Repeat with tiny modification

• May 7, 2009 - 11:23

Hi all,

I'm not very adept at the correct musical terms, especially in English which is not my native language, so I'll start with a link to a PDF file of a music score that contains an example of what I need:
http://www.coenvdwel.com/bladmuziek/Phil%20Collins%20-%20You'll%20Be%20…

The portion from page 2 until halfway through page 4 is played twice. Except that the vocals on page 2 are different. I have no problem entering the second line of the text, but I do have a problem where the notes are different. For instance in measures 5 and 6 on page 2: "us (-) can't (-) be" in the first repetition versus "f'rent but (-) deep in" in the second one. The PDF depicts this with larger notes for the first time and smaller ones for the second (a notation I previously saw only used for depicting a first and second voice), but I fail to see any way to do this with MuseScore.

Would this make a good additional feature for a future version?

And if such a feature already exists, then (a) apologies for posting in the wrong forum, and (b) pease point me to how to do this.

Best, Hugo


Comments

In reply to by David Bolton

Hi David,

Thanks you for your reply. I didn't know you could do this; always good to know.

However, this does not solve my problem. Maybe I didn't explain well enough, so allow me to try again.

I try to enter a score where a large part of the song is repeated (using D.S. Al Coda in this case, but I think the same problem would occur when using Start repeat / End repeat bar lines). All the instruments play repeat the exact same notes (of course, in a repeat), but there are some slight changes in the vocal part, because the second set of lyrics has a few syllables more or less. So for instance, the first repetition of a given measure would have two syllables, using two half notes; the second repetition needs three syllables, using two quarter notes, a quarter rest and a quarter note.

My question is: how can I enter this in MuseScore so that it plays back correctly. (And, ideally, so that lyrics entry would allow me to enter two syllables on the first text line and three on the second, all positioned under the appropriate note).

If this is not possiible, then I guess I'll have to remove the repeat symbols, create lots of new measeures, copy and paste the measuers to be repeated in the new measures and edit the few notes where this applies. No problem, just a lot of work and it makes the printed score larger, so please consider this as a suggested feature in that case! :)

Best, Hugo

In reply to by xavierjazz

Yes, you are correct. That is exactly what I wanted. (And ideally, adding lyrics with Ctrl-L should automatically align syllables with the second melody when entering the second line of lyrics, just as it currently aligns the first set of lyrics with the notes of the "first( (only, actually) melody.

In reply to by HugoK

I thought I understood what you were asking. I have been describing how to achieve that type of notation in MuseScore. As I mentioned above MuseScore is not able to vary the playback for each repeat.

With regards to your suggestion here's my take. It is the placement of the lyric syllables that tells a performer which set of notes goes with each stanza not the other way around. When there are more than two stanzas it is impossible to determine which notes apply to which stanza except by looking at the placement of the lyric syllables. I do not think it would be a good idea for MuseScore to try and guess which note you want to align the syllable to.

In reply to by David Bolton

I understand that programs have limitations that the human brain can overcome. I've seen various pieces of sheet music with (sometimes) two sets of notes in the bar for the vocals. In some cases, they were for a first and second voice singing simultaneously. And in this case, it was for a first and second repetition, to be sung by a single voice.

I can fully understand that you don't even want to begin to try and automate working out the intention of the composer.

Thanks for contemplating the suggeestion anyway!

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