Adjust vertical spacing when there are no lyrics
I have enabled vertical justification on a score to achieve a good layout but there are interludes in the song where there are no lyrics. Is there any automatic way to make the 2 interlude systems closer together so that the lyrics of verse A are not so close, or does this have to be done manually with spacers?
So, decrease the red gap and increase the green gap:
Comments
Hopefully, someone who knows will post. in the meantime, I messed with this a little. I turned off vertical justification and adjusted spacing for lyrics and chord symbols instead. Not sure what settings you should use because chords below and lyrics above is too much for my old set-in-its-ways brain. But maybe it's a start.
In reply to Hopefully, someone who knows… by bobjp
I'll see what chord and lyric spacing can do. I didn't know that there was a convention for position of lyrics and chords so I put the lyrics closer to the melody notes and the chord names closer to the chord root note.
In roder to advise better, we'd need to see the actual score, not just a picture. Then we could suggest how to optimize the settings. but probably it's a matter of tweaking one or more of minimum stystem distance, lyrics bottom margin, and or min vertical distance.
In reply to In roder to advise better,… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, I'll have a play with those. The score is not yet ready for sharing but if I can't figure it out then I'll add it when it is.
In reply to Thanks, I'll have a play… by yonah_ag
If you’ve saved it, you can post it here. This is, after all, a software support forum, not a public score-sharing resource for getting musical critique. Doesn’t matter if the piece is done, or good, or yours or someone else’s. Attaching the score is how we can help you with your MuseScore settings, and you don’t need anything more than you have in order for that to be of benefit.
In reply to If you’ve saved it, you can… by Marc Sabatella
I've made an extract since it's a long song, (at over 11 minutes), and is not public domain. It would be better if measures 29-32 could move up since they have no lyrics and then allow the lyrics on 33-35 to have more white space above them. (Incidentally, I can't find how to make the number on measure 25 actually show up.)
In reply to I've made an extract since… by yonah_ag
Hmm, is there a reason you've reverses the standard position of chord symbols and lyrics? Makes it extremely confusing to understand which lyrics and which chords go with which staff.
With the more standard arrangement, the answer would be a little different - lyrics min bottom distance would work. But in your case, probably better to use min vertical distance (Format / Style / Score). A value of around 5.0 adds more space there and allows other spaces to close up.
Measure 25 doesn't show a number because it was explicitly hidden in measure properties.
In reply to Hmm, is there a reason you… by Marc Sabatella
Oops! Reason = lack of knowledge. My books of sheet music are simple classical guitar scores with no lyrics so I was not aware of any standard.
Since the song word syllables are in the melody, I put the words at the top; and since the chord roots are in the bass notes, I put the chord symbols at the bottom. Logical but apparently unconventional!
I will swap them and apply some lyrics min bottom distance.
I'll also fix M25 as I didn't intend to hide the number.
In reply to Oops! Reason = lack of… by yonah_ag
It's important to keep in mind that the idea of putting lyrics below the staff wasn't invented with tablature in mind, but for standard notation (actually, it dates to before that, you see it in medieval chants etc). And chord symbols go above (along with fret diagrams) at least in part to be out of the way of lyrics. I suppose if both notations had been invented for tab specifically, it could indeed have made sense to do them the other way around.
In general, Musescore tries to pick reasonable defaults that obey the common standards and produce readable results. So unless you have expert knowledge the default isn't appropriate for some specific use case, it is almost always best to simply go with the defaults. The one exception that could be relevant here: in any staff that has lyrics, dynamics generally get moved to above the staff, also to stay out of the way. But dynamics are below for other staves.
In reply to It's important to keep in… by Marc Sabatella
I hadn't even thought of the dynamics yet but it does look as though they will have to go above. Do you think that the chord symbols are of any use in a fingerstyle score like this? Personally, I am only using them to determine possible notes in the accompaniment whilst making the arrangement. Once it is finished then they are possibly redundant.
In reply to I hadn't even thought of the… by yonah_ag
If the tab is already telling you what to do with all your fingers (as opposed to just being a single-line melody), and this is intended to be played by a single guitarist the chord symbols provide no added value. The point of the chord symbols would be so the player could provide their own accompaniment to a given melody. Or, if there are other musicians also playing, the chord symbols could help them create appropriate accompaniment. But in that case, I'd be considering a separate standard notation staff to actually show the melody, lyrics, and chord symbols. Then a tab-reading guitar player could look at the tab staff, and everyone else could read off the other.
In reply to If the tab is already… by Marc Sabatella
Perfect! It is indeed a score for solo guitar with all fingerings included, so I will remove the chord symbols and use the space above the score for the dynamics.
In reply to Hmm, is there a reason you… by Marc Sabatella
All swapped and now using lyrics min bottom distance. Worked a treat. Thanks.
In reply to I've made an extract since… by yonah_ag
Completely off topic... but for an alternative Romantic musical treatment of Tennyson's ballad The Lady of Shalott try this 33-minute recording of a work composed in 1909:
https://rootham.org/playlist/opus_033/listen_opus033_perf_score.html
In reply to Completely off topic... but… by DanielR
Thanks for sharing. It's a very different style but still enjoyable and is amazing that this score was forgotten for so long. The recording itself is very clear and detailed.