign up to my monthly newsletter, or subscribe to the Youtube channel. The
videos include:

Melodic flashcards

Rhythmic flashcards

Short worksheet questions (intervals questions)

Copy and paste to Word

How to create drum parts

Click on this link to visit my Youtube channel: http://midnightmusic.com.au/youtube

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Contact me (Im happy to answer questions )

Contact me regarding
training enquiries or presentations for your school/network/event

music technology-related questions

Email:

katie@midnightmusic.com.au

Mobile:

0412 403 704

Website:

www.midnightmusic.com.au

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