Denemo is available from a variety of sources for different distributions. The latest stable release (tar.gz and .deb formats) is available for download from http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/denemo/. You can install Denemo from the Debian unstable repositories, using the command apt-get install denemo. Builds for Macintosh are available from the Gnu-Darwin project. The Denemo development branch can be downloaded using anonymous CVS or Git.

Anonymous Git checkout:

git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/denemo.git

Anonymous CVS checkout:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/denemo.git co -d denemo master

To build Denemo from a source package, the following dependent packages should be installed first. Remember to install the development packages as well (check your distribution for the specific package name):

	For Debian Users
	Type apt-cache showsrc denemo at a command line to determine what are the package names for Denemo dependencies. Type apt-get build-dep denemo to build the dependent files or use apt-get to install the packages individually by copying and pasting there names to the command line.

Denemo uses other applications for playback and printing. You may need to install the following applications, and edit the preferences menu to tell Denemo which you want it to use.

Denemo is available in a variety of formats. The current stable release is available either as source code or in binary format. The Development branch of Denemo is available as a GIT source tree.

Here are a few of the keyboard shortcuts that are commonly used in Denemo.

Here are a few of the mouse shortcuts that are commonly used in Denemo.

The unit of work in Denemo is a musical score, which can be saved in a single file (with .denemo suffix). This is represented on the screen by a "tab". If you have several tabs open at once they appear just above the music in the main window, and you can switch between them by clicking on the tab.

One score may contain several movements, which you can move between, insert and delete with the Movements menu. A movement is a continuous piece of music with titles etc.

Within a movement there are staffs (arranged vertically) and within the staffs Denemo Objects. These can be notes, chords and Denemo Directives (see the section called “Denemo Directives”). The notes and chords are displayed in conventional format (though not fully typeset). The Denemo Directives are used for most things that are not chords or notes: Metronome marks, repeat barlines etc are good examples. They can also be attached to chords, individual notes in a chord, to a staff as a whole and to the score as a whole. Each Denemo Directive carries its own display method. For example the Close Repeat barline appears as a Denemo Object in the converional music notation, while a Directive attached to a staff (e.g. Smaller Staff) may just print "Smaller Staff" over the staff. The directive then directs the LilyPond typesetter to make the staff smaller.

The command Edit Object gives access to editing Denemo Directives, which generally have their own edit methods. You can use the Print View to indicate the padding that you wish to apply to some item, or to show where you want to drag it to.

The titles of the current movement can be set. These titles should be left blank for movements after the first if they apply to the whole score (a LilyPond peculiarity). In the movement properties dialog you can set a LilyPond directive to cause a page break before the movement (see LilyPond docs, but briefly #f is no page break and #t (true) is page break). You can include any other directives here to apply to the movement as a whole.

Each Denemo file represents a piece of music which may consist of several “movements”, interspersed with headings. These might be different songs in a song book, or literally the movements in a classical sonata, or any other pieces of music that you want to print out in a book form with titles, page numbering and so on.

	Note
	When a file is loaded it opens with the final movement set as the current movement.

Use the File menu to perform global operations related to storing and retrieving from file systems. The File menu contains the following Menu Items:

Use the Edit menu to access common editing commands.

Use the View menu to toggle toolbars and palettes used with the mouse.

Use the Mode menu to switch modes or choose to use modelessly. The different modes are useful for different ways or phases of work.

With the standard keyboard shortcuts the modes work like this:

Choose whether to use external sources (Audio from the Mic input or MIDI) for Denemo. To use these you may need to review the settings in Edit->Prefs first.

Add commands to Denemo. Extra commands are available (those which not everyone will want) via this menu. More Commands gives commands shipped with Denemo, while My Commands gives ones that you have created locally. Note that the extra commands can also be loaded at the menu where you are looking for them (you right-click on a menu item, and if there are more commands for that menu the More Commands for this Menu item will show),

Use the Playback menu to start playback of your score. Denemo lets you hear your score, using an external MIDI player, or Csound.

Use the Help menu to get help using Denemo.

In the score properties dialog things that affect the whole piece can be set, as well as the titles of the current movement. In the score properties dialog you can include directives to apply to all the movements.

	Note
	When a file is loaded it opens with the final movement set as the current movement.

Dynamics, Slurs, Trills, Tempo Indications, and much more a found in the Markings menu

You can collect together your favorite ones, either by assigning shortcuts, or creating a menu of favorite commands which just invoke the action you use.

Procedure 4. Adding Markings using the Articulation palette

Some ornaments and articulations have been collected together as a palette.

Example 1. 

Denemo allows you to explore all the actions (insert/delete/edit/navigate...) using the Objects menu. So inserting notes can be found under Notes/Rests while inserting a Staff comes under Staffs/Voices.

Note

When you have found the action you need you can right click on the menu item to get an explanation of the action and to view/set a key press- a keyboard shortcut - to activate the action. If you are setting a lot of keyboard shortcuts for menu items you can check the Edit->Keyboard Setup->Allow Quick Shortcut Edits button, whereupon you can set the keyboard shortcut just by pressing the desired key while the menu item is selected. In addition you can customize the mouse actions to initiate commands, and set the cursor that will show while certain mouse conditions apply.

Denemo offers several ways of entering music: typing at the keyboard, playing in via a MIDI keyboard (controller), playing in acoustically using a microphone or choosing items from the menu system.

Using the menus for everything would be very slow, but next to each menu item is the keypress that you can use instead. If there is no keypress shown, and you want to use that item often, then right click on the menu item and you can set a key combination for that menu action. Right clicking is also useful for getting a description of what the menu action is.

Typing at the keyboard can be very fast, if you forget which keypress you need you can consult the menu system to find out. This method is good for touch typists.

For entering a lot of already written-out music, playing the music in via a MIDI keyboard or microphone can offer the fastest and most musical method.

One way to do this is to choose Rhythm entry mode and enter the music as pure rhythm, ignoring the note names. Each duration sounds its own pitch and length as you enter the durations. As you start each measure the bell will sound so that you can keep your eyes on the score you are copying without needing to look up and check that you haven't miss-typed. If you are a reading musician you will find that you tap in the rhythm rhythmically which helps to keep your place in the piece you are entering.

Once you have entered the rhythms you choose an external source from the Input menu, placing the cursor in the first measure, play the notes via MIDI or a microphone plugged into the mic input of your soundcard. The Audio Input button introduces a special entry mode where the pitches you play in will overlay the rhythm, appearing as blue notes. You can delete any wrong pitches using the usual delete keys, without deleting the rhythm. In fact if you have an "interloper" (an extra spurious note) you can delete it and the other pitches will all move along to their correct places.

Another method of playing music in acoustically doesn't involve entering the rhythm separately. For this select Input->Audio and then choose Insert instead of Overlays on the Pitch Recognition Panel that pops up. With Insert the sounded notes are entered as in the prevailing rhythm. The same applies if you have MIDI, only you just need to select Insert mode to enter the notes in that case. So by choosing a rhythm (e.g. half-note, quarter-note, or a custom rhythm pattern) and playing in the pitches you can enter the music into a blank score.

For MIDI input there are special modes (MIDI filters), such as Advance On Edit, which means you can simply play the pitches in and they are applied to the notes. If you are entering notes and durations at the same time using MIDI then the "AngryDelete" finger can be useful. With this filter on notes are entered normally until, but if you make a mistake and press the wrong note just hit the next one much louder and it will make the correction for you! MIDI filters are found under Mode->MIDI

The oldest Denemo keymaps are no longer supported. (see the section called “Adding Key/Mouse Shortcuts”). (Input via MIDI keyboard and Mic in is now available). Denemo also provides shortcuts for use with Numeric Keypad.

Score Setup

Denemo provides different ways to set up scores:

• Create template with the special name "default.denemo". If this is placed at the top level of your templates directory (that is ~/.denemo/templates/default.denemo), then it will be opened each time you start a new score.

• Create an init.denemo score with everything you want to start up with, and any actions you want to be taken before you begin. This will be opened when you first start Denemo (that is once per Denemo session). See the section called “Musical Score that Do Things!” for details on what actions you can have Denemo perform before you start.

• Use a Template

• Use shortcut keys to add staves and set attributes

• Use the Setup Wizard

• Use Menus

Using Templates to Setup Scores

Denemo comes with a few preinstalled templates. You can also design your own templates as well.

1. Navigate to File, New From Template, The Open dialog box appears.

2. Double click on a template name from the list of templates. The dialog box closes and the template appears.

	Note
	Adjust the clef, key and time signatures as needed.

Using Shortcuts to Setup Scores

Inserting attributes with shortcut keys is an effective way to quickly customize a template.

• Navigate to the Staff you want to change an attribute using one of these shortcuts:

  • Select Staffs/Voices-\>StaffDown to move down one staff

  • Select Staffs/Voices-\>StaffUp to move up one staff

Using Templates to Setup Scores

Denemo Comes with a wide range of prebuilt templates for standard vocal and instrumental scores. If you have a custom score setup you use over and over create a score layout using the Setup Wizard and save it as a template.

1. Click on File-\>New From Template, The Open Dialog box appears displaying the currently available Templates.

2. Double click on the template name in the righthand pane. The template loads in the Main Denemo Window.

   	Note
   	The currently active staff will be black. All other staves will be yellow, until they are active.

It is possible to add more commands to the set that Denemo ships with. Some of these are shipped with Denemo, but not added automatically so as to keep the menu sizes manageable. Generally, you right-click to find more menu items to add; once added you can set a keyboard/mouse shortcut and keep the command in your default setup.

You can also get Denemo to remember a frequently used sequence of actions - it can be installed in the menu system and given a keyboard shortcut just like any other command.

To do this you right-click and choose Show Scheme Script. (You do not have to understand what a Scheme Script is to use this!). In the little window that pops up set Record Scheme Script and then do the set of steps you wish Denemo to remember, using the menu items, not keyboard, for each step.

As a simple example, suppose you wanted a command to delete the next note (there are commands to delete the previous note and the current note, so why not?). You would enter some notes, put on Record Scheme Script and then from the menu Cursor select Cursor Right (to move on to the note to be deleted), and with the Notes/Rests->Delete->Delete Object menu item you would delete the note. (Each time you use a menu item you will see a new command entered into the Scheme window). Now turn off Record Scheme Script and you can experiment with your new command by pressing Execute in the Scheme Script window. To save this new command for future use, you right click on a menu item (in the menu where you would like the command to appear) and choose "Save Script as New Menu Item", this will ask you to make up a name for your new command as well as a label for the menu item etc.

You can save the command in your default sequence of commands (via Edit->Customize Commands...->Manage Command Set->Save as Default Command Set). If not you will be asked if you want to save your new commands when you exit. Otherwise you can re-load via the More->My Commands menu item.

If you are a programmer you will have guessed that you can edit the Scheme Script window to create any command you want. Even if you are not familiar with Scheme you may find that you can adapt other scripts to do what you want.

A good example of this is a script to insert a particular LilyPond directive into the score. This is all that many scripts do: it is easy to see the piece of LilyPond in the Scheme Script window, and by changing it you can create a new command.

For example, from the More menu select the command /menus/ObjectMenu/Instruments/Orchestral/RehearsalMark (the files are laid out in folders/directories in the same way as the menu system itself). Then choose Get Script from the right click menu. With this command its script is appended to the Scheme Script window. Here you can see the part that says

which is inserting the LilyPond directive "\mark \default" which inserts the default rehearsal mark. (The extra \s are needed to tell Scheme that you literally mean a \ sign). You can change this to insert any other LilyPond that you need - always doubling the \ signs. The you can save as a new menu item, or use Save Script to customize the script you started with.

More ambitious programmers will need to know all the commands available. Besides the complete Denemo command set (the list is given in the Command Management window) there are the following additional Scheme procedures defined.

The fields in d-DirectiveGet/Put have the following meanings

The command EditDirective can be used when the cursor is on a Denemo Directive object, or an object with a Denemo Directive attached to it. What happens then is determined by a script named after the "tag", or name of the directive. For example the command RehearsalMark creates a Directive with tag "RehearsalMark" and EditDirective runs a script called RehearsalMark.scm.

There is also a low-level editing dialog which is invoked if no editing script exists. This allows you to edit and delete a directive directly. The other directive editing commands are EditScoreDirective EditMovementDirective EditStaffDirective EditVoiceDirective EditClefDirective EditKeysigDirective EditTimesigDirective for directives attached to the relevant objects.

Edit scripts are kept in a directory actions/editscripts parallel with the directory actions/menus where the commands themselves are kept. They have available functions to enable editing of directives which are defined in actions//denemo.scm executed at startup. The functions and variables for script editing are

From version 0.7.8 we have the ability to edit the LilyPond output within Denemo. This approach immediately makes Denemo able to do many more things (e.g. multiple verses for songs) with the music still editable from within Denemo. The gallery of examples and the standard templates contain examples which you can use.

These can be used without knowing the LilyPond language (provided a suitable template or example file exists). Alternatively, with a general idea of how a LilyPond file works tweaks from the LilyPond documentation can be inserted into the LilyPond output and stored with the Denemo, leaving open the possibility of further editing of the notes within Denemo without the need to re-apply tweaks or keep separate LilyPond files.

Under the View menu is a Show LilyPond item which pops up a window with the LilyPond output in it. The text is interspersed with buttons which enable you to hide or show the various sections or to create custom versions. The text in bold can be altered and the alterations are kept in the Denemo file.

The two windows are kept in sync, so you can move back and forth between editing textually and editing in Denemo.

Right clicking on the text gives a menu for actions on the LilyPond text. There is one for moving the cursor to the LilyPond text for the current Denemo object. Moving the cursor in the text window with the arrow keys causes the Denemo window cursor to move in synchronism.

This menu also includes a Print command that operates on the visible LilyPond text in the window. This means you can open specific custom score blocks and print from them, or even make a temporary edit for just one print. If you save the program while a choice of custom scoreblocks is open then these are remembered. So when you reload and hit Print those score blocks will be printed.

Several custom scoreblocks can be kept, and by making the one(s) desired visible, the same Denemo file can be used to print a variety of things from the same music input. For example, a full score or a set of parts, or several voices on group of staffs or even a piano reduction. The custom scoreblocks can be are named using the comment on the first line (see the template Piano.denemo for an example).

The various Voices/Staffs for the different Movements are separated by buttons. These are labelled by enumerating the movements and staffs in order, so the first voice in the first movement has the music defined as "MvmntIVoiceIMusic" and so on. Within these music blocks you can insert arbitrary LilyPond text between notes, (the insertion points are marked by grey blocks) and the text inserted will appear as a LilyPond directives in the main Denemo window.

The main Denemo window also moves its cursor to correspond with where you are editing. (It should of course move the cursor immediately you click on a point in the music, but, as yet, it only moves the cursor when you press a key just before the note name - one of the arrow keys will do).

Custom score blocks are created by right-clicking on the Standard score block and selecting create custom score block. You can cut and paste another score block, or start from the text of the standard one. If you print a single part from all movements, you get the standard scoreblock for this and can add it to your custom score block so that a single print command prints, e.g. both a full score and parts. Using the \book {} block you can put these into separate files (stored in the folder .denemo in your home folder).

The music defined by MvmntIVoiceIMusic is then used in the score blocks at the end of the LilyPond window, by the expression \MvmntIVoiceIMusic. This means that the same music can be output in several different ways, so that the same Denemo file can contain custom score blocks to output the music as a Piano Score with several voices or separate parts, for example.

The definitions for MvmntIVoiceIMusic actually look like this

Where \MvmntIVoiceI is the actual block of notes you have written, while the other definitions hold the time signature, clef etc. By using these, you can print the same music with different clefs, still maintaining the ability to edit the notes in Denemo.

Note that the normal Denemo Print commands are still operate as they do if you never look at the LilyPond window. What happens is that if you select the Print Current Part menu item then this creates a tailored standard scoreblock for that part. However, if you use the File->Print command then it prints the first custom scoreblock that is open (visible) (or the standard scoreblock if you do not have any custom scoreblocks).

Note

Bugs: Clicking (as opposed to using the arrow keys) in the LilyPond text does not move the cursor in the Denemo window. Moving the text cursor in a lyric (etc.) does not move the Denemo cursor, so you cannot easily see where in the music it comes. Inserting LilyPond text after last note of a movement has to be done in Denemo. When you delete a LilyPond directive textually you have to move the cursor to start re-inserting it. LilyPond notes cannot be parsed back in (would be useful for importing music from arbitrary LilyPond files). LilyPond inserts at notes can only be completely deleted in the Denemo window - inserts are not merged.

This section describes how to use the original note entry mode to enter music from the keyboard.

Lets look at Figure 2, “Accidentals”. We see a c major scale and an arpeggio spread over two octaves. Type the letter 'c', the cursor jumps to the nearest c, (if it is in the wrong octave, type a comma [to go down] , or an apostrophe [to go up]) . We have reached middle c, we could start moving the cursor up note by note using the k key and then down note by note using the k key. A faster method however is to type the letter name of each note and moves the cursor to the exact pitch. This holds true for the notes of a chord or arpeggio, we jump to the note by typing the note name and adjust the octave with the command and apostrophe. This works if within an octave.

Note

Often you will want to enter notes that jump a large interval. To speed up note entry in such circumstances help Denemo determine the direction by moving one step in that direction using the left or right keys. If you have entered a note on middle c and want to enter a b one octave higher, hit the k key before entering the note. Another solution to big leaps would be to first type an apostrophe or comma to get into the intended octave and only then type the note name.

Now that we have an idea how to move around the staff we are ready to add note values. Note values are entered using the right hand. shows the rhythm entry keys as 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 . This yields the following: 0= a whole note, 1 = a half note, 2 = an quarter note,3= a eigth note,4 = a 16th note, 5 = a 32nd note, and 6 = a sixty fourth.

Figure 2. Accidentals

Accidentals are added using the plus and minus keys on the keyboard. Double sharps and flats are added with additional pluses and minuses as needed in any particular key signature.

Figure 2, “Accidentals” shows a chromatic scale starting on middle C and ending on middle C. To add accidentals while typing new notes do the following:

To add accidentals to existing notation do the following:

	Note
	For those familiar with LilyPond, Denemo handles accidentals in a more intuitive fashion. LilyPond requires you to explicitly name each note with an accidental even if it is part of the key signature, Denemo only requires an alteration if the accidental is part of the key signature, and it keeps the alteration for the entire measure.

To enter a chord choose a pitch and a rhythm for your base note. Next move the cursor to the next chord tone using the letter name for each note or the up and down keys, hit enter to add the note. To make chord entry easier there is a key binding also for the left hand (Ctrl t)as well. Type Enter to toggle chord tones on and off. This add tones or converts rests to a chord tones. Shift Enter removes tones and switches them to rests.

Figure 3. Chords

Figure 3, “Chords” three contains a series of chords. To enter chords:

	Note
	To alter chord tones chromatically, type the plus sign to sharpen the note at the cursor by one half-step and the minus sign to flatten the current note by a half step in the same manner you sharpen or flatten any pitch in Denemo

	Note
	Entering a chord when you are already at the end of the measure (the cursor turns red when this happens) may cause your next note to be added to the beginning of the next measure, or even create a next measure if one didn't already exist.

This toolbar can be used to enter notes using the mouse. It also shows what the prevailing duration is, that is what duration of note will be inserted when you press a note name key.

The standard keybinding for entering notes in a chord is the Enter (aka Return) key. This enters the note at the cursor position making a chord out of the current note/chord. This works in Edit and Insert mode. In Classic mode it works on preceding note as you are appending notes.

Denemo allow you to insert LilyPond directives between notes, prefixing and postfixing the individual notes of a chord or the whole chord itself and at the start of each staff in a score and at the start of each score. This means that the score can be tailored to a great extent without ever resorting to editing LilyPond files themselves. (Re-loading from an edited LilyPond file is generally unsuccessful).

To put a LilyPond directive on an individual note of a chord, put the cursor on that note and invoke

To put a LilyPond directive between chords, place the cursor at the insertion point, and invoke

When you have inserted a LilyPond directive a green bar is printed at that point below the staff. In addition if you specify some display text it will be shown. If the LilyPond inserted is text to be printed above staff the notation ^text can be used. Denemo will show this text above the staff. Likewise, _text will cause text to be printed under the staff. If you wish to annotate your music use %text, which Denemo will print, but LilyPond will not (a newline character is automatically inserted for you to ensure this happens). LilyPond attached to chords or notes shows the display text only. The status bar also shows some of the information.

Midi playback.  Denemo uses external midi player to play back your score. You can choose which program to use as follows. Go to the Playback menu and choosePlayback Properties and Externals tab. In the External Midi Player text box enter the name of your midi player. When you click on the Play item of the toobar the current movement is played starting from the measure with the cursor in it. If there is a selection then the measures containing the selection are played, otherwise play continues until you click stop or the movement ends. While playing, the music scrolls automatically so that you can watch and either bookmark or stop the music if you hear something you want to re-visit. You can make corrections to the synchronism by using the measure forwards or backwards keypresses (usually bound to Ctrl right/left arrow). This automatic scrolling is turned off if you explicitly set the range of measures in the Playback->Playback Properties dialog

In addition to permitting midi playback, Denemo permits playback using csound. Denemo will play your file with a .orc file. In the playback properties make sure the command: csound -d -W is set. Next use the navigation box to choose your .orc file. Denemo will soon come with a few demo .orc files which you will find in XXX. The csound module of Denemo is currently under construction. It is not tested for this release.

Denemo has a variety of features to speed editing. To ease correction of notes us Edit Mode. You can position the cursor on any note in a chord and change its pitch, accidental, octave using the keypresses assigned to the standard actions.

By saving a Denemo score with a script defined (in the script window) you can create music lessons, automatic midi player ... the possibilities are (literally) endless. When you open such a score, the script is run - it can take user input and manipulate the score, or do other actions as your fancy takes you.

There is a special score init.denemo that is run on startup. By editing this you can startup with whatever template and whatever actions you wish to be performed. If you set it to do something that quits Denemo, you may need to delete the file before using Denemo normally again. Your local init.denemo is stored in the directory .denemo/actions in your home directory.To create it put the script you want in the script window and use SaveAs selecting ~/.denemo/actions/init.denemo as your file to save to.

Piano staffs, and staff groups can be created using the context field of the score->properties dialog. You can set a piano staff within a staff group by setting successively the StartPiano and StartGroup contexts on a single staff, or more generally setting StartPiano, EndPiano on adjacent staffs within a staff group.

	Note
	It is possible to set silly combinations – some will not print anything. Check that you have a Start and End staff for each type and that they are not miss-matched.

Denemo permits the use of mutiple staves for part work, as well as enabling multiple voices on a single staff. To add voices to the current staff do the following:

.

Choose Other->Enter Lyrics.

	Note
	you must provide a lyric for each note.

The Extend Syllable and Center check boxes are not documented, but you can use double hyphen “–“ and double underscore “__” respectively for these (as described in the LilyPond documentation for syllables and extenders). You can also cut and paste lyrics into a specially written lyricmode block in the LilyPond window and use a custom score block to place it under the music. In this way multiple verses are possible.

To enter figures choose Other->Insert/Enter figured bass. There are some shortcuts that enable all the work to be done with the numeric keypad. A brief summary is given by right clicking the option. The conventions are described in the LilyPond docs.

To enter chord symbols choose Other->Insert/Enter chord symbols. A brief summary is given by right clicking the option. The conventions are described in the LilyPond docs.