Cross staff move with multiple notes moves multiple staves

• Jun 23, 2021 - 12:41
Reported version
3.6
Type
Functional
Frequency
Once
Severity
S4 - Minor
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
MuseScore
  1. Create a score with three staves per system, for example in an organ score with staves for right hand, left hand and pedal tones.
  2. type some notes into the middle stave (left hand)
  3. select some notes and use ctrl + shift + up/down arrows to move them into the upper or lower stave (cross-staff notation)
  4. now try to get these cross-staffed notes back to their "home stave". It is impossible. The notes are jumping between the upper or lower stave, but will never come back to the middle stave. You'll have to delete them and type them again.

Expected behavior:
with the ctrl + shift + arrow function, the notes should move just one stave up or down. There might also be a checkbox or pulldown menu in the inspector view.

Comments

• Jun 23, 2021 - 12:45
Status active ⇒ needs info

It works fine for me in 3.6.2 when I just tried it. In order to investigate further, we'd need you to attach the specific score you are having trouble with. Be sure you are not trying to move notes between staves of different instruments, BTW - has to be the same instrument.

Reply

• Jun 29, 2021 - 20:39

I have loaded your score, and played around with moving notes and not seen any issue. Can you give more precise steps to reproduce the issue - which note specifically are you moving, in which direction, etc?

Reply

• Jul 1, 2021 - 00:00

yes... I've played around too, to figure the problem out. The issue seems to occur only if you move chords between staves and will not occur with single notes. The problem also occurs with new scores completely created within Musescore 3.6.2. I'll attch an newly created score for you to check the behavior.

  1. load the attached score
  2. select one or more notes of the left hand (middle stave) in the first system (bars 1-4) and try to move them up and down. It will work fine.
  3. select just one single note of one of the chords (left hand) in the second system (bars 5-8) and try to move it. It will work fine. the whole chord will be moved between systems, even if just one note is selected.
  4. select one complete chord or even two or more chords of the left hand in the second system (using shift + left/right) and try to move it. The issue occurs. It will jump between the upper and lower staves.
  5. select just two notes of one chord in the third system (bars 9-11) and try to move them. The issue occurs. The whole chord will jump between the upper and lower staves.
  6. select the whole left hand in the very last bar and try to move it up and down. The issue occurs only for the chord in the second voice, all single notes will be moved fine.

my conclusion: the issue occurs, if there is a chord, or more specific "more than one note per voice and chord" selected.

Attachment Size
cross-staff_notation_of_chords.mscz 17.65 KB

Reply

• Jul 1, 2021 - 12:37
Title removing cross-staff notation is impossible in three line systems ⇒ Cross staff move with multiple notes moves multiple staves
Severity S3 - Major ⇒ S4 - Minor
Workaround No ⇒ Yes

I think I see what is happening, if two notes in the same chord are selected, it tries to move the chord two staves. Presumably if three are selected, it will try to move three staves. That's presumably because it is processing the command separately for each selected note rather than realizing the chord has already been processed. So two notes selected, it tries to move the chord twice, etc. When there are only two staves, the issue isn't apparently because the second move will fail, but with three staves, it will gladly move the chord twice. Note that you can't move a chord two staves away, but a chord that was previously moved up one can be moved back down then down another one, which is why you only see this for chords that "live" on the middle staff.

Workaround is to only select one note of the chord when this happens.

Reply

• Jul 1, 2021 - 15:12

yes, this seems to be a reasonable explanation. And the easiest way to get the chords back to their "home" middle stave is to select just one note. That's less effort than deleting and typing the notes again. However, engraving my scores, I mostly move whole passages of music up or down a stave, and the current behavior then might confuse some users. But you are right: This issue is only relevant for three-staffed-instruments (is there any other instrument than organ?), and therefore it might be a minor problem. Probably the most elegant solution of this issue might be to allow splitting of chords across staves and to move each note individually. I've seen you added this issue to the appropriate feature request (https://musescore.org/en/node/14687). Great...

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