automatic beam options
Submitted by gabslambrick on January 15, 2010 - 7:23pm.
Tagged:
I'd like to request a feature by which I can change the default beaming. At the moment, in 4/4 time, if you have 8 quavers in a bar, MuseScore beams them together in 2 groups of 4. I was taught that in 4/4 you should beam quavers in pairs - and I much prefer the look of this on the page. I've figured out how to turn off beaming altogether, but that's not much use to me, and I've figured out how to manually alter the beam to give me what I want, but this is really time consuming since the vast majority of my music is in 4/4 and has quavers - I end up going through pages and pages clicking on all those 2nd and 4th beat quavers and double clicking the "start beam here" icon.
So I would like to be able to click an option somewhere that says automatic beam: all quavers in a bar beamed together, 4 quavers beamed together, 2 quavers beamed together, no beaming (or something along those lines) so I can set the default and not worry about it any more.
PS sorry about the British terminology - hope you get what I mean!
Hi.
I'm sorry I can't answer your question, others here will be a great help-.
However, I am interested in your comment about having the eighths grouped in 2s. I've never heard that before and I wonder if you could please point me to a reference where I can study this?
Thanks and regards.
embarrassingly, it would appear that this isn't standard music theory - a very short bit of internet research (http://www.mymusictheory.com/grade1/lessons/7_beaming.html) followed by a flick through some printed music suggests that quavers are normally beamed in 4s even in 4/4. Oops! Still, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I would still like this feature.
Thanks for responding.
Regards.
Occasionally I've seen published scores break the beams at every beat in 4/4. I don't remember exactly which scores but I think they were pop music rather than classical.
The ability to edit the default beaming is a feature that MuseScore will need eventually--particularly for more obscure time signatures which don't have a default beaming.
It would be good if the UI for changing default beaming drew from the UI for manual beam changes (that way users will already be familiar with how to use it). For example the Default Beaming dialog could show a measure of eighth notes. To change the defaults you would drag-and-drop start, middle, and end beams just like you might for a normal score. The dialog would also need an option to switch to a measure of 16th notes, 32nd notes, etc., because the default beaming is sometimes different for shorter notes.
Good solution
For what it worth, drums notation often uses beat beaming and not 2 beats beaming
Don;
I would refer you to Alfred's essential Dictionary of Music Notation. It is one of the standard references for music engraving.
Regards
Keith
Thanks so much.
regards.
Don;
You are very welcome sir.
Great gift.
Actually, using 0.9.5, I never could beam eight semiquavers into two groups: four linked with two beams, as the other four, and one beam linking the two groups, no matter what I did.
Hosam Adeeb Nashed
The original topic was about breaking quaver (eighth note) beams. But you are correct that "sub-beam" breaks (double beams joined with a single beam at each beat) are not supported in current versions of MuseScore.