How do I increase the number of measures on a specific line
Musescore usually does a great job allocating the measures on the page, although sometimes I will add a break to push some measures down to even more equally allocate the measures and also fill out the last line.
I haven't figured out how to perform the inverse operation however. In particular, in the attached score, there are only 2 measures on the 4th line, but it sure looks like the next line is rather busier and it has 3 measures. The second page has 4 lines with only 2 measures each.
I would like to know how to experiment with increasing the number of measures on a line to see how it looks after that adjustment.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Il_Grillo.mscz | 23.47 KB |
Comments
See: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/layout-and-formatting#layout-stretch
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/page-settings#scaling
In reply to See: https://musescore.org… by Shoichi
Thank you very much Shoichi! In a very brief reading I can already see this is the answer to my question.
In reply to Thank you very much Shoichi!… by tpgettys
Or (alternatively) ? : Il_Grillo1.mscz
In reply to Or: [inline:Il_Grillo1.mscz] by cadiz1
Well, I certainly like it Cadiz1, but how did you do it?!
In reply to Well, I certainly like it,… by tpgettys
What cadiz1 did can be seen by opening your original score and the modified score from @cadiz1, and then using the Score Comparison tool:
View > Score Comparison Tool
The key elements in the score comparison report are these:
Bar 11: property stretch changed from 1 to 0.9
Bar 13: property stretch changed from 1 to 0.8
Or you can just right-click the affected bar and choose Bar Properties. See the changed values of Layout Stretch.
In reply to What cadiz1 did can be seen… by DanielR
Wow, nice! Thanks DanielR. The great thing about just getting started is that every statement is a learning experience.
In reply to Thank you very much Shoichi!… by tpgettys
I tried out the scale on a range of measures and that worked pretty well. Thanks again Shoichi.
I also stumbled onto another setting that worked quite well also, and was even easier:
Format|Style|Page, Enable vertical justification of staves radio button. I also decreased the Factor for distance between systems for added 'prettiness'.
In reply to I tried out the scale on a… by tpgettys
That setting should be on by default, for new scores, so I'm guessing this was one originally begun in an older (pre-3.6) version of MuseScore. The reason it works here is that it reduces the minimum distance between staves & systems and which in certain cases like this allows more systems per page, rather than more measures per system. The fact that it reduces the minimum distance isn't the main point, but it's kind of a useful side effect. The actual point is to allow the distance between staves to "float" as needed to fill the page. Without that option (and thus prior to 3.6), distance between staves was only increase to avoid collisions, not to fill pages. So a higher minimum was chosen, to make sure systems with no collisions would not be crowded With justification, that tends to not be an issue because the distances are usually being increased anyhow to fill the page. But you'll note, it does result in kind of crowded systems here (in terms of the distance between staves).
For this score, I find it most pleasing to enable vertical justification and also reduce the overall spacing, then play with breaks to achieve a nicely balanced result in terms of measure per system and systems per page.
In reply to That setting should be on by… by Marc Sabatella
Marc said:
"That setting should be on by default, for new scores, so I'm guessing this was one originally begun in an older (pre-3.6) version of MuseScore."
When I start from scratch, vertical justification between staves is enabled, but when I open (import) a MIDI file (as in this case) it is not enabled. To my mind I am creating a new score, so perhaps it should be enabled here also(?)
In reply to Marc said: "That setting… by tpgettys
yes, it should
In reply to yes, it should by Jojo-Schmitz
I often face the situation where I want an imported or downloaded score to behave in a certain way i.e. to reformat itself to a standard pattern. For this, it's really useful to save a style sheet (in *.mss format) using the menu option:
Format > Save Style...
On Windows, this style sheet will end up by default in:
C:\Users[username]\Documents\MuseScore3\Styles
Then you can apply the required setting to any new score with Format > Load Style...
In reply to I often face the situation… by DanielR
Thanks DanielR, I will certainly keep that in mind. In this case I was simply trying to be helpful by pointing out what may be unintended behavior.
In reply to Marc said: "That setting… by tpgettys
Thanks for #324330: vertical justification defaults to false for imported scores
In reply to Thanks for #324330: vertical… by Jojo-Schmitz
Sure thing! It's a pleasure to feel like I am giving back something, even so small.
I usually find it most effective to simply reduce the overall spacing - the one to which the "stretch" commands apply - via Format / Style / Measure / Spacing. Then I can re-add system breaks where needed if I find some systems too crowded, also just to get breaks in musically sensible places (less relevant in Renaissance scores like this). The advantage is that you don't end up with measure that have different stretch factors applied unnecessarily. That can lead to uneven spacing should the layout ever change (if you alter staff or page size, for example).