Key Signature Reminder Conflict

• Mar 8, 2016 - 22:22

A teaching piece (piano) is in the key of F (b-flat). My very young students need reminding so, despite its not being necessary, I still want to put a flat sign in front of the B's in the piece. When I select the B and then click on the Flat accidental, MS puts a flat sign in the beginning of the measure, as if it were a key signature change. So then there is a 1-flat key signature in both Treble & Bass clefs which is far more than I intended. This will confuse my students. I can remedy this with a ballpoint pen, for now but -- I'm sure I've added redundant flats/sharps, etc. to pieces composed in earlier versions of MS. Something is different. Thanks!


Comments

Are you sure you applied a flat accidental to a note and not a key signature? Please show the score.

I do see the effect you desrcibe, if I select a note (any note, esp. any note that is not the first in a given measure) and double-click the F-Major key signature from the Key Signature Palette (BTW: the nighly builds behave differently here, they do allow for a mid-measure key sig change), but it works just fine to select the B note(s) and then double-click the flat sign from the Accidentals palette

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Okay, it had been a long day! Great observation! I was in a hurry and already had Key Signatures displayed. The single-flat looked like it could be used as an accidental and THAT is what I used, as you suggest. I've used the accidental selection correctly MANY MANY times but I wasn't thinking clearly yesterday. Thank you! MuseScore is so good that I sometimes think it should "know what I want" rather than take orders from me. Thanks again! Case Closed.

One way of doing this:

Create a score with F Key Signature (one flat) and then write the score. This will ensure that B's are flattened by default.

Once finished, change the Key Signature at the beginning to C. This will result in MOST of the Bs displaying a flat sign. Actually, it will show a flat sign for the first B of every bar and you'll need to manually add a flat to any subsequent Bs in each bar.

Now, press Z to call up the Master Palette window and, from the list on the left, choose Key Signatures. Over to the right you will see a window that allows you to create a custom Key Signature. Drag a flat onto the B line, click on [Add] to add it to the existing group of Key Signatures and then drag it onto the first bar of your score. This will create the appearance of an F-Major Key Signature but does not have the same effect that creating a "real" F-Major Key Signature would do in that it doesn't affect the pitches of any new notes placed and won't undo all your carefully-placed flats on existing notes.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.