Lyrics Tips from Blog Easy input To input lyrics in Sibelius, there are several methods: Type them syllable by syllable, hitting - (hyphen) to break a word, and Space to start a new word, hitting - or Space multiple times to input a melisma Paste them syllable by syllable from a text file, which doesn’t even need to be hyphenated Flow them into the score from a text file in a single operation These last two methods are unique to Sibelius. Pasting lyrics syllable by syllable is really simple. First, select the text in your text editor or word processor, and copy it to the clipboard, normally done via Edit > Copy (typical shortcut Ctrl+C on Windows or Command-C on Mac) In Sibelius, select the note on which you want the lyrics to begin, and type Ctrl+L on Windows or Command-L on Mac to start lyrics input Now type Ctrl+V on Windows or Command-V on Mac to paste the first syllable, and hit the shortcut again and again to paste further syllables. When you come to a melisma, simply hit Space or - (hyphen) to move on to the next note. Even easier is flowing the lyrics automatically into the score from a text file. First, select the passage of notes into which you want to flow the music. If the passage contains melismas (places where the same word or syllable is sung to multiple notes), make sure that they are marked with slurs before you begin. Next, choose Create > Text > Lyrics > From Text File. In the dialog that appears, click Browse to choose the text file, then click OK. Moments later, the lyrics are flowed into the score in a single operation, automatically hyphenated and with all the melismas marked. Only Sibelius contains these time-saving lyric input techniques with automatic hyphenation. And they always appear on screen exactly as they are going to print out! Adding extra lines of lyrics Think of your singers before you decide to do this! Continuing a series of posts about lyrics in Sibelius, today we’re going to talk about adding extra lines of lyrics. Each line of lyrics uses its own text style. This has lots of advantages, such as allowing you to change the font or point size in one operation, making it easy to select all the lyrics in a particular line by filtering for that text style, and so on. But there are only text styles for five lines of lyrics set up by default. In most situations, if you have more than five lines of lyrics, you should probably consider putting the lyrics at the end of the score in a separate block rather than putting them under the notes, but if you’re determined to give your singers eye-strain, you can of course add extra lines of lyrics, like this: Choose House Style > Edit Text Styles Select Lyrics line 5 from the list of text styles, and click New When asked if you’re sure you want to create a new text style on this, click Yes In the dialog that appears, on the General page, change the name to Lyrics line 6 and click OK, then Close Now choose House Style > Default Positions With the Text styles radio button selected at the top left of the dialog, choose the new Lyrics line 6 text style from the list on the left-hand side. In the Creating with keyboard group of options, change Vertical position relative to staff from 14 spaces to 16.5 spaces. (Each line of lyrics should be 2.5 spaces below the last by default.) Click OK. Now you can create your sixth line of lyrics by choosing Create > Text > Lyrics > Lyrics line 6. But do consider whether you really need more than five lines of lyrics under the notes. There’s normally a better, easier to read way to present the music and lyrics. One final tip: if you want to add nicely-aligned verse numbers to the start of each verse of lyrics in a single step, use Plug-ins > Text > Add Verse Numbers. Traditional lyrics beaming and slurs on melismas Continuing a series of posts looking at lyrics in Sibelius, today I’m going to talk about a couple of plug-ins that can help you achieve a traditional appearance for the lyrics in your scores. Beaming In vocal music published until the middle of the last century, it was customary for beams to be broken for every change of syllable or word, like this: Nowadays, common practice for lyrics is that the beaming should follow the normal rules for beaming, on the grounds that beaming shows the metrical grouping of the music, and singers have as much need of this information as vocalists. The same passage above would look like this using modern beaming conventions: Sibelius produces the modern convention by default, but if you want to use the old-fashioned beaming in your score, it’s easy to do by choosing Plug-ins > Text > Traditional Lyrics Beaming. Which convention should you follow? It’s up to you, but most singers find the modern convention much easier to read. Melismas A different convention for lyrics was to use slurs to indicate melismas, where a single syllable or word spans multiple notes, like this: Again, one of Sibelius’s supplied plug-ins makes it very easy to achieve this: simply choose Plug-ins > Text > Add Slurs to Lyrics and Sibelius will take care of it all for you.