Staff distance

• Jul 8, 2018 - 05:35

I would like to get this whole song on one page.
The only way I can do that is to get the four verses of lyrics on this page.

Right now I had no difficulty getting two verses stacked one over the other.
Next, I went into "Style/General/Page/Staff distance and Min distance" to adjust staff and min distance but it didn't have any effect on what I saw on screen.

My strategy is to open up the staff distance first, then try to squeeze in the 3rd and 4th verses between the staves.

Any help with this would be appreciated!


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks guys for your help!
I figured out that even if I managed to squeeze in the four verses, it would push the staves apart to such an extent that the piece would have to spill over onto a second page.
So I will just go with two verses and a bit on first page and then the rest on the second page.
Not so bad really.
Thanks again!

Staff distance only affects distance between staves of a single system. My guess is you have only one staff, so no wonder reducing that has no effect. Reducing min system distance would, but only if you reduce it by enough to fit another system - otherwise MuseScore automatically floats the system distance up to the "max" distance. As mentioned, MuseScore automatically adds extra space for verses, so you shouldn't need to adjust either parameter just for that.

If you attach your score, then we can understand better and assist better.

In reply to by ScoreMark

Actually, you uploaded the backup file (starts with period, ends with comma, normally set to hidden to prevent exactly that confusion!). And unfortunately the site doesn't actually support those files, so I can't access it. Still, our previous posts crossed, sounds like you managed to figure out some things already. I'd just add that if you still need to squeeze more onto a page, usually the best method - rather than reduce staff or system distances - is to reduce overall staff size in Layout / Page Settings. Then everything sclaes with it and your music doens't look unacceptably crowded.

In reply to by ScoreMark

Indeed, if you don't want to show the notes, simply making the staff lines & notes invisible then changing the default position for lyrics to be correspondingly higher would gain you a ton of space; you'd have no trouble fitting the entire thing on one page with room to spare, even without reducing sizes.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for helping out again Marc.
I managed to get it all printed on one page, but this was before your last reply.
I had decreased the font size.
I am attaching the file here so you can see.

How can I get rid of the quarter notes throughout to gain more space, but retain the bar lines?
If I can get rid of the notes, then theoretically I could lower the chord diagrams and then be able to increase the font size for the lyrics.

Attachment Size
Honey.mscz 19.57 KB

In reply to by ScoreMark

Well I'm making BIG progress!
I figured out how to make the quarter notes invisible. It was a two step process for me because first I selected the note head and learned that only the heads would become invisible.
Then I selected the stems and made them invisible.

I have almost everything working now. Just need to make one more adjustment.
After I made the notes invisible I was able to lower the chord diagrams to where the notes were.
Then I was able to make the fonts bigger.
I couldn't put them back to their original 11 (had changed to 9) but 10 works nicely,
except for the last bar of the song!
It wants to go onto a new page!
So how can I squeeze the last bar onto page one?

In reply to by ScoreMark

FWIW, the way I would recommend making the notes invisible is to select all and then use the Selection Filter to exclude lyrics and fret diagrams (and anything else you want to keep). That way you can be sure to also hide beams, dots, accidentals, or anything else. Although if you are careful to only enter quarter notes, you are probably OK.

Not sure what got in the way of you setting the font to 11 pt.

Anyhow, for me, doing what I said caused the entire score to easily fit on one page with lots of room to spare. Maybe post what you have so far and I can see what you've done differently?

In reply to by ScoreMark

Selection Filter is in view menu - it allows you to exclude things from range selections.

In my test, I turned off clef, time signature, & barlines in Staff Properties. Probably you want to keep the barlines at least, but getting rid of the clef helps.

Also, it looks like you manually adjusted fretboard position. Don't. Just change the default position in Style / General / Chord Symbols. You had missed the last line of fret diagrams thus wasting space keeping them above the staff unnecessarily. You can also save space by reducing the lyrics top margin in Style / General / Page.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks again Marc. Everything fits on the page now.
I see now how to adjust the chord diagrams. You are right I was doing them manually.
However when I went into the settings as you suggested and made a change, though
the chords did move, they kept my adjusted setting at the same time!
So they were still off a bit in relation to each other.

Is there a way to reset them and then move them en masse vertically?

In reply to by ScoreMark

I find myself once again in a familiar situation.
I have almost finished my song.
The problem is that it spills over onto another page.
Just one stave.

I would like to bring a few staves closer together (not all of them).
This would give me enough space for the whole song to fit on one page.

I'd like to bring stave first two stave closer, (bars 1-7)
25-31 stave and
31-37 stave.

I am attaching my score.
I hope someone can help me with this?

Attachment Size
Hello Stranger.mscz 22.54 KB

In reply to by ScoreMark

You can't force two systems closer together than the minimum system distance, but you can decrease the minimum than add space in other places if you really want unequal spacing. I wouldn't recommend creating the unequal spacing though - better to just decrease the minimum and let it be honored uniformly. Also, realistically, in this score (and many) you'd probably be better off just reducing the staff size a little; this will produce a much less cramped look.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I'm trying to achieve something similar but am in a quandary. I have a piece which has treble and TAB systems for everything except the 8 bars of Intro. I've tried inserting vertical frames to separate the Intro from the main body, but can't seem to squeeze the two Intro systems closer together. I used 'hide' to hide the TAB system for the Intro.

In reply to by scorster

Hi Scorster,
Yes that is exactly what I wish to achieve but I don't understand how you did it. It took me a couple of tries but I see you used 'fixed spacer down'. I'll have to read the manual as 'spacer' doesn't appear when you look in 'help' on the toolbar. Thanks again; who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

In reply to by Tooter

Frames are for putting things inside, not for spacing other things - that is only an accidental side effect. To space things more directly, use spacers, as suggested.

I personally wouldn't be in a hurry to create unequal system spacing - bringing the first two systems closer together than the others might confuse someone into thinking it was actually a single system (the fact that it's a single staff would exacerbate that problem. But for the record, a fixed spacer would indeed allow one to accomplish that if desired.

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