Coda Playback in Sibelius 7
To create a coda structure that will be recognised and play back properly in Sibelius 7, you need to follow these instructions carefully:
1. Create the necessary bars at the location where the music for the Coda itself will go.
2. Select the barline just before the coda begins, and choose Double from Notations Tab > Common > Barline (because codas are normally preceded by double barlines, to show the end of the previous section):
3. Choose Layout Tab > Breaks > Split System. This creates a gap after the selected barline, which is a standard appearance for a coda ending that starts on a line that already contains other music. You can just add a system break here to start the Coda on the next line if you prefer of course too:
*Drag the barline at the start of the second half of the system in order to increase or decrease the gap if necessary (to remove the gap entirely, select the barline after the gap and choose Appearance Tab > Design and Position > Reset Position).
4. You must now add a text direction here informing the player (and the Sibelius Player!) what to do when they get to this double barline the first time through. This will usually be either a Dal segno (D.S.) (as shown in the image above) or a da capo (D.C.) directive, and these two are relevant for the example here. To clarify these:
* Dal Segno: The Italian term “dal segno” literally means “from the sign.” In most music you will see either D.S. al Fine (which means “go back to the sign and play the music again until you come to the bar marked Fine, then stop”) or D.S. al Coda (which means “go back to the
sign and play the music again until you come to the bar marked To Coda, then jump to the coda”).
* Da Capo: Similarly, “da capo” literally means “from the head,” i.e. the start of the song or piece. Just as with D.S., in most music you will either see D.C. al Fine or D.C. al Coda.
In music, these instructions always appear at the end of the bar from which you have to jump back (either to the sign or to the start of the piece). To input these instructions:
* Select the barline where the player has to jump back in the song
* Go to Text Tab > Styles > Style
* Choose Repeat (D.C./D.S./To Coda) from the Tempo category (It’s important to use this text style rather than Tempo because it automatically attaches to the end of the bar.):
* A flashing cursor appears. Now right-click the flashing cursor (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) to see the word menu, which includes the text you need – enter it in the score simply by clicking it in the menu. If you type the words yourself, be sure to use the correct case (i.e. type “Fine”, not “fine”, as the latter won’t play back correctly):
5. Create a segno (only applies if you’re using the D.S. al Coda directive shown above):
If the player has to jump back to a segno, you do of course need to put the segno symbol in the
right place. To do this:
* Select the note (or rest) at the start of the bar to which the player has to jump back:
* Choose Notations Tab > Symbols > Symbol, (or use shortcut ‘Z’)
* The segno symbol () is right at the top of the list, in the Common category. Click the segno,
and the segno is created in your score:
6. Create ‘To Coda’ or ‘Fine’ text:
The final special pieces of text used in repeat structures are Fine (which shows where the player should stop playing the song if they’ve previously jumped back from a D.S. or D.C. instruction),and To Coda (which shows where the player should jump forward to the coda, if they’ve previously jumped back from a D.S. al Coda or D.C. al Coda instruction).Both of these instructions occur at the end of bars, and are entered the same way as D.S. and D.C.– see Dal segno (D.S.) and da capo (D.C.) above – the sequence is included again below for convenience:
* Select the barline where the ‘To Coda’ or ‘Fine’ text will attach:
* Go to Text Tab > Styles > Style
* Choose Repeat (D.C./D.S./To Coda) from the Tempo category (It’s important to use this text style rather than Tempo because it automatically attaches to the end of the bar.):
* A flashing cursor appears. Now right-click the flashing cursor (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) to see the word menu, which includes the text you need (either ‘To Coda’ or ‘Fine’) – enter it in the score simply by clicking it in the menu. If you type the words yourself, be sure to use the correct case (i.e. type “Fine”, not “fine”, as the latter won’t play back correctly):
7. Create the word ‘CODA’ in the appropriate text style at the start of the Coda section:
Finally, you need to write the word CODA above the start of the coda section.
* Go to the first bar of the Coda, then hit Esc to make sure nothing is selected.
* Now choose Tempo from Text > Styles > Style (shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T or option-command-T) and click above the start of the coda. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) to see the word menu, which includes the coda symbol, then type the word CODA in the normal way:
*Note; it’s essential to get the text style right (Tempo text in this case), and to specifically type the word ‘Coda’ at this point. If you prefer, you can then hide this and add another text object to just show the symbol, but the word Coda in Tempo Text is what the Sibelius playback engine specifically looks for at this point – if it’s not there, playback will simply stop dead when it reaches the ‘To Coda’ mark, as it doesn’t know where to go from that point.
Video coming soon.