Improve fingering in two-voice parts? (MS v4.5.2.2511...)

• Aug 31, 2025 - 08:20

Hi guys! Don't know if this has been addressed, but I searched the forum and didn't see anything specific to it.

When I enter fingering from the keyboard (pressing Spacebar to move to the next note/chord), MS places some of it in unconventional positions—misaligned with its notes, and sometimes colliding with staff lines:

I must zoom in and hand-adjust it each time:

It'd be great if MS could be a bit "smarter" with this, as the normal vertical positions seem relatively easy to identify. Thanks for considering it!

Comments

cadiz1

• Aug 31, 2025 - 09:41

You have customizable settings (vertical and horizontal offsets) in menu Format / Style / Text Styles / Fingering - LH Fingering - RH Fingering, the latter two concerning the guitar.
But if you mean that you prefer the fingerings to all be aligned on the same line (?), as you have in your second image, please note that this was not designed that way. It may be your preference, why not, but it is not necessarily the most common and/or most frequently seen in published scores :)
The implementation of fingering took place during version 2 (many years ago...), and it generated numerous debates and threads to arrive at a kind of compromise (but based on published works) that satisfied the majority of users.

cadiz1

• Aug 31, 2025 - 10:07

However, what you can do, and which should solve your problem, is to use this plugin:
https://musescore.org/en/project/align (version 4.4 or later)
I knew it existed, but hadn't tried it (because I didn't need it for my scores).
I just applied it to your example measure, and frankly, it seems to do the job!

Andy Fielding

• Sep 1, 2025 - 06:35

cadiz1 > But if you mean that you prefer the fingerings to all be aligned on the same line (?), as you have in your second image, please note that this was not designed that way...

Not quite. The most legible position for fingering is slightly above or below the note (wherever that happens to be, vertically), and whenever possible, outside of the staff.

I've edited music since the '70s, read numerous notation references, and worked for many clients and publishers, and never seen anyone suggest offsetting fingering 45° from its notes. That's a new one for me. Yet MS often does this by default.

Sometimes, due to space constraints, fingering must be placed beside noteheads—always the least legible choice, as it obscures both fingering and staff line. Even then, though, numerals are horizontally aligned as well as possible with their notes, not set off at an angle.

Thanks for your suggestion about MS's Text Styles > Fingerings X and Y adjustments. I tried this, but didn't see how it could be useful, as it applies the changes to all fingering. For example, with MS's default fingering here:

...changing the X value shifts out-of-position fingering even farther out of position horizontally:

...as changing Y does, vertically:

I'll look at that plug-in you mentioned. Thanks for your input!

cadiz1

• Sep 1, 2025 - 07:08

"Fingerings X and Y adjustments. I tried this, but didn't see how it could be useful, as it applies the changes to all fingering"
Of course, how could it be otherwise?
Now, regarding your first image:

It looks like it's a piano score or something like that? If you don't like the fingerings in voice 2 being on the right, check out the Fingerings palette: there are two sets of fingerings/numbers. The first one is more intended for piano and melodic instruments, and the second one is intended for guitar: when you hover over the numbers with your mouse, you'll see a tooltip that says LH guitar Fingering.

Try it and you'll see that the default placement is different (on the left, and close to the note heads).
Finally, from the way I see how you've edited the fingerings, the plugin seems like a good option for you. Especially since you can sub-categorize. For example, right-click on a "Fingering" (first set of numbers) / Select / More / Sam subtype (Fingering) / OK. Then apply the plugin. Ditto for LH fingering.
To sum up: try both sets of numbers in the palette, see which one suits you best, and use the plugin if necessary to speed up the editing process if you wish.

That said, I think it's unrealistic to expect the program to automatically resolve every situation in the best possible way. Because 1. we all have our personal preferences and the program can't read our minds yet, and 2. because, having personally seen thousands of guitar scores (I was a certified guitar teacher), there are so many variations depending the composers themselves and the publishing houses that you have to learn to do or live with.

worldwideweary

• Sep 1, 2025 - 04:48

I've never seen a published music sheet that uses MuseScore's "horizontal offsetting" of fingering (to the right there in your voice-2 and to the left in voice-1 in your first example).

Marc mentioned a workaround to me back in 2019 regarding this I think (might find it interesting but whatever): https://musescore.org/en/node/296067

It does only apply to single notes iirc (chords don't do the horizontal offsetting + the "closer to notehead" activity.) I literally ripped out the responsible part of the code in the 3.x branch in the past back then for my own personal build and made it so when autoplacement is off, the fingering vertically places right under/above the notehead depending on the voice. Worked way better for me: far less need to revise the positioning.

Note though that it is normal for some published works to have fingerings "collide" with staff lines and be closer to the notehead instead of always avoiding the staff. I've seen it plenty of times, though the alignment often is optimized vertically to remove ambiguity in relation to staff lines.

Aside:
Normal MuseScore (single notes):

Normal Musescore (chords):

Custom Code:

Might want to file a complaint with the github people for MSS4 for maybe setting it as a style, but I wouldn't hold my breath about it.