What voices should I use for what?
In MuseScore there are the voices 1-4. I used 1 for soprano, 2 for alto, 3 for tenor, and 4 for bass. Since the notes appear in that order.
Problem was that the alto notes were upside down compared to the sheet of music I'm following. Figured I could could swap them Stem direction setting found in the General Style settings. Looked fine. But then it hit me, by default voices 1 and 3 were up and 2 and 4 were down. Is it thought that voices 1 and 3 are the soprano and alto, while 2 and 4 are the tenor and bass? Or is 2 bass and 4 tenor?
I know it probably doesn't matter that much, but I'd like to do it properly, so what's the standard way, if there is one?
Comments
Use the treble clef for Soprano and Alto and the bass clef for Tenor and Bass.
Therefore you only need to use Voice 1 and 2 of Treble Clef and Voice 1 and 2 on the Bass clef.
The "voice" used in Musecore relates to a staff allowing up to 4 independent melodies and rhythms per staff.
Each note/chord in a voice has the same rhythm and note duration, but when you want to sound notes
with different durations then a voice is used.
I am not sure of your musical background, but to give you an example of piano music, you will find more than
one voice in a staff. One note could be held for a longer duration (voice 1) while other notes are played against the first voice.
Charles
From the computer's point-of-view, a "voice" is basically one (of four...) parallel lines of notes that occupy the same position-in-time upon the staff. The stem directions (and so forth) for each voice can be distinct.