Pizza change to, later in score

• Mar 24, 2025 - 16:08

chromebook/linux. I5, 8gig

In 4.4.4, is there some new way needed to change to pizz when using 'pizz' from text menu? Had no problem in 4.3. Does not do anything.

I may know, but just wondering.

Comments

• Mar 25, 2025 - 04:22

I must not understand your question. In the attached score (made in 4.4.4), I simply added notes in the violin part, clicked one note and clicked the pizz. tool from the Text palette. Then I clicked another note and clicked the arco tool from the same palette. Both pizz. and arco worked immediately. Can you clarify your problem?

20250325 001900 - pizz arco.mscz

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• Mar 25, 2025 - 14:27

It doesn't have anything to do with your choice of instrument. If you do not see pizz. and arco in the Text palette, try the More button (yellow highlight) in that palette. You should see something like this:

20250325 101956 - pizz arco.png

Click on a button (for example, the pizz. or arco buttons, highlighted green) to select it and you'll get a button at the top to Add to Text (or whichever other palette you happen to be looking at). Click that button and now the button is on the main palette and available to be used in your score.

I do see Violins (section) available as a choice in my list of Instruments. I've never seen either "Fast" or "Slow violins". If you have them, I assume that you have downloaded instruments from MuseHub. *shrug* But it really has nothing to do with instruments. You can even add pizz. and arco to instruments where it doesn't mean anything: like trombone. :-) You just have to get it on the palette.

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• Mar 25, 2025 - 16:42

Buttons were there. I eliminated musehub shortly after downloading it. My system did not seem to care for it. In the past I have had violins section, but this time it was not in the window. I think this might be the problem. Fast violin, etc others were my only choice for sections. Yes you can use pizz on trombone but....does it
sound? :)

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• Mar 25, 2025 - 20:27

"Violins fast" isn't an instrument, it is a sound within the "MS Basic" soundfont. You select sounds in the Mixer. There is an instrument is just called "Violins (section)" - you can select that when creating your score, or change an existing instrument from whatever it is currently using the "Replace instrument" button in the Layout panel (formerly called Instruments) in the left sidebar. So, click the setting button next to the instrument in question within the Layout panel and make sure it says it is set to "Violins (section)", and if not, change it to that.

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• Mar 25, 2025 - 20:47

I used mixer to chose sounds. Fast was/is my only option on the list for a section. I will try your suggestions when I have a program to work in. I am holding till you respond to my follow ups to make sure you do not want anything else before I close everything down and start over. Not a good day.
Thanks again for all the help!

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• Mar 25, 2025 - 23:48

That may be the problem. Don't use the mixer to choose the instrument.

Instead, in the score (not the mixer!) right-click on an early measure. (Don't right-click on a note/rest; simply on blank space within the measure.) From the context menu that appears, click on Staff/Part Properties .... In the second section of the dialog (headed Part properties), what is the "Instrument" listed? The first field under the section header?

I'm expecting it to be either "Violin" or "Violins (section)". If it's not, change it to one or the other by clicking the Replace Instrument button. Then, under Family, click on "Strings - Bowed" and under Instruments, click on "Violin", then on OK. Then on Apply and OK.

Now, still in the score, go to the upper left and click on Palettes. In the Palettes panel, do you have an entry for Text? If not, click on Add Palettes near the top of the panel, find Text in the list and click the large plus sign to the right of it. Once you've done that, look again in the Palettes panel: now you should have the entry for **Text.

Click the small triangle to the left of the word "Text" so that it "expands" the Text palette. Take a screenshot of this palette. Then click the More button at the bottom and take a screenshot of this list too. Attach them here.

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• Mar 26, 2025 - 13:29

I have the pallettes and pizz and arco. There is no problem there.

I have to ask. How long has the mixer been there? In the last year I will casually say I have done 25-30 movements. And let's say half that many more the previous year. Probably more, but that requires thinking. Various instruments, sizes, lengths, but one thing in common. I used the mixer to choose the instrument 'sounds'. So, why this way now? I have even used pizz multiple times, successfully!

What has changed now that I was using 4.4.4? Afraid I still do not believe in bizarre coincidences such as this, though I probably should when it is involving MS! :)

Also, why suddenly does my list of strings in the drop down menu not scroll completely top to bottom. I do think the string(s) sections instruments might still be there, but I can not get to then. And why does pizz not want to function. I even changed the instruments to solo violin, viola, etc. Still did not work. Something has changed and I do not understand why I appear to be the only one. But again, that seems to be normal with my experiences in MS!

I will try your suggestions for 'replace instrument' and see if that helps. First I need to actually have a version I can work with. Another one of those 'my only problems'! At my age I would prefer a little(lot) more normalcy!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions

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• Mar 26, 2025 - 14:27

The mixer has been the way to choose sounds since before MuseScore 1. It has never been the way to choose instruments - that has always been the "add instrument" dialog. Or, if you already added a different instrument and now you've changed your mind and wish to select a different instrument, it's the very similar "replace instrument" dialog. The only thing that changed since 4.4.4 in that respect is that one of the ways of accessing these dialog was the Instruments panel, but that has been renamed Layout. No change of any kind to how this works though - just to the label of the panel that you can use to either add or replace instruments.

To be clear: to select the instrument - the violiin section - you use the instruments dialogs. But to select the sound those violins make - fast, slow, MS Basic, Muse Sounds, some other library - you use the mixer. This is exactly as it has always been in every release of MuseScore that has ever existed.

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• Mar 26, 2025 - 15:05

Thanks
That is exactly how I understood. And how I have been doing it for years! I am using (attempting)MS Basic sounds, just as I have done in the past.(musehub seemed to be overwhelming my system, fan ran all the time) So, if nothing has changed then why does pizz suddenly not function. I can not seem to scroll the hole drop down list, can not find string sections on the list anymore. Something must have changed. And on my side the only thing different from a month or two ago is I was using 4.4.4.

Now pizz shows on the score and that is always the most important. It would definitely be useful for the sounds to work, but not totally devastating. (such as our other issue with 4.5.1)

I will try the other suggestions given by you and thehutch. But I first need a version to work on!

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• Mar 26, 2025 - 19:06

I'm completely confused. I had understood you to say that you could not add the pizz. and arco markings to your score. That's how you get a particular part of the score to be played pizzicato or not. When I add a pizz. marking to an instrument where that is meaningful, that instrument plays pizzicato. I don't have to do anything with the mixer.

The example score I attached on my first post to this thread (datestamp Mar 25, 2025 - 04:22) has the pizz. and arco markings on a violin and, when I play that score, the violin plays pizzicato over the marked measures ... even though I have made no change to the mixer whatever. Is that not the case for you???

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• Mar 26, 2025 - 19:22

I guess I should have said 'a new way to add pizz sound when adding pizz markings'. Hope that is somewhat better. The markings are there , but no pizz sounds. Just continued arco. If I can find the posts again I will try what you and Mark have suggested....when I actually have a version of MS to work in.

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• Mar 31, 2025 - 14:26

Sorry it has taken so long. Have working with Marc to try and get 4.5.1 working on my system. Finally have it as of this morning.
Now....last week at one point I got back to 4.4.4 and got the score up and working. Pizz for whatever reason was working. When I add strings in 'score setup' I did not chose anything(in mixer) other than each instrument. Did not really have time to listen carefully to decide if it was violins or just violin.

Today with 4.5.1 I loaded score from last week. Same result. Pizz is not functioning. Checked 'parts prop' as you suggested. It showed violins 1, vlns 2., vlas, vcs, basses.( my abbreviations)

I have had text in pallettes. How I added Pizz to score.(all the normal options as I remember) When I click 'more' I have: change inst, detached, col leg, sul tast, meas nu, martele, sul pont, vibrato. Top to bottom lft to rgt. In mixer I still had no string sections listings.

Guess I will live without Pizz for now in this version.

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• Mar 31, 2025 - 15:36

Agaiun the mixer is not how you select instruments - it is just how you select sounds. This is not new with 4.5.1, it is how things have always been. You need your actual instrument to be set to violin (or another bowed string instrument) for pizz to do anything, just as has been the case with every release of MuseScore.

Alsoi, you need to use the actual pizz element form the palette, not some arbitrary staff text where you happen to type that work. This also hasn't changed.

If you have a score where you believe an instrument is correctly set to violin and you have a correct pizz element added from the palette but it's playing, please attach it here so we can take a look.

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• Apr 1, 2025 - 01:05

I repeat, I Never choose instruments from the mixer. Never! Never have. I always select instruments while setting up my score. I misunderstood that you should chose sounds in the mixer for those selections. Obviously wrong even though it has always worked in the past. No more touching the mixer. I did go in and hit
'chose automatically '. That cleared things.

And I only select pizz and arco from the pallette. Pizz is sounding pizz, now.
Sorry it has taken so long. I have not been able to respond to the posts all afternoon!

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• Apr 1, 2025 - 04:31

No, again, it has not worked in the past to override the default sounds using the mixer. it will change the sound, yes, but breaks how pizz & arco work. But I'm confused - in the very same paragraph you say you "never have" done this, but also that "it has always worked in the past". I can guarantee that this does not work in 4.4.4 either. But anyhow, leave it set at "choose automatically" when you are using MS Basic, or just use Muse Sounds.

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• Apr 1, 2025 - 14:17

As usual I was not clear, I guess. Never chosen 'instruments' from the mixer. Only confirmed 'sounds', which is what I presumed was necessary. Wrong! And having chosen those sounds I had no problems with sounds such as pizz working. As I said no more that way.

When I tried musehub and those sounds they did not seem to agree with my system, for whatever reason. The fan ran constantly. Something that does not happen, normally. So just using whatever comes up with basic. No real problems with them for the most part.

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• Apr 1, 2025 - 14:21

Know I tried just after 2:00 pm central and again after 5:00. Could not get in either time. It was after 7 before I know I could get to the posts. But, I had not been trying all the time by then. But it matters not either way. Just what I experienced.

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• Mar 31, 2025 - 16:04

The pizz. and arco text items will be in either the main Text palette or in the More menu of the Text palette. (I don't think they can be in both; I think it's one or the other.)

20250331 105149 - text.png

Left is the main Text palette; right is the More menu. I moved the two text items from the one to the other between taking these screenshots.

If you do not see the pizz. and arco text items in the Text palette, including its More menu, you need to View / Restore the default layout, which should return the palettes and the toolbar to their defauilt states.

Once you see them in the Text palette, add a bowed string instrument (as Marc pointed out) to the score, either at initial set-up or from the Add Instruments button on the Layout (v.4.5) panel. Add some notes to that instrument. At some point, place the pizz. text item. At a later point, place the arco text item. Play the score. You'll hear the violin start normally ("arco"), change to pizzicato at the pizz. item, then change back to normal at the arco item.

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• Mar 31, 2025 - 17:19

As I have been saying/implying I have the text pallette. I added pizz from there and I added arco, again later. So the score will look right, even if they are not playing at the moment. I setup with a bowed store, but all I could find in the mixer was fast or slow. I chose fast. As I said I looked in perts prop and it said I was using violins 1. That was fine. But when I play it, no pizz. I changed to violins just to try and it just changed to the same thing without the 1. Was that really a change?

I know how this 'should' work as I have used it for years. It is not!

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• Mar 31, 2025 - 17:29

As I keep texplaing, the mixer is not and never has been the way to choose instruments. It is only for choosing between of the various sounds a given instrument can make. So, choosing between fast and slow attack sound, but that is only going to be meaningful once you have already selected violin for your instrument. There is no particular reason you should be looking at the mixer at all for this. if your instrument is set to violin, then pizz works automatically. In fact, going out of your way to override that unnecessarily that by selecting something other than the default sound in the mxier is the one thing that could break how this normally works. So if you've done that, set it back to the default - either "Choose automatically" if you wish to use the old MIDI soundfont MS Basic, or any of the violin sounds in Muse Strings.

Again, if you continue to have trouble, please attach your score.

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