Using curly braces
I'm loving MuseScore but have to admit I find using the curly braces to try to tweak the measures on each staff/line frustrating. For example, I have a line with 8 bars. The first 4 have notation and the last 4 are filled with slashes. Obviously, one would probably want to have the first 4 bars using up 55-60% or more of the line. MuseScore just cannot seem to figure out what I'm trying to do when I use the curly braces to try to shrink the four slash bars or widen the 4 notated ones. It keeps moving a slash bar down to the next staff, etc. I'm spending 15 minutes trying to tweak something that should take a few seconds to accomplish. Am I missing something. I really hope so!
Also, selecting measures seems so painful unless I'm zoomed in. I'm sometimes clicking on a bar 6 or 7 times before the program figures out I'm trying to select a bar and not a note in the bar (or a slash with slash filled bars, which I'm using a lot). Hopefully I'm missing something here too.
Comments
It sounds like you're missing something. Can you attach a score and explain what you're trying to do?
In reply to It sounds like you're… by mike320
Hey Mike,
Glad to hear that! On the 4th line in the part there is a staff with 8 bars. The first 4 contain (el bass) notation and the second 4 are filled with slashes. I'm tying to keep the staff with the same 8 bars but want to have the first 4 notated bars wider than the second 4 (filled with slashes). If I futz around enough I do eventually get things sort of the way I want but sometimes I want to just lock 8 bars to a staff and shorten/lengthen the bars to my liking. Hopefully that makes sense.
Is there an easier way to select a bar or group of bars then trying to click on just the right part of the measure? I think that question is more general and not really related to my particular score.
Thanks a lot for your help?
In reply to Hey Mike, Glad to hear that… by scotlarsenbass
First, to select a measure, click any empty area within it. Or, click the first note, shift+click the last, or press Ctrl+Shift+right to extend the selection a measure at a time. Yes, it helps to be viewing at a reasonable size.
As for the layout, sounds like you are on the right track - if for some reason you want a measure wider than the default, use "}", if you want it narrower, use "{". With the content you have fitting eight bars on a line is going be very tight, you might consider a small staff size. But if for whatever reason you feel locked into that staff size and you want to make the notated section wider but don't wish to have result in fewer measures fitting, I would say, don't make them wider - make the other measures narrower.
So, I would reset all the stretch adjustments you have, then use Format / Add/Remove System breaks to add the breaks every 8 bars (or insert them from the Breaks & Spacers palette manually wherever you want). Youll see it almost but doesn't quite fit, which is why I suggest reducing staff size slightly, but it would also work to simply select the groups of four bars you want narrower and reduce stretch.
So, maybe it's the system break you are missing? If you've been trying to get a certain number of measures on a system using only stretch but no breaks, that would indeed be frustrating!
In reply to First, to select a measure,… by Marc Sabatella
Hey Marc, thanks for all the tips! I will give those things a shot. Yeah, I was trying to shorten and lengthen bars. Sometimes it seems like a bar or group of bars just sit there and do nothing when I try to do either.
In reply to Hey Mike, Glad to hear that… by scotlarsenbass
First, the measures with the slash should look identical on both lines 3 & 4 but I don't understand why they look different. Someone with more knowledge than me will need to look at that.
To do what you want to do is not easy, because using { will allow space from the next staff, which will not make the spacing for the measures with notes wider than the measures with slashes. The most effective way to do this is to reduce the scaling in Format->Page Settings, increase the leading space for the notes using the inspector and using system breaks to assure you keep the number of measures you want on your staves. That's what I did in the attached concentrating only on lines 3 & 4 - I ignored everything else.
In reply to First, the measures with the… by mike320
I was having trouble getting a file to attach for some reason, but here it is now.
In reply to I was having trouble getting… by mike320
Awesome - thank you! That's perfect. Will try that.
In reply to First, the measures with the… by mike320
The odd gap in the slashed is due to an invisible clef there, not sure how it got there. To "see" it, click the slash before the gap, press Alt+Right to mvoe to the next element, and you'll see in the status bar there is a clef there. Hit Delete and it's gone.
In reply to The odd gap in the slashed… by Marc Sabatella
Ah, cool! That was probably my doing!
I went back in and try to click on/select bars now and it was much easier for some reason. Weird.
In reply to I went back in and try to… by scotlarsenbass
I find it trickier to select a measure in version 3 than I did in version 2. When all else fails, I select the last note of the last measure and/or first note of the first measure to select an end of a selection.