Enharmonic changes by user should persist at least through the same measure.

• Sep 5, 2015 - 17:21

As it is, if there are several A sharps in a measure and you want to change all to B flat, you have to select them all or else select the measure and raise and lower it a half-step which may produce undesired enharmonic changes in other notes, or press j which almost surely will.


Comments

But what if you don't *want* the same enharmonic spelling? Normally, you would just spell it correctly while entering the notes anyhow. Can you explain more about your use case?

In reply to by jotape1960

About the correct enharmonic spelling? Sure, lots of rules, which sometimes conflict.

I personally consider the harmonic context to be the single most important consideration. If the prevailing harmony at that particular juncture is F minor, then the third of the chord should usually be spelled Ab not G#. The opposite is true if the prevailing harmony is E7. But if the note in question is not a chord tone, then one normally spells it with sharps if the line is ascending. Except good editors also take pains in certain cases to make intervals of a step *look* like a step, similar for thirds and other intervals, even if this means breaking one of the other rules. For example, C#-B often makes more sense than Db-B even though the line is descending, and this might be true even if Db technically fits the harmony better. These are all subjective decisions, though.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

In measure 5 of the attached file, I entered C# = D flat on a MIDI keyboard. It appeared as C#. I changed it to D flat. I then entered the rest of the measure on the MIDI keyboard. Leaving aside the deeper problems you refer to, and any opinion you may have of my compositional skills, I think once I have changed C# to D flat, a sensible default would do so for the rest of the measure.

Attachment Size
measure_of_indefinite_duration.mscz 13.33 KB

In reply to by jwpratt

Ah, MIDI input - you didn't mention that in your original post. MIDI input is indeed a very case where I can see why one might sometimes want the spelling used for the first note to be maintained for others in the measure. Having to guess at enharmonic spelling is the inherent weakness of MIDI input, a big reason why I find regular keyboard input faster, but this particular case could indeed be improved. Feel free to submit an official feature request to the issue tracker.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I don't see how regular keyboard input solves the enharmonic choice problem any faster since MuseScore chooses in key for all input methods. MIDI has the advantages you mention in your book. With RH on (49-note) MIDI keyboard and LH on number pad, I can enter notes several times as fast as I think I ever could either by letter or by screen keyboard and mouse, even after much practice. In fact I was recently getting ahead of the computer repeatedly and losing notes, but I can't remember where. Otherwise I might have submitted an example. I mostly do arrangements of classical music, so an enharmonic choice is likely to be right for quite a while, but I'd be happy with a measure at a time. I'll submit an official feature request. Thanks.

I think enharmonic spelling is generally a special case on a per note basis and, as such, I would favour only the note that you select being affected. It doesn't always follow that when you enter one note differently that you want the others to copy it. Quite often you'd want to enter one note that way and the others not and you'd then have to change the others.

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