modifying a .XML score from another software
The scores I'm working with are 4 part hymns with as many as 4-5 lines of lyrics.
I have a score created in another software which was then saved to .XML. I opened this in MU and other than the lyrics and titles being screwy, the music sounds OK except for several measures where a "rest" can be seen kinda greyed out. I am unable to delete it, but it gets used as part of the timing when I play back. i.e. a measure (3/4 time) has several notes in it, [soprano, alto] totaling three beats, and then after them, a dotted half rest which is another 3 beats. The rest gets played as do the other notes. The rest is NOT wanted. I can't seem to get it to delete. There are several places in the score where this occurs.
The lyrics in each measure seem to be free floating. Is there a way to move all of the lyrics on a line up or down at the same time. Not the whole score, just the one line.
I'm a raw newbie. However, I've used both SmartScore and Photoscore extensively. They both have their idiosyncrasies, so I'm assuming MU does as well. It does seem to have much more flexibility when inputting your own music.
I'm attaching a .xml file to this post. The bad rests are in measures 8, 18, 22, 26.
For measure 18, the problem is that measure 17 has only two beats and the Refrain (meas 18) has a one beat pickup. Measure 29 and 30 are similar, except an extra measure line got in there.
Lastly, how do you change the space between the treble clef and the bass clef to give more room for the lyrics?
I'm also attaching the pdf file of the score as it is supposed to look.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| All_Because_of_God's_Amazing_Grace.mscz | 30.24 KB |
| All Because of God's Amazing Grace.pdf | 756.38 KB |
Comments
Those bars all seem to be the wrong length. If you right-click (on some free space within the bar) and look at Bar Properties, Bar Duration, Actual you will see that some are 6/4 when they should be 3/4, others are 3/4 when they are meant to be 1/4 etc. If you correct those lengths (just change the 6 to a 3, the 3 to a 1 etc.) then this mostly solves your rest problem.
You can move all the lyrics down a bit by going to Style ->General ->Page and increasing the value of Lyrics top margin. You can adjust the space below the lyrics by changing Lyrics bottom margin.
In reply to Those bars all seem to be the by underquark
Thanks Underquark. You must have been typing about the same time as I ws. Yes. Thanks for your comment.
OK, I've found the fix for the phantom rests. Just open the measure properties and tell it how many beat to give the measure. Once I set it to three (or two or one, whatever it needs), the phantom rest goes away.
Ok, the answer to the lyrics problem was a tad more complicated. Basically, I selected ALL lyrics, copied them to a text editor window. I then went thru, putting dashes,space where needed to break the lyrics according to the notes. Then I deleted them from the score.
Then, I copied them using CMD C (iMac), clicked on the tarting note, and then clicked CMD L to input lyrics. Holding the CMD key and hitting V inserted one word/syllable for each note. Where the syllable skipped a note, I let up the CMD key, hit a space and then returned to CMD V process.
Spacing I finally figured out by trial and error. I knew it had something to do with properties.
After ALL lyrics were in, I then selected ALL lyrics once more, and used the Inspector window to change the vertical spacing. Now it looks great.
Only one problem remains.
How do you select the lyrics from say point(measure) A to the end? When I figure that out, I'll be able to move the Refrain lyrics back up a smidge.
In reply to Ok, the answer to the lyrics by bmwtriker
One way would be to first select the range itself - the measures / notes - using click & shift+click for instance, then right click a lyric and do Select / All Similar Elements in Range Selection.