Lime Aloud Quick Start Guide

Introduction

Lime is software that lets you read and write printed music notation. Lime Aloud gives the blind musician excellent access to Lime's rich set of notation editing features. With JAWS for Windows or other screen readers like NVDA installed, Lime Aloud provides a "talking score" feature that supplies the blind musician with verbal and musical cues that make it easy to use Lime independently and most productively. Note that real-time display of braille music while working in Lime is still only supported by the JAW screen reader.

Lime Aloud functions as a stand-alone product and also as a feature of the GOODFEEL Braille Music Translator software from Dancing Dots. In addition to the many verbal and musical cues Lime Aloud provides, GOODFEEL customers can read the equivalent braille music for the current measure on their electronic braille display. Of course, GOODFEEL can also convert the entire Lime file into the equivalent music braille and send it to your embosser to make a hardcopy document. Go to www.DancingDots.com and select the link for GOODFEEL for more information.

Using Lime with Lime Aloud, you can:

Overview

This document will get you started using Lime with Lime Aloud. For more details on Lime itself, you can read the Lime user manual and related addendum (see the Lime submenu on the Start menu). Even though these documents were written primarily for sighted people, they can help you learn more about how to use Lime and Lime Aloud. However, this document will be your best starting point and ongoing reference as you gain experience in using Lime.

Any references in the Lime manual to playing notes in the Piano Window correspond to playing notes on the PC keyboard (explained below) and most procedures that require mouse clicks should also be possible with keyboard commands.

How to Use this Guide

Our recommendation is to review each section of this guide to get started. Focus first on the section entitled "reading Music with Lime Aloud." Open any of the sample Lime files provided and use the navigation keystrokes described below to move through the piece note by note. You can keep this guide open and use ALT+TAB or WINDOWS KEY+TAB to move between Lime and the Lime Aloud Guide as you learn and practice new concepts.

Once you have the required skills for reading music, study the sections "Notes (adding and editing) and "Annotations (Adding and Editing). Then, if you have a need to write music using Lime with Lime Aloud, try following the directions in "Creating a Lime Score: a Step-by-Step Example" to learn how to create a Lime file of your own.

Also use this document as a reference when you cannot remember how to perform a particular task in Lime. For example, if you need to remember how to enter a fermata, open this guide and search for that term.

Reading Music with Lime Aloud

Structure of Lime Scores

Most likely, you will begin your time with Lime by reading music and not by writing it. But it is important to understand the structure of Lime documents in order to read them efficiently using the accessibility features of Lime Aloud.

Lime original purpose was to allow sighted musicians to create, revise, and print out their own compositions and arrangements. In fact, to this day most users of Lime are sighted. Dancing Dots collaborated with the original authors of Lime to add the accessibility features known as Lime Aloud as well as a related set of features to benefit performers with low vision called Lime Lighter. see www.dancingdots.com for more information on Lime Lighter.

Think of Lime as a kind of word processor for print music notation. Instead of entering letters, sentences, and paragraphs, in Lime we enter notes, measures, and sections of musical ideas. New Lime documents present an empty five-line musical staff on the screen. As you enter notes, they appear on their own particular line or space of the staff.

A Lime score consists of one or more parts. For example, your Lime file might contain the second clarinet part to Stars and Stripes Forever which only requires one staff. But a score for a string quartet would require 4 staves for violin 1, violin 2, viola, and cello.

You move horizontally through the currently highlighted part using the left and right arrow keys as described below. You move from part to part using the up and down arrows. If there is only one part with one voice, up and down arrow have no effect.

Each part in Lime may have one or more voices. That clarinet part described above has only one voice. But it is possible to notate 2 or more rhythmically independent voices on a single staff. For example, you might show both the soprano and alto voices together on a single staff. If the soprano and alto sing different pitches but with the same rhythmic values, you need not create a separate voice for each. But if, for example, sopranos sing 2 half-notes in a bar while the altos sing 4, you must add a second voice in order to notate the music properly.

In print music, the direction of stems attached to the notes which point up or down indicates to which voice they belong. To determine whether or not a particular voice is written on the same staff as the voice above or below it, type the letter c. The report you hear includes the number of the staff on which the current part or voice appears. If that number is equal to the staff number of the part above or below, then you know that those voices are notated on the same part or staff.

Under the Voice menu, you will find Lime's Parts and Voices dialog. You may use it to add, delete and rename parts and to stop and start voices within those parts.

Opening a Lime File

See the "GOODFEEL Examples" folder in the "Music" folder within your shared or public documents folder for a variety of sample Lime files. Also, you may find a shortcut on your Windows Desktop to a folder of Lime examples. Simply highlight the sample file and press ENTER. Lime should open automatically. Alternatively, run Lime and press CONTROL+O command to display the standard Windows Open dialog and select one of the sample files you will find in one of those folders.

Once you have opened a Lime file, press any of the navigation keys listed below to cause Lime to play the note or notes while you hear a verbal description of the selected note. GOODFEEL users with a braille display attached will also find a line showing the current braille music for the current measure. The braille cells related to the currently highlighted note "blink" on and off. A visual highlight indicates the currently highlighted note in the corresponding print notation on screen.

Setting MIDI Output in Lime

Note: If you do not hear notes play when you type any of the keys on the Home Row of your Qwerty keyboard, press ALT+H, O and check a different MIDI device under Hear | MIDI Output until you do hear something (test it by pressing "H" on the PC keyboard). Usually, you will find at least the Microsoft Wavetable software synth. You may need to close Lime and reopen it before it can communicate with the MIDI output device.

If you still do not hear notes sound when navigating through the score using the keystrokes listed below, make sure that the checkbox Play notes when navigating with arrow keys is checked in the Lime Aloud Preferences dialog (Edit menu | Preferences | Lime Aloud Preferences). You may also want to check the setting in that same dialog that says Play note when selecting note.

Lime's Navigation Keys

If you are reading this information using a screen reader, set its punctuation mode to "All" in order to ensure that your screen reader speaks all of the various punctuation symbols shown below.

If you are not using a U.S. keyboard, you may want to switch your Windows keyboard to the U.S. layout.

Use the following key combinations to hear a note in three presentations: The currently highlighted note itself; that note sounding with any other notes in the same part; and that note sounding with all notes from all other parts at the current bar and beat. Type the letter z to hear a verbal description of the currently highlighted note. Type the comma key to hear that note sound.

Note: On moving to next or previous note, if Lime Aloud does not announce a new value for bar and beat, it is understood that the current note has the same bar and beat value as the former note. That is, these notes sound as a chord.

Status Keys (bottom row on the PC keyboard)

The bottom row of the PC keyboard is reserved for keys that report current values for certain information.

Reading a Lime Score: a Step-by-Step Example

Follow this step-by-step example to apply the keystrokes listed above to reading the mct.lim sample Lime file of "My Country 'tis of Thee." This Lime file should have been installed with the Lime and Lime Aloud software. If you do not find it in a folder called "GOODFEEL Examples" in the "Music" folder in your "public Documents" folder, search your hard drive to locate it. To open, highlight the file name and press ENTER or, after starting Lime, press CONTROL+O and use the Windows File Open dialog to browse for it.

Remember that Lime displays print music on the screen. Many of the status keys of Lime Aloud give you important information about the layout of the print score.

This mct.lim Lime file is written on the grand staff. There are 2 staves, one for the notes to be played by the right hand and one for the left hand. Each staff contains 2 voices. Refer to the section in this document entitled "Structure of Lime Scores" for details of how Lime defines parts and voices.

Once the piece opens in Lime, press the letter b to confirm that you are positioned at bar 1, beat 1. Type v to confirm that you are focused on the voice called right hand 1. Type c to confirm that the current part is written in the treble clef and you are positioned on staff 1 of system 1 on page 1.

Use the keys on your PC numpad to navigate with Lime Aloud. If your PC has no numpad, you can use alternate keystrokes but you may find using the numpad much more intuitive.

Press numpad 9 (Page Up) to move ahead to bar 2. Press it again to move to start of bar 3.

Press numpad 7 (Home key) to move back by 1 bar to start of bar 2.

Press 5 on the numpad to hear a verbal description of the pitch, octave, and duration of the first note of bar 2 as the pitch of that note sounds. If you do not hear the pitch, refer to the section in this document entitled "Setting MIDI Output in Lime." Note that on many PC keyboards, there is no keystroke equivalent for pressing numpad 5. You may need to press the right arrow and left arrow keys in quick succession to achieve the same results as pressing numpad 5.

Now explore this piece to learn the names of other parts and voices by pressing the DOWN ARROW key. On the first press of the down arrow key you should hear the screen reader announce the name of the part or voice. In this case, that is "Right hand 2." That information is followed by the description of the highlighted note. In this case, C, 4, quarter dotted, tells us that the first note of bar 2 in the right hand 2 part is C in the fourth octave and its duration is a dotted quarter. If you hear "crotchet dotted" instead, the English variant setting in your Lime Aloud preferences has been set for "British." If you wish to change it: Edit menu | Preferences | Lime Aloud Preferences.

Press down arrow again to find the Left Hand 1 voice and press it once again to find the Left Hand 2 voice. Press it again and you will "wrap around" to the Right Hand 1 voice. That is, you are once again positioned on the first voice of the first staff of the current system. In print music, a system is a collection of one or more staves.

Lime Aloud allows you to hear the current note in three different presentations: the sound of the note itself; the sound of that note with any other notes on the current staff; and the sound of that note with any other notes on all staves. Try hearing the current pitch of E in all 3 presentations. First, press 5 on the numpad to hear just the note by itself. Now press the CONTROL key together with 5 on the numpad. You should hear the E of Right Hand 1 sound with the C of Right Hand 2.

Next, press the CONTROL key together with 8 on the numpad to hear the E sound with the C in Right Hand 2, the G in Left Hand 1 and the C below that in Left Hand 2.

To hear each of the notes sound individually, repeatedly press down arrow quickly. As you have heard, the screen reader describes the pitch, octave, and duration of the currently highlighted note regardless of which of the 3 presentations of the current note you request.

If you would rather not hear the verbal description, there are a couple of techniques to employ. First, type the comma key to hear the current note, the period key to hear all notes that sound with it on the current staff, and the slash key to hear the current note sound with any other notes on all staves. You will hear only the pitches without any speech.11:08 AM 1/26/2019

Conversely, type the letter z to hear only the verbal description of the current note without hearing its pitch.

You can tell Lime Aloud not to verbalize descriptions at all by entering its Silenzio mode. Press SHIFT+ESCAPE to toggle that mode. Now when you press 5 on the numpad or use any of the navigation keys to move through your Lime score, you will only hear the pitch or pitches sound without any verbal description. Remember to press SHIFT+ESCAPE again to disable Silenzio mode before continuing to follow the directions in this section. Note that Silenzio mode does not silence JAWS or other screen readers entirely. it only disables descriptions of notes while navigating. You can still type letters on the bottom row of the PC keyboard to hear status information.

Take some time to practice moving through your piece using the three presentation methods described above. You can move to the next note in the current part by pressing 6 on the numpad (right arrow key). Combine the CONTROL key with numpad 6 to move ahead to the next note in the current part or voice to hear it sound with any other notes on the current staff. Press CONTROL with numpad 9 (Page Up key) to move to the next note in the current part while it sounds with all notes in all staves at that bar and beat position.

Practice moving back in a similar way: numpad 4 (Left Arrow), CONTROL with numpad 4 (CONTROL+LEFT AROROW), and CONTRO with numpad 7 (CONTROL+HOME).

In this mct.lim example, each of the 3 presentations described above produces different results. But keep in mind that other pieces may not contain any other notes on the current staff other than the currently highlighted note. And there also may be no other notes sounding at that bar and beat position on other staves. And, of course, some Lime scores will only have a single staff. For example, a Lime file containing a flute part will probably sound only individual notes unless the part contains notes for, say, flute 1 and flute 2.

To determine whether the print score displays more than one voice on any staff, use the letter c (as in clef) to hear a report including the current staff number and system number. In this piece, press the up or down arrow until you are positioned on the Right Hand 1 voice. Press CONTROL+G to open the Go to Bar dialog and type the number 1, and then press ENTER. Type the letter b to confirm that you are positioned at bar, 1 beat 1. Type the letter c and you will hear that you are on staff1, system 1. Press down arrow and type the letter c once again. You will hear that the right hand 2 voice is also on staff 1, system 1. Press down arrow once again and type c. You will hear that this voice is written on staff 2 of system 1. Remember, this piece is written in print on a grand staff with 2 staves.

After you have explored mct.lim thoroughly, try applying what you have learned by opening and exploring some of the other examples in the GOODFEEL Examples folder or any other Lime files you may have. Try opening the lime file called beeth.lim to explore 9 bars of a Beethoven string quartet. Notice the difference in the results of using the keystrokes for the three presentation methods. Since each of the 4 instruments in this score only plays one note at a time, there is no difference between pressing numpad 5, for example, and CONTROL with numpad 5.

These examples are relatively short and occupy only a single page. Whenever you come to a page boundary in Lime, you can press the tab key to move to the top of the next page or SHIFT+TAB to move back to the previous page. Alternatively, use CONTROL with right bracket and CONTROL with left bracket.

When you want to write music with Lime and Lime Aloud, refer to the section in this document entitled "Creating a Lime Score: a Step-by-Step Example."

Notes (Adding and Editing)

There are two basic modes of operation in Lime: Note Entry and Note Edit. CONTROL+N toggles between Note Entry and Note Edit. Press the letter N at any time to hear the status of the current mode. When a Lime document is first opened, Lime will be in Note Edit mode. That is, typing any of the Home Row keys or playing notes on your MIDI keyboard will not alter your Lime piece.

Notes and rests can only be added in Note Entry mode. Attributes for the notes to be added can be specified in Note Entry mode. Any notes played with the PC keyboard or MIDI keyboard will cause notes to be added to your score only if you are in Note Entry mode.

Attributes for notes which have already been entered can only be changed in Note Edit mode. Any notes played in this mode will not be added to your score. In other words, with note edit mode in effect, you can practice on your MIDI musical keyboard or on the PC keyboard without revising your Lime score.

Entering Notes into the Score

First open a new file, a copy of a template file or any existing Lime file. To create a new file, select File | New which opens Lime's New Piece dialog. Move through its various fields by pressing the TAB key to enter your preferences for time signature, print score layout, title, part name and type of part. Select OK button. Press CONTROL+K to set Key Signature. Alternatively, press CONTROL+O and open one of the Lime template files found in the Templates folder in the "Music" folder in your "Public Documents" or "Shared" documents. Of course, you can also enter notes into any existing Lime file.

Before entering notes in a new or existing score, move to the bar and beat at which you want the first note to appear. Press the letter B to confirm your position. Press V to hear the name of the current voice or part.

There are three ways to enter notes directly into your Lime document.

Entering Notes Using Only the PC Keyboard

Entering Notes Using Both the PC Keyboard and Your MIDI Keyboard

Entering Notes in Tempo Using Lime's Record Dialog

If you hear no pitch sound when you press one of the keys on the Home Row of your computer keyboard such as the letter h, see Setting MIDI Output.

Revising the Score

To change a note, first confirm your location by pressing the letter b to hear current bar and beat, pressing numpad 5 or the letter z. Enter Note Entry mode with CONTROL+N. Lime will expect you to enter a note of the same duration as the current note. For example, if that note is a quarter-note, Lime will expect you to enter another quarter-note. If you need a note of a different duration, type one of the keys on the numbers row to choose a different duration. Remember that Lime will replace subsequent existing notes if you choose a longer duration and insert rests after the new note if you have chosen a shorter duration.

By default, the delete key remove an individual note and replaces it with an equivalent rest. If the note to be deleted sounds with other notes at the current bar and beat, those notes will remain after you delete the highlighted note. If there are no more notes in the chord after the deletion, a rest of equivalent duration replaces the note. Accordingly, Lime makes certain that the current measure has the required number of beats indicated in the prevailing time signature.

Enable Duration Edits (Not for Beginners)

With Enable Duration Edits checked (Edit menu), note durations can be changed while in Note Edit mode. In addition, CONTROL+Delete will behave like Delete but when the last note of a chord is removed the measure will be shorter by the amount of time indicated by the duration of the note. Enable Duration Edits is not recommended for beginners because it is too easy to unintentionally create a measure with too few or too many beats with reference to the prevailing time signature. Be sure to uncheck this entry in the Edit menu after you have made any necessary changes.

In general, you may find that it is quicker and simpler to replace existing material with the desired new material rather than deleting the unwanted notes first and then entering the new note or notes.

Annotations (Adding and Editing)

Annotations in Lime include all text and lines (such as graphic crescendos and lines of continuation). Every annotation must be associated with a note that properly indicates the position of that annotation in the piece. For example, an initial metronomic indication should be associated with the first note of the first part of the piece.

Lime provides "Assistants" to facilitate the entry of many types of annotations. It uses graphical characters from special fonts called Marl and Tufa to show certain musical symbols. Lime provides assistant dialogs for entering most but not all of these symbols. See Text Assistant under the Annotations menu.

If there is no assistant for the annotation you want to enter, you must know the format or syntax of that annotation so you can enter it correctly in the edit field. Use Text or Text Category under the Annotations menu.

in order to edit or enter some of these symbols, you may need to know special backslash codes. See the file called annotations.lim (use shortcut on Lime submenu on the Start menu) for examples of uncommon or hard-to-enter annotations.

How to Enter Annotations

How to Edit Annotations

You must first select the annotation. Press ALT+LEFT ARROW or ALT+RIGHT ARROW to move to and select annotations in the current part. Type the letter x to repeat the contents of the selected annotation. Press ENTER to edit the text of the annotation. The cursor is positioned after the last character in the text. You may sometimes need to press numpad 5 to say the current character as you move through the text of the edit field.

Whether you revise the text or not, you must press the ESCAPE key to close the edit field. Pressing ENTER only moves you to a new line within the annotation text.

Status Keys (Bottom row on the PC keyboard)

Note Attributes

Choose Duration (PC keyboard's Numbers Row (top row of PC keyboard))

When in Note Entry mode, the following keys alter the duration of the next note or notes to be entered.

Note: Press any of the duration keys above repeatedly to cycle through dotted, double-dotted, triple-dotted and un-dotted states for the selected duration. For example, first press of '2' selects rhythm of half note. Second consecutive press selects dotted half; next press selects a double-dotted half; and next press selects a triple-dotted half. Press again to cycle back to un-dotted half. Repeat press of ` to add a single dot to a 64TH note. Press again to remove dot. It is not possible to add an augmentation dot to a 128TH note.

Adding or Removing Accidentals, Articulations and Other Attributes

When in Note Entry mode, the following keys affect the next note or notes you play. When in Note Edit mode, these keys effect the currently highlighted or selected notes. In that mode, pressing the keys below will add the associated symbol but, if it is already present, pressing that key will remove it.

Note: When not in Note Entry Mode, pressing the dash, equals, and backslash keys alters the enharmonic spelling of the current note.

Shifted Numbers Row Keys

Musical Keyboard on the PC Keyboard (Home row and row above on PC keyboard)

Use the Home Row keys to play the "white key" notes: C or DO major scale by pressing the A through the semicolon key. Black keys are on the row above the Home Row in the positions traditionally relative to the white notes on a piano keyboard. T is F-sharp, Y is G-sharp, etc.

If you call notes by their letter names, it may help you to think of the letters F and G as producing those same pitches. These keys can serve as "anchor" keys to orient you.

'R' enters a rest of the currently selected duration. Set duration with ` (grave), ~ (tilde), 1 through 6 keys on the Numbers Row.

Shifting Octave (Also see Hear Menu | Keyboard Shift)

Selection Commands (See Edit menu | Select All Submenu)

Playback and Record Commands

Special Controls

Keystrokes by Key

Shifted PC keyboard's Numbers Row (top row of PC keyboard)

PC keyboard Numbers Row (top row of PC keyboard)

When in Note Entry mode, the following keys affect the next note or notes you play.

Home Row and Row Above on PC Keyboard

Musical F (FA) and G (SOL) are produced by pressing the letters F and G on the computer (PC) keyboard. The keys to play the C or DO major scale run from A through the semicolon key. Black keys are on the row above the Home Row in the positions relative to the white notes on a piano keyboard. T is F-sharp, Y is G-sharp, etc. 'R' enters a rest of the currently selected rhythm (1 through 6 keys on Numbers Row).

Octave

Bottom Row on the PC Keyboard (Status Keys)

Control Keys and Special Keys

Arrow Keys

NumPad Keys

See Navigation Keys.

Creating a Lime Score: a Step-by-Step Example

This section uses the step-by-step example from Lime's user manual revised to show how to accomplish the same tasks using Lime Aloud. Some descriptions of the screen layout are provided for Lime Aloud users to facilitate interaction with sighted musicians who use Lime.

Instructions for opening and editing a simple piece follow. We will use the first few bars of “Lullaby of Birdland” (B. Y. Forster, George Shearing) shown below. You will want to read this manual as you sit at your computer, so you can follow the step-by-step instructions given here.

For this example we will use a Stationery Pad or Template. A Stationery Pad or Template is a document that has all the parameters set (such as number of voices, layout, titles), but contains no music. If you would like to create a piece from scratch, see "Creating a New Piece" in Lime's manual.

This example assumes Lime is running; if Lime is not running, launch the program and then go on.

Open the File

Open the “Templates folder” or “Stationery folder” by pressing CONTROL+O. Press SHIFT+TAB and then use the down arrow to find the file “First Piece.” Press ENTER to open and a blank page with a title, staff, key, and blank measures will appear on your screen.

A Template is simply a starting point for a new piece. You may want to make some initial changes to accommodate the piece you are working on. In this example we will enter a melody in the key of A-flat. To insert a key signature of four flats, press ALT+LEFT ARROW until Lime Aloud says "Reached start of piece". Now press CONTROL+K to open the Key Signature dialog which you can also display via Key Signature under the Symbol menu. Specify four in the Number of Sharps of Flats field and then press tab. Press DOWN ARROW to select Flats. Press ENTER to choose OK.

It is possible to create your own template copies of layouts that you use often. If, for example, you plan to do a series of melodies in A-flat major, you can save this newly modified file as “Single Voice-A-flat Major” and use it as a template. Many users find it useful to set up a layout with all the voices, instrument names, staff arrangements, format, numbering format, etc., but no music. This file is then a template or “stationery pad” to be used over and over, but saved as a separate file after music has been entered. To change an existing file into a template use properties to make the file “read only.”

Note Entry

Before entering notes you must identify the edit point or insertion point. Press the letter b to confirm that you are at beat 1 of bar 1. In this example we will begin entering notes in the first measure. Press CONTROL+N. You should hear: "Note entry mode, whole". CONTROL+N is a shortcut for choosing Note Entry (under the Voice menu). A flashing box should appear around the rest. This is called a “note-entry cursor.”

Sighted users see the “Piano Window.” At the bottom of the screen. It shows an image of a piano keyboard, plus a rest bar and other symbols. Sighted people can enter notes into the Lime score by clicking on the keys of this piano with the mouse. Lime Aloud users will use the keyboard alternative by typing keys on the Home Row (white keys) and certain keys in the row above the Home Row (black keys). If you do have an electronic musical (MIDI) keyboard you will find it much easier to enter notes or chords into your score. But, for the purposes of this exercise, use the PC keyboard.

Before you type the desired key to enter the first pitch choose the rhythmic duration by pressing the number 4 on the Numbers Row of your PC's keyboard. For this example we will use an eighth note. (Typing 4 again will select a dotted eighth rhythm; a third press sets up for a doubly dotted eighth; and another press for a triple-dotted eighth note.)

Lime assigns the pitch of Middle C or Middle DO to the A key on the Home Row of your PC keyboard. Accordingly, S plays RE, D sounds MI, F plays FA, and so on. The pitches that correspond to the black keys on the piano keyboard are assigned to the Qwerty keys in the positions relative to the keys of the Home Row that trigger the pitches for the white keys. Therefore, W plays DO-sharp, E plays RE-Sharp, etc.

Middle C is also called fourth octave C or, in the shorthand of Lime Aloud, just C4. The first note of Lullaby of Birdland is actually C5. Press the letter K to enter the pitch C5.

Almost immediately, your screen display will show your eighth note C, followed by an eighth rest and three more beats of rest and then three more measures of rest. (GOODFEEL users will see the equivalent music braille on their attached braille display). The note-entry cursor moves to the eighth rest on the second half of beat 1 and Lime Aloud says "Beat 1.5".

Now you can add the rest of the notes for Lullaby of Birdland by typing in the remaining notes. We will give you keystroke-by-keystroke instructions on how to do so below. First, here are a few general things to remember.

You can replace a wrong note by moving to it using the LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW and just playing the correct note. Caution: pay attention to the duration of the note to be entered. Type the letter n to confirm. For example, if you replace a half note with a quarter note, then you will also get a quarter rest. Similarly, if you replace a quarter note with a half note, then the quarter note and the quarter note after it will be replaced.

If you want to delete a single note, highlight the note by moving to it using the cursor arrow keys and then hit the Delete key. It is possible to select a group of notes and delete them (see Note Group Select below), but if you intend to replace the notes with new music it is just as fast or faster to enter the new music over the existing notes.

In this little sample piece we don't have any chords. You can play chords by pressing on multiple Qwerty keys to enter all the notes in the chord Of course, it is much easier to use a MIDI keyboard if you have one.

Our brief excerpt of Lullaby of Birdland starts out with 5 eighth notes. At this point, you have already entered the first eighth note of C5 on the downbeat of bar 1. Lime Aloud has moved to beat 1.5 and is ready for the next note.

Press the letter N to confirm that you are still in Note Entry Mode. If you are not, press CONTROL+N Press the number 4 on the Numbers Row until you hear "Eighth". This action will ensure that you will enter simple eighth notes into the score.

Press the following keys. Notice how Lime Aloud moves to the next available beat and announces it for you.

It is now time to enter a quarter note F. You will press the number 3 on the Numbers Row before pressing the F key to enter the pitch for this quarter note. After you enter the quarter note remember to press the 4 key again before you go on to enter the next eighth note.

The next pitch in the example is an eighth note D which is tied to a quarter. There are two methods for adding ties, slurs, dots, accents, etc.: selecting the symbol before entering the note, or using the Edit Cursor to add the marking after entering the notes. We will demonstrate the first method here.

To enter the tied D eighth, first press the number 9 key. Lime Aloud should say: "Note Entry Mode, Eighth tie to next". If it reports a different rhythm, press the number 4 on the Numbers Row until you hear "Note Entry Mode, Eighth". Press the letter S to enter the D-natural. It is not necessary to explicitly select the natural symbol. Lime will enter the pitch with the correct accidental. (Only use the accidental symbols to force an accidental other than the default for the prevailing key signature, or to change to an enharmonic pitch such as A-flat instead of G-sharp.)

The tie is deselected automatically, but you must press the number 3 to choose the quarter-note symbol before entering the next quarter note D-natural. Enter the D-natural quarter now by typing the letter S.

Now Lime Aloud should have told you that you are on beat 2 of bar 2. To confirm, press the B key for a report. If you are not positioned on that beat and bar, press the LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW cursor keys until Lime Aloud reports that you are at that place in the score. Remember, when you are first learning to use Lime Aloud with Lime, it may be simpler to open a new version of this First Piece template and start again instead of trying to clean up a file that has too many mistakes in it!

The next note is F eighth so press 4 on the Numbers Row and then type the letter F. Enter the E-natural quarter now by typing a 3 and then the letter D.

Next comes an eight rest. To enter this eighth rest, first select an eighth duration by typing the number 4. Then type the letter R to insert the eighth rest. Type the letter S to add a final D-Natural eighth to this measure.

Edit Cursor

Now that you have finished entering all the music, you can return to the “edit cursor” by pressing CONTROL+N. To confirm that you are no longer in Note Entry mode, press the letter N. Lime Aloud should say: "Not in Note Entry Mode". In other words, you are now using Lime's Edit Cursor. With this cursor you cannot enter new notes, but you can change the appearance of your piece by adding slurs, ties, dots, keys, clefs, time signatures, etc. Most editing features that are available with the edit cursor are also available with the note entry cursor.

Position the edit cursor on the quarter note F in bar 1 by pressing the LEFT ARROW key until you hear "Beat 3.5. Type an ampersand (SHIFT+7) to add an accent symbol to this note.

Note Group Select

Lime provides a “Note Group Select” feature that allows you to select and manipulate a group of notes. Normally, just one note or rest is selected, and it flashes continually. When Note Group Select is used, a whole set of notes is selected; the selected notes are highlighted. Go to the beginning of the piece, by pressing the numpad 7 key until you reach bar 1 or by pressing CONTROL+G, typing 1 and pressing ENTER. Select all the notes in the first measure by holding down the SHIFT key as you press the RIGHT ARROW key.

After you select the final note in the series and let go of the SHIFT key, the notes are highlighted and the music symbol at the bottom left of the screen will be gray. In this release of Lime Aloud, one can only select contiguous notes by the method described above. See the Select All submenu under the Edit menu for more options.

After you have selected a group of notes, type the number 0 to add slurs to these notes. Note that the final note in the series is included in the slur. This is because a slur extends from the selected note to the next note. For this reason, when adding a slur, you must not include in the selection the last note to be contained under a slur.

Type a left paren (SHIFT+9) to make all the selected notes staccato. Select No Stem, Stem up, or Stem down under the Stem menu. The keyboard shortcut to open the Stem menu is ALT+S. A selected group of notes can also be deleted by hitting the Delete key. To end Note Group Select, mouse users can just click on a single note in the music. But Lime Aloud, users must press the ESCAPE key. Pressing ESCAPE here will highlight the first note, of the group that had been selected and end Note Group Select. Finally, to get rid of the staccato dots you just added, Note Group Select the same notes, and click on the staccato symbol to remove it. You can also use Undo (under the Edit menu) to remove the markings. In fact, you can continue choosing Undo to revert all the way back to the beginning of the editing session.

Piano Window Shading and Menu Check Marks

The following description of the screen layout is for the information of Lime Aloud users to facilitate communication with sighted colleagues, teachers or students: Lime illustrates which edits have been applied to each note with a dark shading in the Piano Window and a check mark in the menus. Click on just one of the notes you have just changed then one of the notes that has not been changed and notice how the shading in the Piano Window changes. Click on the Stem menu and notice the check marks on each of the notes. When a group of notes are selected and there is a mix of edit options (in the example above some notes have ties, some do not, some have accents, others do not), the Piano Window item is shaded, not dark. The menu item has a grayed check rather than a regular check.

If you need to change the length of individual notes you should reenter the music using the correct note lengths. If you select Enable Duration Edits (under the Edit menu), it is possible to change the value of the note indicated by the edit cursor (including tuplets) by pressing the numbers 1 through 6 on the Numbers Row. This operation is available for correcting errors in scanned music or imported MIDI files. It should not be used when doing standard copy since the length of the measure is changed along with the note length. Conflicting measure sizes will result, particularly in multiple voice works, if this option is used incorrectly.

If you select Enable Duration Edits, the Kill symbol is also used to correct errors in scanned music. It removes unwanted notes without preserving the size of the measure. Likewise, Kill should be used with care or conflicting measure sizes will result. Normally the Delete key is used to replace notes with rests.

Adding Lyrics

Move to the first note of the piece by pressing the 7 key on the numpad multiple times until Lime Aloud says "First note in piece" or by using Lime's Go to Bar function (ALT+P, B).

FYI to Lime Aloud users: There are four symbols at the left of the Piano Window. The top symbol is for entering music, the bottom three are for various kinds of annotations: text (and other symbols found in fonts), lines, and curves.

To begin typing lyrics for each note, type ALT+A, T, Y. Lime Aloud should say: "Annotation, Edit".

Now type the word “Lull-” (include the hyphen). It will appear underneath the first note. Then press Tab to move to the next note. Type "a-", press Tab, then type "by". Continue to type the lyrics using Tab to move to each new note and typing each part of the lyric underneath each note. There are two useful features already selected in the Annotation, Style menu that will make entering lyrics easier. Center Hyphen centers the hyphen if it is the last character in an annotation. (So type “la-“ and “Bird-” for this example.) And Extend Underline replaces an underscore, if it is the last character in the annotation, with a line. (So type “that’s_” and “I_” under the eighth note D and E.)

If you make a mistake, select the incorrect lyric by pressing ALT with the left or right arrow and then the Delete key, and re-type your text. Then press the ESCAPE key to enter the new text. Pressing ENTER will just move you to the next lyric line for verse 2. You can also select Previous or Next Annotation (under the Annotation menu) to move through annotations for modification.

Once an annotation is selected you can hit Enter or Return to position the cursor at the end of the annotation for editing. You can also select a section of the text after it has been selected to delete or edit. When you have finished press the Esc key. For more details on lyrics, see the description of Annotation Mode and Annotation menus in the Lime manual.

If you have two lines of lyrics, you can type the first line for all the notes on the page (using Tab between notes); then you can click on the first note, and type the second line for all the notes on the page.

Some users find it easier to use the space bar to advance to the next annotation when entering lyrics. There is an option (Options under the Edit menu) that will allow you to swap the function of the tab key and space bar. With this option engaged the space bar will advance to the next note and the tab key will type a space.

To enter chord symbols, navigate to the note for which you wish to enter a chord symbol and then type ALT+A, X, S. Choosing Chord Symbol has no apparent effect on the annotation when they are entered. But chords that have this designation will automatically transpose with the music if you change keys.

To create each chord use Annotation menu) and choose Chord Symbol. ALT+A, X, S is the keyboard equivalent. Use Tab to move to the next note where a new chord symbol is used. It is possible to type in chord symbols without the Text Assistant. Special characters such as sharps and flats can be entered using the backslash convention described in the sections that follow.

It is important to remember that each annotation is assigned to a note. In this example, each lyric and each chord symbol should be attached to the note with which it corresponds. This allows Lime to maintain the relationship between the annotation and the note if the note is moved to another location, such as the next system.

You can also change existing annotations; for example the title or tempo markings in a template file. For example, to change the title text, press ALT+LEFT ARROW until you hear Lime Aloud say: "\bFirst Piece". Type ALT+A, X, T to open the Title Assistant Dialog. Type your new title: "Lullaby of Birdland" and press the TAB key to move to the "Delete Existing Title" checkbox. Press SPACE BAR to check it and press ENTER. Now you have replaced the old title with your new one. You can also use Clear Annotation (under the Edit menu) and reenter the title from scratch.

Copy, Paste, and Multiple Paste

Lime has a variety of copy and paste capabilities. To copy notes select the notes you want to copy with Note Group Select, and use Copy Music (under the Edit menu). Alternatively, you can click on the first note you want to copy and use Copy Measures… (under the Edit menu). After you use Copy Music or Copy Measures.… click elsewhere in the piece and use Paste Music (under the Edit menu).

You can use the numpad 7 and 9 keys to move backward or forward by a measure. ALT+P, B to enter a specific bar number; CONTROL+LEFT BRACKET and CONTROL+RIGHT BRACKET to move back and forth by a page; CONTROL+G to move to a specific page. It is important to understand that Lime is page-oriented. If you are navigating through the Lime page and you hear "Last note on page", you must press CONTROL+RIGHT BRACKET or some other scrolling command to move to the next measure of music.

Lime also allows you to copy and paste annotations. Select the annotation by pressing ALT+LEFT ARROW or ALT+RIGHT ARROW. Then use CONTROL+C or Copy Annotation (under the Edit menu). Now you can move to a new place in the piece and use CONTROL+V or Paste Annotation (under the Edit menu). “Multiple Paste:” select several notes using Note Group Select and then use Paste Annotation. Your annotation will automatically be pasted to all the notes that are selected. Remember that Lime Aloud only allows you to group select contiguous groups of notes.

Experiment

After learning the basics of Lime you will probably want to experiment. Most of the menu items, such as Hear, Print, Key Signature, etc., are self-explanatory. Open each one and read the options. If a menu item is unclear, you will want to read about them in the manual. You might also glance through the Hints and Examples section and try to reproduce some of those examples. It will be constructive to experiment for a while before you transcribe your first piece. As you gain experience and become more familiar with the Lime environment, your speed of music transcription will increase dramatically.

When you begin working on your first serious transcription, use Save and Save As (under the File menu) frequently. This way you will be able to use Revert (under the File menu) to go back to the most recently saved version of your piece if you make changes you do not like. It is always a good idea to Save just before an operation that may drastically change the look of the piece (such as Systems changes, Layout, or Part Extraction).

Part Extraction

Once you have completed a score, you can print out the score using Print (under the File menu). If you also want to print out individual parts, Lime has a mechanism called “notation contexts” to help you. Your piece starts off with only one notation context, the score notation context. Use Part Extraction… (under the Context menu) to create more notation contexts: one notation context for printing each individual part. The notation contexts keep track of printing information for the score and parts.

It is best to complete the score before you create the notation contexts for the parts. After you make all the parts notation contexts, changes you make in one notation context will be reflected in the other notation contexts. For example, if you correct a note in the flute notation context, the correction will automatically appear in the score notation context as well.

Shortcut Keys, MIDI entry.

It is much faster to use keyboard shortcuts and a MIDI piano. Keyboard equivalents take a little time to learn, but it is a worthwhile investment in the long run. There is a complete list of shortcuts at the back of the manual. Most shortcuts can be customized. Here are a few.

List of Shortcuts using the CONTROL Key

The following list of shortcuts are defined in Lime. Generally, they improve your work flow by allowing you to execute with a single keystroke what would otherwise require 2 or more keystrokes. For example, you can press CONTROL+H to immediately open Lime's Hear dialog instead of pressing INSERT+H to open the Hear menu and then typing another letter h to choose the "Hear" entry.

If you cannot remember a particular shortcut you can always read through individual menu entries by pressing the ALT key and then using any of the 4 cursor arrow keys to browse menu items. Any entry with an associated shortcut will display that key combination. For example, if you press ALT+H, your screen reader should say: "Hear...CONTROL+H".

Note that some of the shortcuts listed below include the SHIFT key. Some of them have no corresponding entries in Lime's menus since they are part of Lime Aloud and Lime Lighter functionality. Remember to set your screen reader to read all punctuation in order to hear all characters contained in the following list.

Annotation Backslash Codes

Special codes are needed to enter and/or edit some musical symbols in Lime. Most of these musical symbols are available through the Annotation menu's Text Assistant but some of the less common symbols are not. Also, accidentals for ornaments must be specified with the backslash codes for accidentals. Lime Aloud will speak these codes and JAWS will spell them out while cursoring through an annotation.

Backslash Codes in Functional Order

Backslash Codes in Alphabetical Order

Copyright 2005-2019 Dancing Dots

Contact Information

Dancing Dots
1754 Quarry Lane
Suite DD
Phoenixville, PA 19460-4620
Voice: [+1] 610-783-6692, Fax: 610 500-5072
Send an E-mail to Dancing Dots