Cursor advances automatically after adding chord note
I'm using Musescore to type hymns for a supplement book for my church- every song has that "hymn" format with four note chords throughout. I've found the fastest entering method to be doing the melody/soprano and tenor lines of the song, then going back to the beginning and adding the alto and bass lines as chord notes.
In 1.3, when I added a chord note, the note would be selected and the cursor stayed put. I'd hit the right arrow and move on to the next note and add that chord note and carry on. My problem is that in the 2.0 beta, when I enter the chord note, the note stays selected as usual but the cursor advances to the next note. This is annoying because hitting the right arrow to move forward as I previously did then moves the cursor forward a second time, skipping the note I want to enter a chord note to now. However, if I don't touch the arrow keys and just add another chord note, it adds to the previous note I already entered (as you'd expect and want it to). So after each chord note I enter, I have to hit the right AND left arrow keys to move to the next note. I feel like this is inefficient, I must be missing something obvious or have an adjustable setting put to the wrong preference. Any help is appreciated!
Comments
Let's say you want to enter a chord (C, E) and a chord(C,E). How do you enter this? Where do you click, which keys do you press?
In MuseScore 2.0 I would do:
select a rest, press N, press C, press Shift + E, press C, press Shift+E.
No arrow key involved.
In reply to Let's say you want to enter a by [DELETED] 5
Since I know the songs I can enter them using the computer keyboard without hardly looking at the screen using the numbers and letters. So I've been entering the C and C first... the melody of the entire song, then go back and enter the chord notes using the arrow key to progress along the melody I've already entered. It's just been so efficient to do this way because I can do it by listening as the notes enter and I've gotten really fast at it.
I'm way happier with the versatility of the 2.0beta because I can format lyrics easily and it has more flexibility with the stretch so I can get things on the lines I want. I just really wish the chord entry was the same as in 1.2. I'm now resorting to entering all the music in 1.2 and then opening the files in beta to add lyrics. :(
In reply to Since I know the songs I can by lululeesa
I'm still not really following. Can you post a simple example and describe step by step *exactly* what you are doing, what you expect to see, and what you see instead? I can't quite tell, for example, if you are *clicking* to enter notes or *typing*. Can you list *all* the steps - every thing you touching the computer, which pressing a button, moving the mouse, or clicking the mosue button?
In general, there really shouldn't be any substantive difference, and one should barely if ever need to hit the cursor key in either version. but I can't quite tell what you might be doing wrong. to cause you to think you need to.
In reply to I'm still not really by Marc Sabatella
I don't know if I should have mentioned I'm a Mac user.
For a simple example, a measure that has 4 quarter notes, each is a chord (C with E below)
1. I enter the entire melody. I type everything- I never touch the mouse. So I would type 5 for a quarter note, then C, C, C, C... finish the whole song this way, hitting numbers when necessary and listening to the melody as I type- very fast.
2. I enter the chord notes. With note entry mode OFF, I use the mouse to select the first note of the song. Then, I type (note entry mode engages automatically here): Shift+E, right arrow, Shift+E, right arrow, Shift+E, right arrow, Shift+E, right arrow... progress through the whole song adding the harmony.
In 1.3 this worked like a charm. Now in beta there's no way to advance to the next note that I can find except typing: Shift+E, right arrow, left arrow, Shift+E, right arrow, left arrow.... which is a major nuisance. I like my method better than entering the entire chord as I go (C, shift+E; C, shift+E...) because I can hear the melody as I enter, keep my eyes on what I'm copying and do it oh, so fast.
If you try what I outlined above in 1.3 and in beta and keep an eye on the cursor behaviour as you enter the chord notes, you'll be able to see that there has been a change.
Thanks for helping!
In reply to I don't know if I should have by lululeesa
To be clear, at step 2 - even though you say you start with note entry mode *off*, the moment you type Shift+E, you enter note entry mode automatically, right?
OK, then I see what you mean. It would not normally occur to me to enter music this way - I'd normally enter the full chord in the first place normally - but it is true that hitting right arrow advances the cursor - which I would say most of the time is exactly what most people would want. In fact, it would kind of seem like a bug if hitting right arrow did *not* advance the cursor. It's just that in your specific use case, it happens to *not* be what you want. Perhaps there should be another separate command that meant, don't advance the cursor, but do select the note at the cursor to make it available to add to.
One thing that *does* work - simply retype the note. Same number of keystrokes of course, but I guess you have to think a little harder. Might actually be easier to hit right-left quickly, which really isn't hard at all.
Another possibility: if you are planning on adding a bunch of notes a third above the melody, why not simply select the whole passgae then hit Alt+3? Then you can go back and change the pitches of notes you *don't* want to be a third above.
In reply to To be clear, at step 2 - even by Marc Sabatella
Exactly- it goes into note entry mode automatically when I hit Shift+E.
I DO want the cursor to move forward when I hit right arrow- I agree, it'd be a bug if it didn't do that. What I DON'T want is the cursor to automatically move forward when I enter a chord note. Why would it be necessary to have the cursor move automatically in ANY case? When using your method of adding the chord notes after every note, it already knows it's time to move forward because the main note (entered without holding shift) starts a new chord anyway. The cursor moving forward automatically is redundant as far as I can tell.
In 1.3 the cursor didn't move when a chord note was entered- it didn't move until I hit right arrow, so I could tell the computer "I'm done entering the chord notes for that chord, let's move to the next note" by hitting right arrow. Now it moves forward automatically after the chord note is entered on the first note. Yet, even though the cursor has moved on, when I hit Shift+E to enter the chord note on the second note, it assumes we're still on the first note and enters a unison E on it! Hence, I have to manually move the cursor forward to the third note, then back to the second to move away from the first.
I tried out your suggestion of re-entering the note, but I might as well switch over to entering the chord notes as I go- if I re-enter the main note as I go, I have to re-enter the time values as well. When I enter chord notes afterward, it doesn't require entering a time value, it just matches what's there.
Thanks for your suggestions! Do really appreciate the help.
In reply to Exactly- it goes into note by lululeesa
The idea of having Shift+E *not* advance the cursor does appeal to me more than the idea of habing right arrow sometimes move the cursor but sometimes not. Still, while it makes sense for this particular use case, I have a feeling somewhere else there is someone for whom the opposite is true. I don't know; I'll think about this.
See issue report #50031: Adding notes to a chord causes navigation to skip the next chord - is that you as well?
Have you considered using voices?
http://musescore.org/en/node/36056
You can enter the top (melody) line, then enter the notes below as a second voice. No need to use the Shift or Arrow keys, as the cursor advances automatically. However, you will have to enter a note duration whenever there's a change.
Afterwards, if you want all the stems pointing in the same direction (as with chords):
Right click on a note in the voice you wish to flip stems - then 'Select' - then 'More' - then 'Same voice'. Next, type 'X' to flip the noteheads.
Regards.
In reply to Have you considered using by Jm6stringer
For the record, lasconic and I discussed this on IRC, and decided to change the behavior of right arrow after all. So that should be in latest builds. Shift+E will still advance the note input cursor, leaving the original chord selected. Right arrow will move the selection to catch up to the input cursor. I know there are use cases where this won't be expected or desired (lasconic brought up a good one - people who use right arrow as a handy shortcut to skip pastthe automatically generated rest just after entering a note). I guess we'll see if the overall effect is positive.
In reply to Have you considered using by Jm6stringer
Thanks for that suggestion Jm6stringer- that may actual prove to be better method for me, given that I have to occasionally use voices anyway when note durations are different.
Marc- that wasn't my issue report but thanks for directing me there! Out of curiosity, why would the cursor behaviour (automatically advancing after chord note entered) not be adjusted? In 1.3, the cursor doesn't move after chord notes are entered so I'm curious if there was discussion over that not being the intuitive behaviour to justify changing it in 2.0. I didn't think the behaviour of the right arrow key moving the cursor was counter-intuitive, just the fact that the cursor wasn't where I thought it would be when I did use right arrow. At any rate, this fix will remedy my issue I believe, so I greatly appreciate your time and effort on my help request!
In reply to Thanks for that suggestion by lululeesa
Lots about cursor behavior changed from 1.3 to 2.0, mostly for the better. I don't remember what specifically might have been discussed about this in particular, though.
I actually tried to fix this by not advancing the cursor after Shift+E, but it is tricky. If you enter a note, then immediately press Shift+E, the cursor actually backs up to the note entered, then advances when you are done. So if I disable the "advance when done" part, the cursor actually backs up when entering chords the "normal" way (entering the chords as you go), making that more difficult than it should be. I'm sure there is a solution, but lasconic suggested we try changing behavior of right arrow, and it was easy and I think a safe change, so it won.