Correctly grouped beams with dotted notes
Hi there!
Recently I've been stumbling over the problem that any dotted note (within a bar) is always displayed as a plain dotted note, regardless of where it starts. For example, in a bar of 4/4, a dotted quarter note is being displayed as a dotted quarter note, even when it starts on beat 2+. Imo it should automatically set this to an eighth note and a quarter note, connected by a slur, otherwise the correct division of a 4/4 (which by default is 4 consecutive quarters) is being impared.
The same occurs with shorter notes, and that's where the real issue starts. As seen in the example below, several consecutive dottet eighth notes are grouped weirdly on one beam, until they hit beat 4. This is extremely difficult to read and very uncommon. Is there a way to tell musescore to divide those groupings of dotted eighth notes according to the groupings of regular eighth and sixteenth notes set via the time signature?
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Comments
Well, if you ask MuseScore to enter notes grouped in unconventional ways it will comply as perhaps that is what you want. If you want them grouped conventionally then enter them that way.
However, conventional grouping can be achieved from unconventional grouping using [Tools]>[Regroup Rhythms].
In reply to Well, if you ask MuseScore… by SteveBlower
Hmm. I specifically don't want unconventional groupings. The conventional way to group dotted notes is to split them, if they cross a downbeat in a bar. This is not happening when I write a dotted note in musescore. The only way to do this (to my knowledge) is to manually write an eight note, then a sixteenth note and then slur them (although the playback will still play two separate notes).
My intention is to avoid manually splitting dotted notes every time I write them, and to tell musescore "please split notes that cross a downbeat the same way you split notes that cross a bar line". Does that make any sense lmao?
In reply to Hmm. I specifically don't… by just._.julius
Maybe even easier to understand - I want musescore to always group my music in groups of quarter notes (unless I specifically say something else, i.e. via the time signature edit), and if a note crosses this border, split and slur it.
In reply to Hmm. I specifically don't… by just._.julius
"The only way to do this (to my knowledge) is to manually write an eight note, then a sixteenth note and then slur them (although the playback will still play two separate notes)."
Well you are definitely doing that wrong then. Ties are not the same as slurs and MuseScore treats them differently. To enter a sixteenth tied to an eighth enter the eighth, press 3 to select sixteenth duration and press "+" to add the sixteenth with a tie. That tied note will not then play with separate articulation but will just extend the duration of the "tied from" note.
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/ties
and compare with https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/slurs
In reply to "The only way to do this (to… by SteveBlower
Oh okay, thanks a lot, that is very helpful, and that's at least a start.
However, this still means that I have to manually write an eighth note and tie it to a sixteenth note (or the other way round) whenever I want a split dotted eighth note, right?
In reply to Oh okay, thanks a lot, that… by just._.julius
Yes, just enter what you want, rather than entering what you don't want.
In reply to Yes, just enter what you… by SteveBlower
Well... I want a dotted eighth note, written as is standard everywhere. You'll never find dotted eight notes being notated across the centre of a bar, and yet musescore does it. Thanks either way, didn't know about the tying notes, thanks :)
In reply to Well... I want a dotted… by just._.julius
What you seem to be asking for is that MuseScore should clear up the mess if a user enters unconventionally grouped notes. That is exactly what Regroup Rhythms does.
In reply to Well... I want a dotted… by just._.julius
MuseScore tries not to enforce its opinion of ow you "should" write music. If you enter a dotted eighth, you'll get and dotted eighth. So if you don't want a dotted eighth, don't enter one - simple as that (eg, "4 C 3 +"). If you want an eighth tied to a sixteenth, simply enter that. Not sure why you'd choose to deliberately enter it incorrectly? But FWIW, there is a built in facility to "spell check" your rhythms, so if for whatever reason you find you have entered them incorrectly, try Tools / Regroup Rhythms. It won't fix everything but will correct the most obvious mistakes, including this specific one.