How do I notate sustaining notes without auto correct removing following notes?

• Jul 12, 2011 - 21:57

Hi,

I'm a new user to musescore so please excuse my ignorance ahead of time. I've searched the forums and google from many angles but cannot find this specific topic.

I'm composing a piece on classical guitar and cannot keep musescore from removing notes that follow sustaining notes. For example, if I want a note to sustain for the entire measure, say 3 whole beats, if I notate a dotted half note musescore won't allow me to enter any notes after that note within that measure. As if the 3 beats are all used up and nothing can layer beyond that initial 3 beat note being held.

Hopefully I'm making sense. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

Weston


Comments

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for the quick response. Although the tip on voicing was great to find out about, it doesn't seem to work for my specific application as I'm not trying to layer notes of different durations (I shouldn't have used the word layer, my bad). I'm instead trying to follow a note of a certain duration within the same measure without musescore prohibiting me from doing so.

Let's say you have a 4 beat measure and on the 1st beat you place an E whole note. Now, on guitar maybe I want to follow that whole note (while it sustains) with 3 quarter notes within that same measure on beats 2, 3 and 4. Musescore won't even give me the option of placing additional notes after the first beat as the whole note negates that option entirely.

I must be missing something extremely obvious in terms of notating in musescore as this would seem so common to notate something like this in compositions.

In reply to by Weston_Boucher

That's exactly what Voices are for. Read that section of the handbook more closely. Put the whole note in one voice, the quarter notes in another voice.

It occurs to me that what might be confusing you is that you don't need four quarter notes, just three. You should put a rest on the first beat. That's proper notation when using multiple voices - you are supposed to accoint for all beats in all voices in general. Voices are not just a MuseScore concept - this is how music has been notated since long before the invention of the computer. In the specisl cases where it considered acceptable to omit a rest, this is accomplised in MuseScore by entering it anyhwow then marking it invisible. But it's definitely not something you shouldl be doing except in the specific cases where it is generally accepted.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for the suggestion on the voicing but voicing limits you to layering notes that are played at the exact same time. This doesn't help me as I'm trying to follow a note with another note of a different duration, not start two notes at the same time with different durations as voicing would imply.

I've attached part of the piece I'm working on. Notice the very first bar. Now why can't I make that first half note a dotted? It won't let me. I want those initial "E" notes to sustain for 3 beats(the full measure). While being followed by beats 2 and 3 as the quarter notes suggest.

Then on measure 5, once again it's limiting me by turning my third beat into an 1/8 note that's tied to the following measure. I simply want 3 quarter beats total in measure 5. The first chord is a downward guitar thumb stroke for 1 beat, then it should be followed by two quarter note beats with the notes I've chosen. But it stuck rests where I don't want them and will not all for 3 quarter notes.

Forgive my lack of knowledge in notation as this is new to me. I'm very grateful for any help and patience of course :)

Attachment Size
Saisons de la Mort.mscz 2.1 KB

In reply to by Weston_Boucher

First, your score seems corrupt. You have a 3/4 time sig, but 4 counts per bar in the first few bars, and the half notes play like quarters. Weird.

Second, what you seem to want to do is insert notes (pushing other notes to the right) by changing the note lengths. MS can't do this. About the only way to accomplish this is to copy what you want moved and paste it over a few beats.

In reply to by Weston_Boucher

Again, what you want is voice. Put the half dotted E on first voice first beat. Voice 1 is full. On voice 2, put a quarter rest, and two quarters notes. If you really don't want the rest, select it and press Del. But it seems more clear to keep it.

Try to watch the videos on http://musescore.org and read voices again.

See file attached.

Attachment Size
Saisons de la mort.mscz 1.98 KB

In reply to by Weston_Boucher

Please read my previous response again. You *do* want notes played at the same time - you want the quarter notes played while the whole note is still sounding. You're being mislead by the fact that the first quarter *starts* after the whole note, but they are most definitely being hheard at the same time, and That is, once again, exactly what Voices are for. As I said, put a whole note in one voice, and quarter notes in the other. More specifically, one quarter rest followed by three quarter notes. And as I said before you do want that rest - find any other sheet music doing this, and you'll see those rests all the time. But in the special cases where you might not want the rest, you accomplish this in MuseScore by making it invisible.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Sorry for beating a dead horse with the voices thing, I just didn't understand why I was required to put a rest in for beat 1 on the 2nd voice as without that it won't even let me enter beats 2 and 3. Since I've only been sight reading a couple years, I'm a little slow on certain aspects still. Thank you so much for all the help everyone, it's so great to have insight on things that would've otherwise kept me from moving forward.

In reply to by Weston_Boucher

Great! Everyone's a newbie at some point, so don't worry. So you know, the general rule when writing music that uses multiple voices is that each voice needs to be fully accounted for. That is, if the measure has four beats, then each voice in that measure should have four beats. So even if a voice just has you a single quarter note, say on beat 3, you still need to show the rests before and after. In your example, the whole note already accounts for all four beats, so that voice is full. Any notes you want to add to a measure other than that require another voice, with all four beats accounted for in that voice as well.

Of course, a voice can have multiples notes played at a time, but only as a single chord - two or more notes on the same stem and having the same length.

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