Pickup Bars with two voices
I am currently trying to put a piano arrangement of the song "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" into musescore for ease of reading (the staves were too far apart.) However, I have run into a problem. It is in 4/4 time and begins with a 1/8 note pickup up bar. At the end of the line is a bar that presumably has a value of 7/8 because voice one has a dotted half note and an eighth note. I managed to do this relatively easily by changing the length of the measure. However, voice two in the same bar has two half notes. How would I be able to input this so it looks right (i.e. not tying a dotted quarter note to an eighth note in the next measure in voice two)? This seems like a weird setup for a piece anyway but it would be helpful to find a way to replicated it.
Comments
If you are doing it "for ease of reading" then a score which has different number of beats in voice 1 and voice 2 is surely not going to be easy to read.
If you really want it to look so weird you could perhaps notate voice with a half and a dotted quarter, change the notehead of the dotted quarter to an open head (looking like a half) using "Override visual duration" in the properties panel and make the dot invisible. But stand by to pick up the pieces after the inevitable car crash during rehearsal when voice 2 plays 8/8 while voice 1 plays 7/8.
In reply to If you are doing it "for… by SteveBlower
Sorry, I didn't see your answer when I posted my follow up. That would fix the issue but I don't think it's necessary. I'll stick with a rest before the eighth note. Thank you though.
In reply to Sorry, I didn't see your… by omacgray
Yes, giving both voices with the same number of beats is a much more sensible solution. Published music is not always correctly engraved. In fact it is disappointingly often badly engraved.
It is always possible that my sheet music just doesn't show the voice one rest for some reason. I tried it and it sound better with the rest anyway. This is still an interesting topic though, and I would like to know if there is an answer.