Music is formatted in Scripta depending on a task’s quality profile. Keep reading to learn the different formatting standards.
Tasks with Standard quality profiles
Tasks with standard quality profiles do not need lyrics transcribed. For all music, please write (MUSIC PLAYS) and use a chevron as the speaker label.
Tasks with High and Very High quality profiles
Lyrics
Tasks with High and Very High quality profiles must have lyrics transcribed. Google, YouTube and Shazam are great tools to use when researching music. It is important to verify any pieces of music that you hear. For example, lyrics can be searched on Google, and then verified by listening to the song on YouTube. Follow the below formatting rule when transacting lyrics:
- Use a chevron as the speaker label.
- Lyrics should be broken into lines and separated on individual segments.
- Each segment should be written in sentence case with a capital letter at the beginning of each new stanza.
- Each new segment should begin with a hash sign.
- The last segment of lyrics should end with a another hash sign.
Music titles and description
Titles
The name or title of a piece of music should be transcribed before any lyrics, if applicable. Please write (‘TITLE OF SONG’ BY ARTIST PLAYS) eg. (‘SYMPHONY NO. 5’ BY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN PLAYS). It is important to ensure the title is in single quote marks. If the artist is unknown, it is fine to use just the title eg. (‘SYMPHONY NO. 5’ PLAYS)
Description
If you cannot identify the title of a piece of music, the tone of the music should be described instead. Music description should be succinct but expressive. Some good words to use are upbeat, somber, whimsical, percussive, stirring – evocative language is good! If you’re confident, you can also use the genre of music as the description eg. (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS) or the type of instrument playing eg. (PIANO MUSIC PLAYS)
The flowchart below outlines how to best transcribe music for High and Very High tasks, depending on what kind of music is audible in the task you’re working on.
