Re: [Denemo-devel] manual for simple end users?

[Richard Shann]

On Sat, 2008-08-23 at 09:13 +0100, Richard Shann wrote:
> You need to download and install the recent Denemo release - the program
> has improved so much. All suggestions below are for the latest version
> 0.7.9.
> 
> On Fri, 2008-08-22 at 18:34 -0700, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> > hi,
> > 
> > I am a volunteer supporting a public middle school in San Francisco,
> > California.  We have a music teacher who will be using GNU Denemo over
> > an LDAP'd network of machines that are all basically 512 MB of RAM and
> > running Hardy Xubuntu on P4s ranging from 1.2 ghz chips up to 3 ghz
> > chips.  So first let me start by thanking you for GNU Denemo!  It is a
> > remarkable program that allows kids to compose their own music, and
> > 85% of the kids who attend school here are so poor that they qualify
> > for free lunches, which in the United States is really saying
> > something.  You really have to be poor to qualify for free lunches in
> > the US! 
> > 
> > Now to my question: I am wondering if there is a manual other than
> > this manual:
> > 
> > http://www.denemo.org/doc/denemo-manual.html
> > 
> > and the manual that comes with Denemo:
> > 
> > file:///usr/share/denemo//manual/denemo-manual.html#id2450442
> No, it needs re-writing, I have just quickly hacked it to be not
> completely wrong.
> > 
> > Specifically, I am having trouble using the a through g keys plus the
> > y u i o p keys to make whole, half [etc] notes.  
> You don't say what trouble you are having!
Oh - I think what you are saying is that you haven't found that
keypresses 0 thru 7 that insert whole-note thru 128th notes. In the
current version you would never have this problem because every keypress
is documented via the menu system. So you think Note->insert
duration->eighth-note and just follow the menu items to that point where
you can press to get an eighth note and/or read the shortcut to do it.
So that manual is not really needed for that.
> > Pressing a space bar does produce a quarter note, and typing a through
> > g does take the cursor to the nearest appropriate place on the scale.
> Right - 
> that is the old Classic Mode, and that would happen in Edit mode in the
> current version, unless your cursor was on a note, in which case it
> would edit the note to the new value.
> 
> For learning music you would want to set view->"Note and Rest entry".
> This opens a toolbar with the notes and rests as buttons.
> This lets people plonk quarter-notes etc down using the mouse - the
> keyboard shortcuts are for speed of entry.
> I have just added scripting in Scheme, so that it will be possible to
> write whole educational programs to add to the program. You could write
> a script to test musical knowledge, e.g. the script presents notes at
> random and you have to type the note name - it deletes it and presents
> another. The script could test your speed  of response and issue you
> with a score - even play you a victory song at the end. It will be
> trivial to write.
I've been buzzing with this idea since I wrote this. A couple of years
ago I took Finale Notepad into a school and put up the tune Happy
Birthday with some notes at the wrong pitch. The kids had to correct it,
testing there aural abilities.
You could write a script that loaded a piece of music, randomly changed
one or two notes a little bit and then checked that the kids had
corrected it correctly...
Of course, the piece of music could be a piece of their choice - latest
pop song, what have you...

Richard