How to mark adjacent notes as semitones (half steps) in Musescore

• Mar 25, 2018 - 02:14

As a violin player it is useful to mark adjacent notes with an upside down V to mark them as semitones or half steps. I've looked online etc and can't seem to find either a predefined symbol or a free form drawing tool to draw one.

Thanks


Comments

At the bottom of the palettes is the word "Basic", click it and select Advanced. It will be under the articulations and ornaments palette.

In reply to by Sonial

Is this is a symbol actually used in published music, or one you invented yourself? If it's a standard symbol, you will probably find it in the Symbols palette (press Z to display). If you can't find it, then you can add it as an image (PNG or SVG format), which you could create in any drawing program.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I just found this thread because I too was looking for the half-step symbol. It is indeed a standard convention done by professionals to mark in a small V between the two semitones. It is not printed in parts but rather penciled in by the players in the orchestra when needed. Because it has become the standard way to mark half-steps, different student method books have begun to include the marking in their music. It would be useful to me because I am writing finger-pattern sheets for my students. I have attached an example of what the marking looks like in an Essential Elements book,

Attachment Size
Half Step Marking.PNG 2.61 KB

I was able to fuss around with the various moveable points on a slur to make it into a pointy shape that more accurately connected the two note heads than a symbol or an imported image would be able to (especially as the distances between note heads may change depending upon rhythms/ measure lines etc.). You just have to pull the upper right and left dots of the slur's points to the opposite sides of one another (cross them over).

I would add to the string-player voices here, though, that it would be a useful feature, especially if it were possible to create a half step symbol with 4 moveable points that could be shifted in the same manner as the slur's 6 moveable points. This would allow the half step symbol to appear above or below notes as well. But in the meantime I think the slur is decent, though slightly time-consuming, workaround.

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