Plug-in idea: Rearrange Rests

• Jun 11, 2024 - 15:45

Musescore is very useable and simple, but very easy to mess up your score with. Could there be a plug-in to change the duration of tests based on the beat? A measure of 4/4 with quarter note + half rest + quarter note is obviously wrong, as is an eighth note + quarter rest + eighth note in a 2/4 measure. Instead it would be quarter note + quarter rest + quarter rest + quarter note or eighth note + eight rest + quarter note.

…I wish I could use SMUfL or whatever it’s called in the forums XD


Comments

a) I would disagree that either of your examples are "obviously wrong" because they are not "wrong" at all. Any of the four sets of notes/rests would be a valid way of notating that structure. I've seen both sets of notation in the Beethoven Piano Sonatas I'm in the midst of digitizing. And I recall chuckling at seeing both sets of notation in subsequent measures in (a copy of!) a manuscript of Bach.

b) MuseScore doesn't set it that way at all. Any of the four patterns that you describe--both "wrong" and "right"--are set explicitly by you when entering your notes. In what circumstance do you find MuS spontaneously creating one or the other set of notes/rests?

In reply to by Asher S.

a) No, I don't recall specifically where I saw either one. I've looked at and digitized something over 500 pages of classical music over the past few years. I could even be mistaken in what I recall. But even if I am, it doesn't make your "wrong" notation actually wrong. One or another might be "preferred" or "easier to read" but neither is "wrong" or "right". Both notations are clear, easy to read, and both notations sound exactly the same.

b) I don't understand what you are asking. But if you're talking about how to enter it, do the following in a blank score:

  1. Type 5 to set the duration to quarter note.
  2. Type C to enter a note.
  3. Type 00 to enter two quarter note rests.
  4. Type D to enter a note.

Alternatively,

  1. Type 5 to set the duration to quarter note.
  2. Type C to enter a note.
  3. Type 6 to set the duration to half note.
  4. Type 0 to enter a rest.
  5. Type D to enter a note.

This is what I mean by the entry is controlled by the writer (you, in this case). MuseScore creates the rests that you tell it to. (And yes, it does the same thing when someone is entering with a mouse.)

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.