Select notes during note entry mode

• Apr 29, 2019 - 09:12

Is there some way to select notes during note entry mode?
I mean, without getting out from the note entry mode, to change temporarily the cursor from insert to select. I tried right clicking, adding ALT, CTRL or SHIFT but they all keep inserting a new note. The only action that works is to press N before selecting and after selecting, but if it were possible by right clicking, two kyboard actions would be saved.
One example where selecting is usefull is to add a tie to a note with the same duration.Other, to add an articulation.

Comments

• Apr 29, 2019 - 15:34

If the cursor has moved beyond where you want to add something, you can use the left arrow to backup and remain in note input mode. The right arrow works if you go too far.

Articulations can be added to the last entered note either using a shortcut or by double clicking the item in the palette. If you can then add another note to the chord or continue at the next note with no interruption of your workflow,

To add a tied note to the current note, select the new duration and press + (or click the icon) and you will get the same chord tied to it. If you forget the tie, you can either use the arrows to move back or wait until later and add while after you're done entering notes. It's always easiest to do it right the first time.

If this does not explain something, tell me what you want to do and perhaps there is a way you are not aware of.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 18:06

Thanks, the left / right arrows are useful, I had not noticed that. But the up / down keys move the notes up and down so it seems not easy to change staves this way. The specific situation is the following: I have several instruments with a whole note in each that has to be extended several measueres. What I do is select a note in one staff and apply the tie, then go out from entry mode, select another note in the next staff, enter note entry mode an apply a tie, etc. I could apply "infinite" ties to all notes out from note entry mode, and then add the notes, but I've had a bad experience with file corruption due to ties that couldn't be removed.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 19:39

In the 3.1-beta release. I entered a note on something like staff 20, I pressed alt+up arrow and the cursor moved to the top staff and highlighted the first beat. When I turned off note input and pressed alt+up arrow, the display jumped to the top and the status bar said the first beat of the first staff was selected but the first beat was not blue like it was selected.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 21:49

Hmm, it normally works for me just fine, but I think I just found a way to reproduce something similar in 3.0.5 as well as master. If one staff has a note on beat 1, and the staff immediately above it has a full measure rest, then Alt+Up will move the cursor but not actually highlight the measure rest. It's actually selected and responds to commands normally, but it doesn't highlight. What's different between what I am seeing and what you're describing is, the status bar correctly reports the right staff, and the display doesn't jump to the top. If I'm in page view, the display moves up a staff at a time as needed - and in that case the highlight does work. If I'm in continuous view, it doesn't move at all.

So, a really interesting glitch, but not new in 3.1

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 19:32

There are definitely easier ways to do that. Easiest, of course, is to have entered the ties right from the start: 7 G + + + + etc. But assuming for whatever reason you are already in this situation, I would leave note input mode. select the whole range except the last note across each staff, and press + to add ties to all of them at once. Or if you don't want to leave note input mode, cursor back to the first note then just press + as many times as you need. Or maybe you mean, you haven't actually entered the other notes yet? In which case, I'd just do so normally / directly, in note input mode, pressing +.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 20:25

Yes, I haven't entered yet the other notes (to which I want to tie the preceding ones). The problem is that I must select each one, go to note input mode and press + or click on the icon, then exit note input, select the note in the next staff and so on. There are two entry and exit note input mode that could be avoided if able to select within input mode.
I think with a combination of left / right and Alt + up / down I'm done. It would be easier if able to select with the mouse, but anyway it is not much of a problem.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 22:23

OK. First, bear in mind I'm composing, not just transcribing, so I may change my mind and decide to prolong a group of notes (on different staves) long after having abandoned the note input mode or after being busy with other parts of the composition.

So I select one of those notes, say the one in the first staff, press N and + (or click on the respective icons, which I personally prefer). A note is added and tied, and the correct accidental is secured for the tied note. Just one action and the job is completed for the first staff. Then I need to select the note to prolong from the second staff. As the insert point has moved forward pass the tied note (a handy feature when inputting notes in a linear fashion along the same staff), to reach the target note I must exit note input, click on the new note to prolong and repeat the process. Alternatively, I can press Alt + down and then twice left. Three key strokes, one of them double.

Or I could add one by one the notes without exiting note input mode and when done, exit note input mode, select all the notes and click once on the tie icon... This seems the simplest solution, isn't it? But... 1) I must enter each of the notes with the mouse, which in a small screen requires dexterity and good vision... twice, once for the first note (inevitable if using the mouse, but evitable if the first note was input using one of the alternaitive methods: MIDI, piano keyboard or note name letters) and then for the second one (inevitable if cannot select within note input mode), 2) Any accidental that the note happens to have must be entered again. Applying the tie function within the note input mode does this automatically

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 23:23

OK, so, you already have a whole note on several staves, and at some point (possibly long) afterwards you want to prolong them all with ties.

So, if you want to do this from within note input (your original goal), click the first, go to note input mode, press ++++, then Alt+Down, , Right Right Right Right, then ++++, etc. Or if you like clicking, click icons instead. MuseScore can't read your mind about what you might want to do next after doing any of these steps, so it's not clear what you might be hoping for instead.

I'm not understanding your last paragraph at all. Why would you need to enter notes with a mouse? And why, if you are entering notes with a mouse, would you not have the screen zoomed in sufficiently to do so accurately?

If you're looking for a more efficient way to get the job done, how about:

Select the column of whole notes. Press "R" as many times as you want to repeat, then select the whole region excluding the last chord, press "+".

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• Apr 30, 2019 - 09:25

What I'm hoping is what I said in the first post: to be able to select from within note input mode, suspending insertion for a while, say for just one action. The tie example was just an example, but frequently I miss that possibility. And it is not the same as quitting note input mode. However, I feel all this discussion has extended too much, since I just wanted to know if that possibility was already available (clearly, it is not). I'm not even implying it should be a feature request of any priority.
One thing I did not say is that when the score is very large (say, 100+ measures of an orchestral score) almost any action lags, so entering an quitting input mode is not really tranparent.
Regarding my last paragraph, If I'm inputing the notes with a piano keyboard or the qwerty keyboard, i need to tell in which staff and where in the staff I want the note. I can use Alt down and all that stuff, but I find it more natural and intuitive just to point with the mouse and click. I prefer to avoid zooming too much because I've been writing music for more than 30 years using paper and pencil and that's the way my mind is hard-wired: I need to see a substantial area of my score, so I limit zooming to situations where it is inevitable.
But I find your last remark very useful, I was not aware of the repeat feature. Thank you.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 17:00

Cursor keys are indeed the only way currently. In theory, we could implement Ctrl+click to select (seems the most consistent).

Right-click adds a rest, that's to me a more useful thing than selecting random notes.

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• Apr 29, 2019 - 19:44

Doesn't work that way in my case... it just adds a note, the same as left cicking. Is there some setting I'm skipping? (it would be really useful if it added a rest)
Ctrl + click (either right or left) has a strange behavior when in note-entry mode: it adds a note and a silence in all other staves, making the real length of the measure longer than the time signature, and adds a + in light blue over that measure in all staves in the system. Not that it wouldn't have an application in certain cases, but I think the need to add longer measures, like when inputing a fermata, is not so frequent.

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