Smart duration edit - reposition following notes - rhythm changes
The announcement of "smartness" seems to be the right time for my most important feature request:
An edit mode for note duration with repositioning the following notes. This would be incredibly helpful for adjusting difficult (to me!) rhythm.
It is fully sufficient to work on one voice only. Selectable horizontal range of the active area would be a bonus.
Carlocarl
Comments
It's a common enough request, but you have to realize, it would not be nearly as useful as you might imagine, because MuseScore would have no idea how *many* of the folliowing notes should be repositioned. Just the next one? All notes to the end of the measure? To the end of the piece? To some other arbitrary place where you entered things correctly? So instead, it is much more effective to move the following notes yourself. Only you know which notes you want moved, so you can select them, cut them, and paste where you want them in a matter of seconds. Whereas if MuseScore tried to guess how many notes to move, it would be wrong more often than not, and thus take you even more time to fix the problem than if you just did the move yourself in the first place.
That said, a tool could certainly be developed, but it's not a question of being "smart" in the sense that the announcement you refer to is talking about. MuseScore will never be able to read minds, so it can never know how many notes you want to move. Any such facility would be limited to making a guess, and no amtter what we guess, it is probably what you want only a inority of the time.
In reply to It's a common enough request, by Marc Sabatella
Like he said: "Selectable horizontal range of the active area would be a bonus." That's the best solution I can think of for the "How many notes to move" problem.
In reply to Like he said: "Selectable by Isaac Weiss
Yes i know the common answer for an also common request. So i took the "smart" argument to nail it finally...
I think the most natural behaviour for a duration function was to change everything after the active note. No problem to readjust an unintendedly moved tail, it is only one step with the duration function itself.
I am shure there is a huge demand for this real powerful feature, at the latest when it is available.
But i understand the reservations about public reception and people arguing "why doesn't it work this way" etc. To avoid this, here my proposal:
If the masters give a notice they are willing to code it i am willing to shape an algorithm for this function. As mentioned in other threads, even a macro function might do it with the only addition of a "select from here to end" command.
Carlocarl
In reply to It's a common enough request, by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
thanks for your response!
Supposed you are the author of "Jazz improvisation primer" i guess you are simply not encountering the same struggles than i (and maybe others) when noting elaborated rhythm patterns. For me it can be a process of trial and error, making corrections, replaying, multiple select-cutorcopy-paste for one correction etc.
Be assured i am quite aware of the advantages a "duration function with tail adjust" gives to my workflow. I am willing and able to design a procedure if there is a chance it is beiing coded.
Carlocarl
P.S.: I would never fall for condeding "smartness" to a software or a car - just leaping on your claim from the frontpage...
In reply to Hi Marc, thanks for your by Carlocarl
I do understand that notating rhythms can be tricky, which is why I would never try to do it directly in notation software. Good old fashioned pencil and paper is *much* more efficient. First put in the noteheads, then draw barliens once you figure out where "1" is, then add the counts so you know what beat each note falls on, and only finally try to notate it. And even if using notation software in this workflow, if you find you made a mistake somewhere, you definitely don't want a change in one place to mess up the work you carefully did elsewhere, so in these cases, you wouldn't *want* the subsequent notes correct positions to be destroyed by your corrections elsewhere.
So I would say improving your workflow would probably more advantageous than having software guess (most often incorrectly) how many notes you want to move while sticking to your current workflow.
That said, again, I'm not opposed to seeing such a function implemented - I'm just trying to set expectations more realistically I've used software that does this guesswork, and it's wrong so often it is very frustrating to have to constantly go back and fix the erros introduced. It is objectively speaking more efficient - fewer keystroeks required on average - the way MuseScore does it. But again, I'm not oppsoed to seeing it implemented, if someone wants to try their hand at it.
I am glad this is a topic of discussion. I spend a good deal of time trying to make the notation match the timing of (my) performance. I'll typically input a measure, then realize that a note early in the phrase is not quite of the correct duration. Mayhem ensues. (Full disclosure: I am both a newbie to this great software and not a trained musician.) It would be wonderful to be able to, for instance, hold down the Shift key while I made the edit and have the rest of the measure move over to accommodate the change. Thanks much.
In reply to I am glad this is a topic of by rickexner
Not sure what you mean by "mayhem". If you change the duration of one note, MuseScore tries its best to keep all other notes absolutely unchanged - same duration, same position in time. So the exact opposite of mayhem. I guess maybe in certain cases where you change the duration of one note, you also want some number of subsequent notes moved earlier or later in time. only you know how many notes you want moved, of course, so simply use cut and paste to move them where you want.
In reply to Not sure what you mean by by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your response, Marc. Maybe "tedium" would be more accurate than "mayhem." Because, since every other note in the phrase does stay the same, I have to recreate the phrase one note at a time in the new configuration.
In reply to Thanks for your response, by rickexner
I don't understand. Are you saying you don't *want* the other notes in the phrase to stay the same? You want them to move earlier or later in time? If so, then no need to crerate the phrase one note at a time - just as I said, simply use cut and paste to move the phrase. Only you know what "the phrase" is - that is, how many notes you want moved. This is one reason MuseScore doesn't try to outsmart you and guess that you might want this done automatically. but it's trivially easy to do yourself in just a few keystrokes (select phrase you want moved, Ctrl+X, click new location, Ctrl+V)
In reply to I don't understand. Are you by Marc Sabatella
OMG you are right. Sorry to trouble you.