Switch noteheads to opposite side of an overlapping note
I am rescoring a piece in Musescore that doesn't have sheets but has a video, and I was wondering if there was some way I could make the [see file attached] first minim move to the right side of the semibreve [see second attachment] instead of the left as is shown. Is it like this because it is musically incorrect to write it on the right side? Without highlighting it, having the minim on the left side may make it a little confusing when distinguishing which note the natural is designated to.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| switch notehead video.PNG | 7.5 KB |
| switch notehead musescore.PNG | 6.92 KB |
Comments
To move the notes around, open the inspector if not already open (F8). Select a single note and in the inspector use the horizontal offsets in the chord section to move the notes around. This is the 3rd set of offets. If you use any of the others you will not be happy with the results at some point. It may also be necessary to move the accidentals, but move all of the notes first.
In reply to To move the notes around, by mike320
Thank you very much mike! Works perfectly and looks just like the original. Thanks for the prompt reply.
For the record, there is debate within the engraving community over the best way to notate this, but the most respected authority in the world today - Elaine Gould, author of "Behind Bars" - explicitly says in her book to do it the way we do. The rule she states and gives examples for is, if the voices overlap, the downstem note should go to the left.
To me, this is reason enough to leave the default alone. But if you need another reason, consider that any such manual adjustments you make are likely to be "fragile" and won't look correct if some day something changes in your score or in a future version of MuseScore that affects the spacing of that measure.
That said, I could see occasionally special circumstances - like the accidental in this example - giving one reason to break the rule in certain cases. Still, I wouldn't decide this lightly.
In reply to For the record, there is by Marc Sabatella
I am just starting with MuseScore 4 and it seems that downstream notes are not defaulting to the left as they did with Musescore 3. This is not good for me - I can't have the stems lining up in the center as they are doing now. How do I fix this? Tried adjusting horizontal offset (cumbersome) but could not get duration dot to move with the notehead.
In reply to I am just starting with… by Lolding
It's not clear what you mean here. Nothing has changed about the handling of these cases in many years. In case of undotted adjacent notes (or dotted non-adjacaent notes), the downstream note does indeed go to the left. But the rules change when for the case of dotted adjacent notes, to avoid either taking more room than necessary or creating any confusion over which note the dot applies to. That's as per Gould (p. 57 - Overlapping adjacent notes / One part dotted - "The notes should not overlap") and we've honored that since MU2.
But FWIW, if you do wish to override this for whatever reason, you need to move both notes for best effect.
In reply to I am just starting with… by Lolding
by default voice 1 is always on the left. you need to switch the voices and then adjust the stems