Hairpin entry issue

• Dec 6, 2020 - 19:08

MuseScore latest released version, Windows 10

The attached one-measure file can be used to demonstrate the issue.

Select any single note which is the first note in the measure. Open the Lines palette and click on a hairpin. The hairpin will extend to the end of the measure, as it should.

Delete that and ctrl-select the first note on every staff. With the Lines palette open click on a hairpin. It will extend for only the duration of that first note. Since the second note in the measure is not selected, the duration should be for the full measure.

Attachment Size
Test.mscz 4.91 KB

Comments

That's versatility in my opinion. When several notes are selected vertically, the hairpin only affects the selected notes. If you want the entire measure you need to select the entire measure. I do realize you can't pick and choose staves by measure using ctrl this way but there had to be a decision made on how to handle this situation. The half the people will be happy with the current result, half not so happy.

In reply to by bobjp

Interesting. I don't think I've ever use the palette to add a hairpin. I always use < & > and removed the hairpins from my custom palette. < & > only put the hairpin on a selected note. I was told, a long time ago, that ctrl+m adds an empty rehearsal mark while the palette adds a smart rehearsal mark was to add options for the user (and I now take advantage of that) so perhaps hairpins are the same way.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I agree. It is as good a guess as any. And yet, the default for a selection of notes on the same beat in several staves results in a hairpin for just that beat.
As I input everything with the mouse, I have only in the last few weeks become aware that hairpins can be added from the keyboard. This always seems to default to one beat if a range is not selected.
It all doesn't make much difference to me because I put in dynamics first, then the range for hairpins, then the hairpin.

In reply to by bobjp

In the case where you select one note across all staves, yes, the default is that one note, because now you have made a range selection. If you make a range selection, MuseScore honors it. if you wanted something other than one beat, you should select the full range, not just a range of a single beat. Again, though, with no range selection, default for hairpins isn't one beat, it's to end of measure.

In reply to by bobjp

To be clear: clicking a note isn't the same as creating a range selection. That's the distinction I mean.

But it is true the rules for adding lines via shortcut can different from those used in the palette even given the same selection, maybe that's what you mean? Like, with a single note selection - not a range selection (no blue rectangle) - the palette goes to end of measure, but the shortcut adds to that note only. There may or may not be a reason for that.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've refrained from commenting further till all these responses were in. Here's my take on it:

In the Handbook, under Lines (a hairpin is a type of line), see the section Applying lines to the score. In brief, it states that if a single note is selected, the line will extend to the end of the measure. To apply it to just one note, select the starting and following notes. For a range, select the range; the line extends across all notes in the range (including the last, unlike selecting a first and last note, where the line ends before the last note).

It does not say what happens if you select a first and last note some distance apart, but that works also. The line starts at the first and ends before the last note, just like applying it to a single note (with first and next note selected).

The Handbook does not discuss what happens when making selections in or across multiple staves. Range selection works the same way across multiple staves that it does in a single staff, but not so if one uses single note or first and last note selections. That seems inconsistent to me, and that's why I wrote initially as I did. My expectation was that the line would be applied in each staff individually as it is in a single staff, but it is not. So one has to do things differently to make the entry simultaneously in multiple staves than one would do to make it in a single staff, when using individual note selections. Really, range selection is the only method that works.

In fact, if one selects a first and last note in each of multiple staves, the line is applied only to each selected note, not to the entire passage in each staff as it would be in a single staff. That is unlikely to be what anyone might reasonably expect or want. I suggest that some more thought be given to how this ought to work.

Now yet one more observation. If one selects individually a number of notes (three or more in a single staff or two or more but not a range across multiple staves) one can click the hairpin in the Lines palette and apply the line to each of those notes. But if one uses < or > on the keyboard nothing happens. The keyboard only works if a single note, or two notes in the same staff, or a range is selected (the range may be over one or more staves). In short, range selection is fairly consistent but individual note selection is not in the way it works.

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