adding beams between notes?

• Mar 19, 2012 - 07:12

Another problem. Hoping to find a way to shorten the distance between notes, I removed the beam by using the beam pallete. Now I can't put the beam back again; I seem to be stuck with the new version.


Comments

In reply to by Fast Eddie

First, drag & drop is not usually the most efficient way to use the palette - instead, click the intended target (the eighth notes) and then double-click the palette icon. Still, either should work. From your description elsewhere, I'm guessing you are selecting the wrong icon. If you are trying to set them both to "Beam start", they can't both start the beam, so you'll get nothing. Instead, the first should be beam start, the second beam middle. Or, better yet, just set them both to Auto, which is how they normally start. That would work unless the usual rules of music notation forbid it - like if you are trying to beam the "&" of one beat to the following beat.

If these guesses don't help, then we can do better if you attach your score.

In reply to by eameece

Something to udnerstand about beams in MuseScore - the way I understand it, each *note* has it's own beam property. By default, they are all set to A for automatic (which you can see if you cursor through the passage while watching the beam palette). Breaking a beam between two notes can be done by setting the beam properties of *either* (or both) of the two notes to "no beam". If you break the beam by setting the beam properties of the first note to "no beam", then pnly by setting that first note back to auto, or to start of beam, will rejoin it - nothing you do to the second note will change anything, because it is still set to auto. Conversely, if you broke the beam by setting the properties of the second note to no beam, then you must change that second note back to rejoin - nothing you do to the first note will rejoin it. Or, if you set *both* notes to no beam, then you must set them *both* back to auto (or set the first to start and the second to middle)

This is one of those things that does take a minute to figure out, but once you have it, you have it. Luckily, the beam palette always shows you the current state of each note, so it is easy enough to figure out which notes are set to auto and which aren't.

In reply to by Fast Eddie

You wrote:
...until I get to the pair of 1/8 notes, then it shows on the pallet a note followed by a double beam.
OK.. so click on (i.e. select) the second eighth note (which you want presumably connected) and then double click on the palette icon labelled 'Beam middle' .

P.S. Posting the score, or a snippet demonstrating the issue, would be a great help - if only to allow a more 'customized' reply.

Regards.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

I have version 3.01 now and several major things have changed and I am spending hours trying to do things that should be very simple. Foe example I cannot get the beam function to work I have 3 consecutive 1/8 notes and I want to beam the last two. I select the 3rd 1/8 note and click on the pallet and nothing happens. I have clicked on all possible pallet options, including the automatic button. If anyone can help, many thanks in advance.

In reply to by Fast Eddie

If you hover your mosue over that icon, you'll see it says "Beam start". That means that in the score you are working on, either you or whomever created the score (or perhaps it was imported from another program) explicitly set that note to start a beam. if you have two adjactent eighths that are both set to start a beam, then they won't be joined - they can't both start the beam. Just set them back to auto as they originally / normally would be.

And as mentioned above, if you continue to have problems, please attach your score so we can see what else might be going on and advise better.

In reply to by Fast Eddie

I am not sure what exactly you did to get the file into this state - did you first enter the eighth notes, then select them, then double click the "no beam" icon in the palette? If so, that was your mistake, you should have selected on the first eighth note. But no problem we can correct it. Just click the second note then double-click "beam start" in palette, then click the third note and double-click "beam middle".

Do note, though, that this would be considered incorrect notation - the default beaming in MuseScore is already correct for most cases.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

fI started with a blank staff. Then I added two 1/8 notes and they were automatically joined by a beam. When I add the next 1/8 note it has no beam. So my question is how do I make the 1st 1/8 note have no beam and the 2nd and 3rd have a beam joining them. I am using Musescore 3.01 on a MacBook pro. This should not be hard but I am not able to do it.

Yes I did use the palette to eliminate the beam for the first two notes. Sorry I don't know what I'm doing.
Eddie

In reply to by Fast Eddie

I just solved my problem. Initially the notes 1 & 3 are joined with a beam and note 3 has no beam. So I then click the no beam option on the palette and now have 3 1/8 notes with no beam. Then I select the last (3rd) note and select the mid note beam option in the palette. Result is 1st note an 1/8 note with no beam and the last two 1/8 notes joined with a beam.

The reason I do this - although it's not standard - is I buy guitar music online and put it into Musescore mainly so I can see the TABs.

Thanks for all of your help.

In reply to by Fast Eddie

That doesn't really explain why you do this though - the tab is going to look the same regardless of whether you make the standard notation look wrong or not. Somehow I think there is something you must still not be getting right here (or I am not understanding about your explanation).

Now, if the measure actually starts with a rest and not a note, then it's totally correct to have the first note unbeamed and the other two beamed, but this is what MuseScore does by default, so again, you shouldn't need to change it. Unless, I suppose, you are just talking about a pickup measure that does consist of just those three eighths and doesn't show the leading rest(s). in which case you would indeed need to override the beaming, so maybe that is what you are working on?

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