Is is possible to show only line 3 of a regular five line staff?
In some of my educational scores I need to align various characters “in a lane” … as we can do with chords or lyrics. A lyric line would suffice nicely but, as best I know, each lyric must align to a note in the staff, whereas I need the symbols to align regularly, and therefore sometimes between the notes on the staff.
In other words, regardless of the notes/rhythms in the staff I need regularly spaced locations where I can add characters at a granular frequency of:
- continuous quarter notes — or —
- continuous 8th notes — or —
- continuous 16th notes
Hard to describe verbally, but the following image should adequately illustrate my goal.
It shows varying rhythms in in the staff. Below each measure there's the symbols I need to add, a constant count of:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Additionally the rhtyhm is intenionally spaced geometrically … rather than according to engraving rules.
This was easily accomplished in a competing notation application.
I’ve nearly attained this result in MuseScore and think I’ve got a workable method. I just need to hide lines 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the staff—in other words, display just staff line 3.
Suggestions? I've tried various percussion staves but haven't attain the functionality I need.
Comments
You cannot display only staff 3. Use a percussion staff or a regular staff set to 1 line the staff/part properties. To get the equal spacing, use the shortest note you are displaying in voice 2 and make voice 2 invisible. This should get you the proper spacing. You can then put the symbols in lyrics in voice 2. Click a voice 2 note and press ctrl+l to add lyrics to voice 2. You can make the voice 2 notes invisible first and see the invisible notes in a light gray color.
In reply to You cannot display only… by mike320
> You cannot display only staff line 3.
Bummer ...
> To get the equal spacing, use the shortest note you are displaying in voice 2 and make voice 2 invisible. This should get you the proper spacing. You can then put the symbols in lyrics in voice 2. Click a voice 2 note and press ctrl+l to add lyrics to voice 2. You can make the voice 2 notes invisible first and see the invisible notes in a light gray color.
Good suggestion. That's how I'm managing it. I've entered the counts as lyrics attached to hidden eight notes in voice 2.
Is is possible to make notes in voice 2 completely invisible while showing voice 2 lyrics? I rarely need to adjust anything in voice two once I've got the count set up so I'd rather not see it at all . The "v-hidden" gray notes just amount to a distraction in this particular work flow.
> Use a percussion staff
Don't know much about percussion staves, but I did try that. Didn't find a single line staff that allowed voice 2 notes on ledgers. Is that possible? If so, which staff/clef combo. Seems that the various unhitched percussion staves force all notes onto the single line; and that messes up the two voice spacing ... and in odd ways I can't presently characterize.
> ... or a regular staff set to 1 line the staff/part properties.
I tried that too, but then the treble clef sits atop that single line staff. Didn't find a way to adjust the y of all score Clefs in the Inspector ... no "style button" on the y repositioning. Percussion clef centers nicely though.
Thanks!
scorster
In reply to > You cannot display only… by scorster
To not see the invisible notes, use the menu View->Show invisible to toggle it.
In staff/part properties you can not show the clef by unchecking the Show clef option.
You don't need to put voice 2 notes on a ledger line, use the same line as voice 1. The only thing is that on a percussion staff you need to define which notes in which voices can show up on when lines. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/drum-notation for info on drum notation.
If you run into more troubles, I suggest that you attach a .mscz file that shows what you have done and someone can look at it and make adjustments that you might be missing. MuseScore is not currently designed to have equal spacing of notes, but with a little work it can be done. There are even things you can do to make it faster. It's quite late here and there will no doubt be people waking up in the next hour or two in Europe that will prove very helpful.
A while ago, I attempted something like what you are trying and found my old file into which I copied your exercise and made some adjustments to bring it up to version 3.5.2.
Back then, I was trying to get the cursor to move according to, as you so aptly put it, the 'granularity'. (Sort of like what 'quantization' is to MIDI.)
Anyway, here is my file (with 2 versions of your exercise):
rhythm_exercise.mscz
(The second version shows what I was trying to demonstrate.)
You can reverse engineer it by making stuff visible, checking voices, mixer sound, etc.
![Muse_oh.png]( "Muse_oh.png")
I very rarely use the drum notation features and have to re-acquaint myself each time to find the proper percussive sounds to edit a drumset.
Because of this... in this particular attachment, I (mis)used a flute instrument and changed to a drumset using the mixer.
(I know, not the best way).
To your question...
Is is possible to make notes in voice 2 completely invisible while showing voice 2 lyrics?
...the answer is yes.
In my attachment, voice 2 notes are invisible while the (counting) lyrics are visible. The voice 2 part is very easy to notate: enter a single measure with lyrics, select it, and type the letter 'R' to fill all the measures with 1+2+3+4. The lyrics in voice 2 are what give the score its evenly spaced 'granularity'.
EDIT...:
BTW: Using the mixer, you can mute voice 2 during playback of the second example. This will make it sound identical with the first example, but with the cursor moving smoothly across the "counting".
Regards.
In reply to A while ago, I attempted… by Jm6stringer
Jm6stringer,
Wow. Perfecto!!
Thanks for reworking your old project! Nice choices of sounds. At a glance the construction looks pretty straight forward; I'll delve deeper tomorrow to see if there's anything I've missed
> I (mis)used a flute instrument and changed to a drumset using the mixer. (I know, not the best way).
Ha ha! Though I generally try to adhere to best practices I too am guilty of the shortcut you used!
Many thanks!
scorster
In reply to Jm6stringer, Wow. Perfecto!!… by scorster
I took a closer look and the different Play Cursor positioning behaviors are fascinating, and I will surely want to incorporate various cursor positioning options into lesson/practice scores.
In the upper half of jm6stringer's example score the cursor:
In the lower half of the score (where the "tambourine" plays constant 8ths) the cursor advances on every 8th note.
I'm wondering how are these Play Cursor behaviors are accomplished?
Today I could see a particular student doing uncannily well when clapping along. I surmised he was not counting or deriving timing from the rhythmic notation, but rather got his cue from the cursor, like playing Dance Dance Revolution. When I enquired he concurred. For students like him I'd want to show the cursor just at the start of each bar.
In reply to I took a closer look and the… by scorster
Actually , I did not 'set' the cursor. What you observe is MuseScore's programmed behavior.
You wrote that in the upper half of my example the cursor does:
not advance when a note spans a number of beats, until the next sounded note
Please watch the measure with the dotted half note (measure 7). The cursor does not 'wait' until the next sounded note. It moves to the numbered beats for 3 beats (toggle the metronome), then advances by eighth notes on beat 4.
Try putting a whole note there (click the dotted half note and press 7) , the playback cursor then marks 4 beats (toggle the metronome).
In the lower half of the score (where the "tambourine" plays constant 8ths) the cursor is set to advance on every 8th note.
That's because the playback cursor follows the notes. In the upper half the 2nd voice (the tambourine) is not played, so nothing in that voice for the playback cursor to follow; there only voice 1 is played (and followed by the playback cursor).
Try experimenting with the metronome along with the 'Mute Voice' settings in the Mixer to see the various combinations of sound and cursor motion.
In reply to Actually , I did not 'set'… by Jm6stringer
> You wrote that in the upper half of my example the cursor does:
not advance when a note spans a number of beats, until the next sounded note
> Please watch the measure with the dotted half note (measure 7). The cursor does not 'wait' until the next sounded note. It moves to the numbered beats for 3 beats (toggle the metronome), then advances by eighth notes on beat 4. Try putting a whole note there (click the dotted half note and press 7) , the playback cursor then marks 4 beats (toggle the metronome).
Thanks! I was afraid a mis-observation would lead me to mischaracterize the situation. I've corrected my original post to avoid confusing others who might read it.
A couple other observations: