Please help. This is killing me.
I'm learning keyboard, and at the same time a little bit of music notation reading.
I thought it'd be helpful to "write" some of the music that I have in to the computer, to hear how the computer plays it. Like Guitar-Pro does for Tabs.
but it's killing me. I just can't "write" the notes with this program. I know the program maintains the correct time constraints, but I am really struggling even with just the first bar of this song, and especially the tie that goes across the bar on the bass note of the chord.
Please can somebody give me a quick run-down of how to write, say the first few bars, into Musescore? I think it would teach me all I need to know!
Here is the score I am trying to get in to the computer:
(full link here:)
I am just trying the lead/treble keyboard part - the middle score which starts with the C, C+F, E,F (with the C sustaining through the pedal).
Please help?
thanks,
Carl
Comments
I can sort of do the chords, but it's weird.
Pressing shift didn't seem to work, and then it did, but then on the next bar, I had to press CTRL instead of shift, and now I'm finding that it's stuck in chord-mode, unless I hold shift....
So my first bar looks correct now, except that I can't get the tie going across the bar.
You've dived in at the deep end, as it were by selecting three staves and more than one voice per stave (as opposed to a nice, easy, monophonic instrument).
Create the piece with File->New
Pick any concert-pitch instrument for the top line (flute would do)
Pick Piano for the next two staves
Choose 4/4 time and the Key of F
Click on the start of the middle stave and press 5 0 4 0 C 6 + 7 +
What does this do?:
5 - enter a note/rest of duration a quarter-note (crotchet)
0 - make it a rest rather than a note
4 - enter an eighth note/rest
0 - it's another rest
C - enter the note C (we have already set eighth notes when we pressed 4)
6 - get ready to enter a half-note (minim)
+ - tie that minim to the previous note (C)
7 - get ready to enter a whole note (brieve)
+ - tie that note to the previous note (C)
Now you need to enter the second voice for the middle stave:
Click on the first rest in the bar
Press N to start Note Entry mode
Click on the number 2 (in green by default) to indicate that you want to enter notes in the second voice
Press 5 0 0 F E 6 F G
What does this do?:
5 - selects quarter-notes (crotchets)
0 - create a rest
0 - create another rest
F - enter an F crotchet
E - enter an E crotchet
6 - get ready to enter minims
F - enter an F minim
G - enter a G minim
Now you have to tidy it up a bit:
Click on the first crotchet rest, second voice and delete it
Click on the second rest and delete it
Click on the various notes in turn and press 'X' to flip their tails up or down accordingly
Now you can add Tempo indicator, dynamics ('mp') etc.
Save your work often and use different filenames each save until you have mastered it.
In reply to First score by underquark
Wow, great, thank you! I'm going to have a go at this now.
Thanks !
Carl
In reply to Wow, great, thank you! I'm by carl0s
Do check out the Handbook and video tutorials. They will explain a lot. ut as mentioned, it helps to sart with something simpler. Among the biggest compications in this piece is the fact that it contains multiple "voices" (notes with different rhythms sounding at he same time in the same staff).
In reply to First score by underquark
Its gone really well! Thank you. Regarding the ties.. it's the separate voicing that allows for a tie sort of skipping over an in-between note, then? I wouldn't have figured out about the voices thing at all. Thanks.
I'm on to the next bar now (the quavers) and I just need to see if there's a quick way of dropping an octave when entering notes with the keyboard. I know I can just click the notes, but I like the idea of becoming fluent with the keyboard.
Anyway, great - thanks a million !
In reply to Its gone really well! Thank by carl0s
Did you read the handbook page on note entry or watch the tutorial videos yet? Dropping down an octave is ctrl-down, as explained here:
http://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-entry
In reply to Did you read the handbook by Marc Sabatella
I got it from the handbook just after I posted!
I will take the time to read some more of it.
thanks :)
In reply to Its gone really well! Thank by carl0s
To shift a not by an octave select it then press CTRL+up/Down arrow depending which way you want to shift it.
HTH
MIchael
In reply to First score by underquark
Aw wow, check it out!!
It sounds like music too !! I'm well pleased, and almost feeling fluent already.
I managed the dual-voicings on the bass cleff too with no problem (last bar with the quaver rest above the semibreve).
Here's the result in hardly any time thanks to you guys and this software :
I was meaning to ask.. does it matter that the last three quavers of the third bar are all joined together, like triplets (?) ? That' s not how they appear in the book that I'm copying from.
Carl
In reply to Aw wow, check it out!!It by carl0s
It's acceptable, but not necessarily recommended. My rule of thumb is that a rest followed by three eighths is OK, but the reverse is not. See the handbook entry on Beams for info on how to override beaming. I use these features enough to have set up custom keyboard shortcuts for them.
In reply to Aw wow, check it out!!It by carl0s
You can separate it by either clicking on the first of the three notes and opening the "Beam Properties" palette. Then double-click the "No Beam" option. Alternatively, just drag "No Beam" to the note you want to separate.
In reply to You can separate it by either by iHasCheese
Ah, didn't notice Marc's comment till I had posted. But he's right. It's all in the handbook.
In reply to Aw wow, check it out!!It by carl0s
Beaming the last three quavers in the 3rd measure is wrong - your original music shows just the last two
quavers beamed for a reason. The music is in 4/4 time which means the 4th beat falls on the 2nd last
quaver. The way your book is written (correctly) makes it obvious where the beat should fall - on the first of the
tied quavers.
That is my understanding of why the music was written the way it was.
Charles
In reply to The three beamed quavers by ozcaveman
You have to remember though that a lot of music ostensibly written in 4/4 actually has a cut time feel, which is the case with this piece.
Back in the dark ages before PCs were even thought of I was taught that the defining factor of the beam was whether it crossed the half bar or not.
If it crossed the half bar it was wrong, and if it didn't it was right.
So beaming the last 3 quavers isn't "wrong" it depends what beaming policy you're following, of which Charles has given one view an Marc and I another.
In reply to You have to remember though by ChurchOrganist
And to be clear, I said it was acceptable but not recommended. I would break the beam personally, but recognize that some publishers do use a beam on three eighths if the follow a rest (but rarely the other way around, because then it *really* looks like a triplet).