Playing the Score

The playback window contains various controls for playing the score. These controls can be manipulated by keystrokes, however these keystrokes are not provided by Sibelius itself.

For these keystrokes to work properly you must make sure that the playback window is open. You should also close any tool windows which are not needed because they can stop JAWS from reaching the controls it needs to operate. It is recommended that you only have the playback window, properties window and keypad windows open.

These windows can all be opened and closed from the window menu however, there are also keystrokes which can open and close them. These keystrokes are shown both in the window menu itself, and also listed in the list of JAWS hotkeys, which you can read by pressing JAWSKey+H in the score window.

Playing and the playback line

A black line moves across the score as it is playing, showing which notes are being played. Although this is a purely visual aid, it is a useful way to describe how the playback features of Sibelius work.

Every time that playback stops, JAWS announces the position of the playback line. It is spoken in hours, minutes, seconds and frames; however there is also a keystroke which speaks the playback line in bars and beats.

Instant Replay

Whenever you stop playback the playback line will stop moving. You then have two options for starting playback again. The first is to press the space bar. When you do this the playback line will begin to move again and the score will continue to play.

The other option is to use Control+Space. When you use this keystroke, the playback line will jump back to the place where it was before you last played the score, and begin moving from that point. An example will help to illustrate this.

  1. Open a score.
  2. Press Control+F6 to hear the playback position. Let’s call this Position 1.
  3. Press Space to start playback.
  4. After a few seconds press Space again.
  5. Playback will stop and JAWS will announce the new position of the playback line. Let’s call this Position 2.
  6. Press Space again and playback will continue from Position 2.
  7. Let the score play for a few more seconds and press Space again
  8. JAWS will announce the new position of the playback line. Let’s call this position 3.
  9. Now press Control+Space.
  10. This time playback will not continue from Position 3. Instead it will go back to position 2.

The replay feature is extremely useful if you want to listen to the same few notes over and over again. If you find where those notes begin and keep pressing Control+Space without stopping playback then those notes will be played repeatedly.

Rewinding and Fast Forwarding

When you hold down the right bracket key the score will begin to play more and more quickly until, after a few seconds, it is playing at full fast forwarding speed. When you release this key, the score will begin playing at its normal speed again.

Unfortunately, you can't hear any music when rewinding but the playback line is moving backwards through the score, slowly at first and then more quickly, just as it does when fast forwarding. When you release the rewind key, the score will begin playing again.

You can also use these keys when the score is not playing. When you do this, the playback line moves. If you use these keys in this way, then JAWS will report the playback position as soon as you release the key, so you'll know where the score will begin playing from without needing to actually play the score.

You can also tap the [ and ] keys to move the playback line backwards or forwards in small steps. There is no point in doing this during playback because the steps are so small that you may as well just listen to the score.

Jumping to the start and end of the score

If you press Ctrl+Left Bracket while the score is playing, then playback will jump to the start of the score. If you press this keystroke while the score is not playing, then the playback line moves, so that the score will play from the start when you next press space.

Moving to the end of the score isn't as simple as moving to the start. This is because when the end of the score is reached, Sibelius will stop playback. For this reason, pressing Ctrl+Right Bracket when the score is playing will have no affect. However, if you press Ctrl+Right Bracket when the score is not playing, then the playback line will move to the end of the score.

If you want to listen to the last few bars of the score then you can do the following:

  1. Press Ctrl+Right Bracket, but only when the score is not playing.
  2. Hold the Left Bracket key down for a few seconds to move the playback line to the left.
  3. Press Space to play the end of the score.

Moving by one frame at a time

This feature is really designed for those working with video files. When a video is loaded into the score it is shown in the video window however, you do not need this window to be open to listen to its soundtrack.

By default, Sibelius shows the time format in hours, minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds, for example:
3 minutes 32.5 seconds.

However, you can change the time format. For example, if you're writing music for a film shot at 25 frames a second, you can set the time to be shown in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. You can also choose how many frames a second there should be, which is necessary because different film formats use different frame rates. There is even an option to show the time in hundredths of a second. To learn more read Working with video.

Two keystrokes are set aside for moving backwards and forwards by one frame at a time. It doesn’t matter if a video is loaded or not, these keystrokes will still move the playback line. Also, if the time format is set to seconds only, or tenths of seconds, then a frame will be the smallest measurement that the time code has available.

As with the other keystrokes which move the playback line, JAWS will speak its new position in both hours, minutes, seconds and frames, and in bars and beats.

Hanging notes

Notes may sometimes hang, in other words, keep playing after they should have stopped. This may happen whilst the score is playing or after you have stopped playback. If this should happen, then you can press Shift+O to briefly stop every note at once. If the score is playing, then playback will immediately continue as though nothing had happened.

Changing Playback Tempo

You can change the speed that the score plays back at without actually changing the tempo which is written in the score. In other words, you can make the score playback at 90 beats per minute whilst the tempo in the score reads 60 beats per minute. Sighted users do this by moving a slider in the playback window and Sibelius Access gives you keystrokes to do the same thing.

The tempo slider is really showing what percentage of the original tempo the score will play back at. The slowest playback tempo is 10% of the original, and the fastest is 175%. When the tempo slider is set to 100%, then the score will playback at the same tempo which is indicated in the score.

Each time you change the playback tempo, JAWS will announce the new tempo. There is also a keystroke that will report the playback tempo at any time.

Metronome

The metronome will play a beat as the score is playing, or whenever you use flexi-time input. The metronome can be controlled fully from the mixer window, however there is a button in the playback window that switches the metronome on or off.