Help on Chords
Ok so I am quite old and new here, and new to music,
learing the Ukuele at the moment with a tutor so bear with me as I dont know very much at all.
I am at the point where I am being taught how to transcribe music which is all fine.
In the score we are using a notation where we have a chord that shows all the notes that make up that chord in the same vertical line as the note.
No idea what any of the right words are.
So this I can do for say the major chord of C with the notes C E G
and physically place thoes on the note no problem. but to do this for every chord note for every note position will take forever.
Is there a way of automatically say a key combination to represent the Major chord of C and it lay down all the notes automatically for that chord ?
If not and I feel that there isnt, then is there a way to directly put in a note of C like a lower C below the line below the score directly, rather than puting in a C then shifting it down to the lower position ?
I am not sure if any of that makes sense ?
Comments
Welcome Gary, see: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#enter-pitch
I don't know if it works: https://musescore.org/it/project/addchord
When entering notes on the key board, the next note will be placed in the position closest to the bottom note of the previous chord. So if you enter your first note C and it ends up an octave high, press ctrl-down arrow and it will move down an octave (ctrl-up arrow moves it up an octave). To build the chord hold the shift button and the next note in the chord E in your example and it will be placed in the next available spot above the first note. You can do this with as many notes as you want, each will be placed in the next position above the previous note. If a single note in the chord is in the wrong octave, you can click that note so it changes color and use the ctrl-arrow method to move that note.
Lets assume everything went well with your first chord C-E-G and you next want to enter a D minor chord 1 step above the previous D-F-A. When you press D (no shift) it will be placed on the D one step above the previous C because that is the closest. Continue entering the notes as before. If you want a D major chord rather than the D minor you can click the # button on the note entry toolbar after the F, then shift-A for the next note. At some point you will probably enter the first note of a chord in the wrong octave, but you just move it to the correct octave before continuing with the chord and the rest will fall into place. This keyboard method, once you get the hang of it, is the easiest way to enter notes into MuseScore.
I didn't mention the duration at all since you didn't, but I enter notes with my left hand and durations with my right hand using the numeric keypad. I think it works very well and I'm 52 (not so young myself).
In reply to When entering notes on the by mike320
Thanks for the answer
I can create it manually no problem
I just didnt want to do this over and over again
I was hoping for something like build a macro for each chord in the song and bind thoes to keys so one key press to lay down the chord.
Thanks
In reply to Thanks for the answer I can by Gary Yelland
Since I don't usually write for the ukulele I never thought of it as a hassle to use the keyboard in this manner to make an occasional chord. There have been proposals to have chords be automatically orchestrated (such as what you are doing) but there are so many variables involved with such a project, it is nearly impossible to cover every situation.
There is one other thing that might help speed things up. If you use a only a few chords in a section of the song you could copy chord 1 by pressing ctrl-shift when you select a note in the chord and then copy it (either right click, copy, ctrl-c or edit-> copy, whichever you prefer. Click your destination and paste it. If you want it a different duration then press the number to fix the duration. I would make my chord the shortest note in my piece the paste 6 for a 1/2 note and so on. This will make it so you can paste a chord in the last beat of the measure without it being too long for the measure and automatically expanding with a tie to replace the first note of the next measure. Next, copy and paste the next chord. As you go along you will be adjusting the note durations for the remainder of the song. If you paste a note in the first beat of a measure, then the up beat of 2 you will paste the first note - Adjust its duration - Move to the rest (either click or right arrow) - Adjust its duration so the next note spot is the upbeat of 2 and paste your note there and adjust its duration.
If you get used to this, it would probably be faster than entering each chord independently - especially if there are few chords in a section of music.
It wouldn't be common to notate both the chord symbols and the notes. So I am assuming maybe you really just want the notes for playback purposes? Keep in mind that is not the primary purpose of MuseScore; it's really about the notation. There are other programs out there that focus on things like automatic playback of chord symbols, and if your main concern is playback, you might want to look into those.
Aside from that, though, MuseScore does provide copy and paste, so if you've written out a chord once, you should never have to do so again. If you need further help, please attach your score and describe in more detail what you are trying to do, and we can help find the msot efficient way of doing it.
In reply to It wouldn't be common to by Marc Sabatella
Thnks i am not intrested in playback at all
But didnt realise you can cut and paste like that
I think that solves my problem
Many thanks for all the help.