Using Musescore only for lyrics and guitar chords. No music staff wanted. Is there a way to properly input lyrics?

• Feb 11, 2022 - 00:18
Reported version
3.6
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
duplicate
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project

I am creating a songbook for a client. The client ONLY wants lyrics with chord symbols above them. NO music staff at all. the problem I have found is that the lyric mode is not intended to be words- it is assuming that the publisher wants the syllables to also have melody notes. It makes sense, but it seems that this is the only possible function. Entering lyric mode and just typing does not allow me to use the space bar and I also cannot hit the enter button to create a new line of lyrics. Is there a workaround for this? Am I missing a key element in creating lyrics?

thank you


Comments

Frequency Once Few
Severity S3 - Major S5 - Suggestion

No. At best you'd need a 1-lins staff.
The idea of a 0-line staff for this purpose is in my head since a decade now...

Maybe Ctrl+Space helps you to have a space inside a syllable?
And Enter/Return certainly does create another verse, but you can also use Ctrl+Enter, to have a multi-line sylable

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

The melodic line is central to today's songs, especially as a reference point for the musicians in a band. The placement of lyrics and chords in relation to the bars of the song can only be done by matching them to the notes of the melody line and this is perfect. But apart from the singers, the musicians of a band do not need the notes and staves of the melody line which artificially increase the number of pages of their scores. Publishing companies like Noviscore have understood this and offer scores in which the chords and lyrics are virtually aligned with the notes of the melody line, but neither these notes nor the staves are displayed.

The display of the lyrics and chords text aligned on the notes of the melody line without displaying them is, if I look at the number of requests and regrets of the absence of this feature, one of the most wanted features for the actual music bands.

Is this in the developers' objectives?

In reply to by David-san

@David-san,

Well said! Bravo!!

#314338: Request for an option to Hide Staff except Lyrics, Chord symbols, Fretboard diagrams

And jojo's comment:
"The idea of a 0-line staff for this purpose is in my head since a decade now..."
Agreed! A 0-line staff (or "Hide staff related notation" option) would allow the user to show lyrics,chords, and other none staff related aspects, without displaying the staff and its notes.

A solution like those recommened address the issues of hiding unwanted notational matters saves vertical real estate.

Circling back now to the initial request ...

The remaining needed tool—for the purpose of easy lyric entry in situations where notes are not needed or want—would be an optional user-specified grid interval of quarter, eighth, sixteenth distances (or whatever) that, in the absence of notes on the staff, defines a mesh on which MuseScore's lyric entry mode hang lyrics.

Generally I think I'd usually choose to enter notes and lyrics with the existing tools and then simply suppress the staff notation itself, but not via setting visibility on various objects, like note heads, stems, beam and all else. That would be far too tedious. We just need suppress their display with a single switch or a few checkboxes.

I'd like to see such an optional grid for chords too!