Editing lyrics
I'm a brand new user and am trying to edit and extend lyrics on a score. I want to move a syllable one note to the right and I can't seem to figure out how. Can you help?
Thanks
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Comments
Erase old - retype new.
You cannot copy and paste lyrics like you might do with words in a word processor.
In reply to Erase old - retype new. by xavierjazz
Do you mean that if I have several words of lyrics entered after the spot I'm trying to change that I have to erase everything past the error?
In reply to Do you mean that if I have by rothar
If you want to move them over as a group, you cannot with MuseScore.
In reply to If you want to move them over by xavierjazz
Can this be done in 2.0.2?
In reply to Can this be done in 2.0.2? by jwpratt
You can copy/cut and paste lyrics, yes. Just select, ctrl+X, click destination, ctrl+v.
In reply to You can copy/cut and paste by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. Not as convenient as ordinary text, but like notes, I guess, except that if the text has already been entered as lyrics in a score, it is harder to select than notes. It seems you have to select it as on p178 of your manual (is there an easier way?) and then *cut* and paste. Copying onto existing lyrics led to crash, though it doesn't with notes. The need to insert occurs often for those of us who look at what we are copying, rather than the screen, and sometimes forget to hyphenate syllables.
In reply to Thanks. Not as convenient as by jwpratt
There are lots of ways of selecting lyrics. For instance, select a range of notes/measures, then right click a lyric, Select / All similar elements in range selection. You can also shift+drag, or ctrl+click individually, etc.
If you have a case that crashes, please post the score and precise steps to reproduce so we can look at it - thanks!
In reply to There are lots of ways of by Marc Sabatella
Thanks yet again. I have found that method quite a bit easier than the steps on p178 of your book. Maybe that section could use clarification in the next edition as to when the select/more steps are necessary, etc.
When I moved lyrics from between piano staves to above, I had difficulty getting the staves back to a normal separation. The various spacing possibilities didn't seem to do what I expected. I am wondering where that is explained (and whether it shouldn't happen automatically).
I wasn't able to reproduce the crash, so it must have had a different cause than I thought.
In reply to Thanks yet again. I have by jwpratt
Well, there are different ways of selecting depending on exactly what you are trying to accomplish. The steps on page 178 are very specific for a particular use case - selecting all syllables on a single system. For that very specific case, the steps I outline work fine and amount to the same number of clicks. For the more general case, the other method I mention above is better. The different ways of selecting things are explored in sokme detail in Chapter 7; it is definitely recommended you really absorb that chapter before moving on. Really, everything up through chapter 9 (parts 1 & 2 of the book) is meant to be absorbed before you start skipping around through subsequent chapters, as the info in the first two parts is pretty fundamental and involves concepts used virtually everywhere else. Whereas the subsequent chapters are more piecemeal; you can skip the ones that interest you less.
As for your spacing issue, it is, as usual, very difficult to help without seeing the score you are having problems with and precise step by step instructions to reproduce the problem. But indeed, I moving syllables above the staff does not reclaim the space that would normally be allocated for them. Normally that would not be an issue as the only reason to move lyrics above the staff is because there are also lyrics below the staff in another voice taking up the same space. So we'd have to see your score to understand what special/unusual case you might be running into.
In reply to Well, there are different by Marc Sabatella
I have read beyond Ch 7, but of course nothing sticks without doing it, and having been using earlier versions of MuseScore happily for several years, I was too lazy to start over like a foreign language, so I learned 2.0 on my next project. Yes, yes, I know, saves time in the long run, etc.
What I was doing with words is exactly what p178 deals with except that I started with a grand staff. I entered lyrics, they went between the staves, I moved the lyrics above the treble staff, the staves stayed where they were. Having tried again, I think it must be that the staves were far apart to begin with, perhaps because I used a template, or a different template from usual. I didn't find how to get them closer together in either Ch 14 or Ch 22. I have now found it in Ch 29. The reason I had an issue doesn't seem abnormal to me. I wanted a piano accompaniment to a song with the words above each system, not between staves of a grand staff, because I find it much easier to read the piano part that way and because it is much more compact. I feel the same about hymns. I didn't want a separate voice line because I wanted to fit the song on two pages and the melody was pretty much all in the piano, albeit in different octaves sometimes. Example attached, but don't feel you have to look at it. Well, no it's not--"Validation error, ..." but it's only 42 KB. Well, yes it is, on the third try Lehrer Poisoning_Pigeons_in_the_Park.mscz
Btw, I realized after our correspondence about that very crowded score where the parts came from. I had first made a score with two wind parts and then decided to add the piano. It doesn't matter now because someone reproduced the bug in a very simple case.
In reply to I have read beyond Ch 7, but by jwpratt
Just keep in mind MuseScore is optimized to produce best results when you follow conventional typesetting styles. Lyrics above the staff are simply not normally done in published music except in the very specific case I mentioned, which does work well.
Ultimately, I'd like to see better support for lyrics above.staff, but for now, just remember that deliberately going against the normal conventions on matters like this is likely to require some handstands. Lyrics are almost invariably pro red below the staff to which they apply, and while MuseScore allows you to violate that standard, you will have to adjust staff spacing to compensate.
In reply to Just keep in mind MuseScore by Marc Sabatella
Now that I know easy ways to move lyrics and adjust staff spacing, to give MuseScore its due I would have to say that no handstands are required for this particular operation, and even I wouldn't push much for a new feature, especially since it would be one more thing to learn. Which is not to say that I don't prefer my abnormal placement. My school hymnal has as many as six lines of text between the bass and treble clefs, and I find that hard to play on the piano or organ.
when you have placed a lyric, to go to the next note you press space.
To go to the previous note you press Shift (right) + space.
More details in handbook:
http://musescore.org/en/handbook/lyrics
Prepare text, syllable by syllable, with a word processing program (I use LibreOffice 4.0);
Copy, highlight the first note where lyric insert, paste.
Each "enter" goes to the next note.
Make the tests, Franz.
In reply to You can try this: by Shoichi
Nice job.