Change line length (legato)

• Jan 17, 2017 - 19:30

I want to change the length of a line. I know how to do this, and I have done it many times but sometimes it just doesn't work, or not work as expected. I don't understand this.
I am a beginning musician and I enter simple pieces of music. I do this to have midi available for play-along practice purposes.

This is how I go about
First I enter the notes. After I have finished, I add the legato lines. Now there are two options, and both do not what I expect.

1. I use the lines palet at the left, and select the legato and draw it to the note where the line should start. It does indeed start a legato line at the selected note. Using +, the end of the legato moves one note. It looks good. But: in the midi files, the notes are not played legato. They are played as if the line isn't there.

2. I select the first note where I want the legato to start. Then I click the legato button in the center top (or + key). Indeed, a legato line appears. The line is of some unpredictable length (sometimes two or three notes, or sometimes a lot of notes). There is no way in which I can change the duration of the legato. I can change the visual length, but not the playing lentgh.

The strange thing is that sometimes the second way works fine, and sometimes it doesn't. The first method never works as expected because it doesn't sound as legato in the midi.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a better way to achieve simple legato?
Thanks for looking at this,

Willy


Comments

MuseScore does not currently support playback of slurs. There is a very subtle adjustment to note lengths performed internally, but it won't be anything like a true slur. If you were being fooled into thinking it worked sometimes, most likely it just a matter of those particular notes happening to have a less pronounced attack in the original sample used.

BTW, the easiest way to create a slur is normally to select the full range you want it to apply to then press "S". But if you've already placed it via a different method and need to adjust it, the way to do so is double click it to put it in edit mode, then use Shift + right arrow. The "+" key is not involved.

Hi Willy,
Another way to place a legato where you want it is like this. First you go to the palette that says lines and you find the legato then you select the first note where you want the legato to start and then you press Shift and hold it while clicking on the note you want the legato to end on and it'll be outlined in blue then click on the legato icon and it will place the legato on the notes you've chosen.

You're welcome

29carrion

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