Stave line and auxiliary line with different color possible?
When rehearsing a new song, I get a little confused when there are lots of close notes with several auxiliary lines in a bar. I can't immediately distinguish them from the staves.
I've tried changing the colour of the staves, but that also affects the guides, so that's no help to me.
Can I do anything other than use a different clef?
Comments
You could use an octave / ottava line above: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/octave-lines
In my orchestral violin parts I meet both ottava lines and ledger lines. I can never decide which I prefer - the ottava lines spoil the visual shape of the music but too many ledger lines can make my eyes go a bit zizzy!
Change the color of the auxiliary line instead.
Click the line to select it (purple). Go to the Properties tab (green, at upper left). Click the Appearance button (blue). At the very bottom (below Arrange) is Color (magenta).
Change the color to something markedly different: e.g., red is noticeable, but blue is similar enough to the normal black that it doesn't stand out on such a thin line.
In reply to Change the color of the… by TheHutch
Thank you, that was exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately I did not manage to reproduce that on my side, although you've described it in detail. Whatever I select, the color change affects only the note itself and not the auxiliary lines. Maybe the issue is my way of selecting, because I don't even get the blue line that you've circled with a red pen.
In reply to Thank you, that was exactly… by SlyDr
Select the line rather than the note it's attached to.
In reply to Select the line rather than… by TheHutch
I'm embarrassed by now, but I still can't do it. How do I select the line instead of the notes?
In reply to I'm embarrassed by now, but… by SlyDr
Starting a bit farther back:
Click on the first note that is to have this line attached. Then Ctrl+click on the last note. (Ctrl+click adds the item clicked on to the selection, instead of changing the selection.)
From the Lines palette, click on the Line tool. (It is named exactly "Line". On my MuS, it is located between the "System Text line" and the "Ambitus". The icon is a straight line with nothing else.) This adds the straight Line over the notes from the selected first note to the last note.
Now, click on the Line itself. You'll see that it gets those three "handles" that appear on my large screenshot (circled in purple). Now the Line is selected and the Properties tab will show the properties associated with a line ... including the Color control I described.
In reply to Starting a bit farther back:… by TheHutch
I'm very sorry to bother you again. I thought that I've done everything exactly like you'd described. I've never before used the line symbol from that palette. Everything looked like you'd described, but sadly only the newly gained line gets affected when I change the color. There must stil be a tiny thing that I've missed so far.
In reply to I'm very sorry to bother you… by SlyDr
Surely you only need one red line? Drag it so that it sits on top of the first ledger line (or top staff line, whichever you prefer), to indicate where the ledger lines start. Otherwise just create and drag more red lines as required. (My apologies if I have misunderstood.)
In the ‘old days’ they would have changed clef.
In reply to I'm very sorry to bother you… by SlyDr
Oh, you had not mentioned having multiple lines. If there are few enough, you can simply select each one separately and change their color. If you created them as different types of line, you might need to delete each one and recreate it. If so, create one, set its color, then copy/paste it into the new locations. If all the lines are the same type, you can right-click on one of them and click Select / Similar to select all of the same type of line. (FYI: any that aren't selected by that procedure are a different type of line! In that case, you probably want to delete those different lines and recreate them as the same type.)
FYI: I tried several other types of lines and they all had the Color picker control available to them.
You wrote:
> ...there are lots of close notes with several auxiliary lines in a bar. I can't immediately distinguish them from the staves. <
I guess you mean ledger lines.
> Can I do anything other than use a different clef? <
To improve your ability to "distinguish them from the staves", consider using Format > Style > Notes - where you can increase the 'Ledger line thickness' to aid recognition.
![Ledger lines.png]( "Ledger lines.png")
The above image shows increasing the thickness to .30sp.
In reply to You wrote: > there are lots… by Jm6stringer
Thank you, this together with some shortening of the length made the score easier to read.
In reply to Thank you, this together… by SlyDr
Indeed, and the 'Ledger line length' setting is found immediately below the 'Ledger line thickness' setting in Format > Style > Notes
Write them down in the staff and put an ottava (8va) line above them.
![Screenshot_20241215_012604.png]( "Screenshot_20241215_012604.png")
Also, I know this might sound critical, but don't use made-up or ambiguous terms such as "auxiliary lines" and "guides". There is a reason that lawyers use certain terms, doctors have their own jargon and musicians use standard terms.
In reply to Write them down in the staff… by underquark
Brer Fox wrote:
> I can never decide which I prefer - the ottava lines spoil the visual shape of the music but too many ledger lines can make my eyes go a bit zizzy! <
I would add that ottava lines are easily interpreted on the piano keyboard. The piano facilitates octave equivalence with all 12 semitones arranged in exact repetition across the keyboard.
Other instruments are different, so it may not be as simple to 'read' one octave and 'play' in another. It depends on the player's ability.
In reply to Brer Fox wrote: > I can… by Jm6stringer
I think some players get used to music written with a lot of leger lines (flautist, violinist for example). For piano, I prefer 8va. For brass instruments, less of a problem for trumpet as 3 lines above the staff is high and 3 lines below is low, trombone players can often read treble and bass clef and horn players are used to old music without key signatures. Others get used to clef changes - viola, for example.
@SlyDr... After re-reading this entire thread I noticed a bit of confusion.
![Auxiliary.png]( "Auxiliary.png")
In your original post you show two images side-by-side -- 'blackSystemMusescore.PNG' next to 'farbigesSystemMuseScore.PNG'.
Your 'farbigesSystemMuseScore.PNG' image shows this line:
Let's call the line pointed to in that image an "auxiliary line".
It is such a line that TheHutch created in his score and shows in his screenshots when explaining to you how to change its color.
You wrote:
> Everything looked like you'd described, but sadly only the newly gained line gets affected when I change the color. <
Yes... and so that's why TheHutch's final image shows only that "auxiliary line" (and none of the ledger lines) red.
That's all he set out to do.