How to change clef without changing notes?

• Nov 7, 2020 - 22:35

I made a simple song that was supposed to be written in bass cleff but I now realised that I used the wrong clef and when I change the clef to bass it changes the notes to different ones. How do I just change the clef without it auto adjusting notes?


Comments

You can't do that. If you used the treble clef and put a note on the middle line it is a B, on the bass clef the middle line is a D. There are few clef changes that will not change the pitch of a note. Changing the clef does not change a notes pitch.

When you entered the notes, MuseScore will have taken into account the Key Signature and assigned your C's to C, your D's to D, your B's to Bb (if you are in a key where B is flattened) etc. Once entered, those notes are stores as pitch values, not note names. When you change the clef the pitches stay the same so you will then have to select all notes and use the Up or DownArrow keys to get MOST of the notes where you want them, but you may have a few that are now sharp or flat that you need to tidy up.

In reply to by LionelJM

Easier:
1. Select the measure (click into it), or the clef.
2. Open the clefs palette
3. Click on the desired clef in the palette
And indeed MuseScore doesn't chage pitches when you change the clef or the key signature., for that you'd need to transpose the score or section

Well, I already did that.

Just change the clef, then select all your music and change pitch with arrow or Ctrl-arrow keys to go to the right position.
If your melody sounded right, it'll continue to sound right. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with accidentals, but this is another question...

Just want to say that it's super annoying that Musescore doesn't have a way to add the midmeasure clef without changing all the notes. I don't care about preserving the pitch. I just want to preserve the notes.

In reply to by Kotosif

You mean, you want to change the notes - notes are pitch. What you want to keep is the staff line those notes are placed on, while changing the pitch (and hence the notes). So, simply change the pitch, by transposing (eg, arrow keys, with or without Ctrl or Ctrl+Shift depending on how far you want to transpose the notes. If you attach your score, we're happy to assist further.

Here's how I got from treble to bass:
Drag the bass clef across from the palette as above.
Select all.
Go to 'transpose' (tools menu). Transpose down an octave.
Transpose again down a major sixth.
Drag and replace the key signature from the palette as you did with the clef.
Go through and delete the remaining accidentals.

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