Crescendo/Decrescendo
A crescendo may be notated either as a “hairpin” shape or as the word cresc. or crescendo. The hairpin can be created with a Smart Shape crescendo. If you want the word cresc., you can use the Expression tool.
In all cases, the process for creating crescendo or decrescendo markings is nearly identical.
- Choose the Smart Shape tool
. The Smart Shape palette appears.
- Choose the Crescendo tool
or Decrescendo tool 
.
- Position the cursor in the measure where you want the marking to begin so that the cursor arrow points to the staff to which you’re attaching it. This is particularly important when you’re working in orchestral scores; if you accidentally attach a Smart Shape to the wrong staff, it won’t appear in the correct staff when the parts are extracted.
- Double-click; on the second click, hold the button down and drag to the right until the hairpin is the correct length. You can also drag left to create a decrescendo.
If the hairpin is already selected, it displays diamond editing handles; if so, skip to the last two steps.
- Choose the Smart Shape tool . The Smart Shape palette appears.
- Click the handle of the shape you want to modify. The shape displays handles:
- Drag the appropriate handle to change the width, angle, or height of the hairpin. If you do any dragging while pressing shift, the mouse will be “constrained” to horizontal or vertical movements.
- Press DELETE to remove the selected shape.
You can use any text you want in a text expression: “crescendo,” “diminuendo,” and so on.
- Choose the Expression tool
.
- Click on, above, or below the note or measure to which you want to attach the marking. The Expression Selection dialog box appears. If the crescendo or decrescendo marking already appears in the list, double-click it and click OK (or press RETURN). You return to the score.
- Click Create. The Text Expression Designer dialog box appears.
- Type the text for your text expression (Crescendo, Diminuendo, etc.). Click Set Font to choose a type style.
- Click OK (or press RETURN). The mark will appear in the score.
