Virtual Singer

Shaped notes singing

(Solmization)

With Harmony/Melody, you can cause notes to be displayed according to several shaped note notations (Aiken, Swan, Walker, Funk, Johnson...). This notation makes each note pitch be displayed as a different head shape. This can be set up in the staff display mode (Staff>Staff display mode).

When Virtual Singer is installed, and a staff using the seven-shapes notation has a lyrics staff but no lyrics entered, the notes will be sung with their standard names: Do (Doh), Re (Ray), Mi (Mee), Fa (Fah), Sol (Sol), La (Lah), Si (See).

With four-shapes notation, the note names are: Fa Sol La Fa Sol La Mi.

There are several slightly different ways to sing shaped notes; Virtual Singer uses the most common in the U.S.

For example, some singers sing notes' accidentals, others do not.

When a shaped-note staff is included in a document, a little icon with a sharp symbol appears on the Virtual Singer palette. You can click on this symbol to toggle accidental singing.

Tip: If you leave the Shift key depressed when music starts playing, generated text appears, and remains linked to the staff. However, once this operation has been performed, the geerated text is fixed. Moving a note on the staff won't change the syllable to be sung.