Note groupings and playback
Hi, I have just started using Musescore, and I intend to use it primarily for notating drum patterns. I am wondering if there is a way to segregate the note clusters into smaller sections than two beats. For example, in the attached file, you can see in the 4th measure, the hi-hat is grouped together across two quarter notes, "1 &a2 &a" is grouped together, and then "3 &a4 &a." Musescore grouped them this way automatically, and I have been unable to change it. What I would prefer to do is group those hi-hat notes together for the space of one beat, or one quarter note or crochet...however you say it. In other words, I would like that measure to have 4 groups of connected hi-hat notes, "1 &a" then "2 &a" "3 &a" "4 &a" if that makes sense. This is standard in all drum notation that I have been familiar with over the years. Usually no more than 4 hi-hat notes are grouped together to avoid the visual clutter. If there are only 8th notes (or quavers, I guess), then 4 of them can be grouped together to span 2 beats of the measure. But if 16th notes are involved (semiquavers), up to 4 of them will be grouped together to span only 1 beat of the measure. I would like to split up those groupings in order to conform to drumset notation standards and also because visually it is easier to sight-read for drummers. Is there a way to do this?
Also, I am wondering if there is a way to split the first voice (hi-hat and snare) and the second voice (bass drum). Display-mixer window does not give me the option to separate the voices within the drumset. Or if it does, I haven't figured it out yet.
Thanks for the help!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Cool Rhythm.mscz | 2.2 KB |
Comments
Maybe it would be easier to see an example of what I'm trying for. I'm attaching another file that contains the figure I would like to duplicate. In the example, there are quarter rests on 2 and 4. Imagine that the figures for beats 1 and 3 are repeat 4 times (no rests in the measure). That is what I'm trying to get. 4 groupings like this one in the measure, instead of the two larger groupings in the "Cool Rhythm" file.
See Beam in the Handbook for how to override default beaming. I have assigned keyboard shortcuts (see Edit / Preferences / Shortcuts) to the start of beam and middle of beam commands to simplify this, so I can break and join beams directly during note entry.
Not quite sure what you are asking regardng voices, but you can right click a staff and use Edit Drumet to change how drums are assigned to voices upon entry. Or are you asking about doing something after entering the notes? Maybe to taken an existing drum part and split in into separate staves? If so, easiest way is probably to copy the contents of the staff to another, then delete the contents of one voice or the other (right click a note, select / more / same voice, delete).
In reply to See Beam in the Handbook for by Marc Sabatella
Yes, that did the trick. Thanks for the tip about the shortcuts. Makes the entries much easier.