How to put optional chords in parentheses?
I'm a new use of MuseScore and have just done my first lead sheet using one of the jazz fonts. Very nice!
One thing I couldn't work out how to do is to put a chord, or sequence of chords, in parentheses. For example the last three chords of a turnaround at the end of a chorus, that would get omitted on the last head. Like at the end of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" in NRB2.
If I typed a parenthesis before or after a chord, then it didn't get recognised properly by the program and wouldn't transpose. How do I do it properly? Thanks!
Comments
I think the best way is to simply enter the parens as additional "chords" on the same note/rest as the chord you are enclosing, then drag them into position. That is, after you've entered your chord normally, hit Esc to leave chord entry mode, then with the same note/rest selected, hit Ctrl-K again to enter another chord, and this time type the parens, with an appropriate amount of space between them, and using the cursor keys to drag the whole thing left or right as necessary.
Great, thanks! I didn't know you could put more than one chord on the same note.
On a similar note, if I have chords on two adjacent notes, how can I increase the spacing between the notes so that the chords don't overlap? It would be nice if the typesetting noticed and spaced the notes automatically to avoid the collision of chords, but knowing how to add some manual spacing would be almost as good!
In reply to Thanks and one more question... by TonyM-softins
You can click and drag chord names both horizontally and vertically. I like to offset them vertically, often it makes things clearer.
To space the actual notes farther, select them, then right click, and you get a menu. At the bottom of that menu, click on "Note Properties", and you get boxes to adjust leading and trailing space among other things.
-- J.S.
In reply to You can click and drag chord by John Sprung
Other possibilities:
- while typing a chord symbol, cursor keys will nudge it left or right
- select measure, layout->add more stretch
- just put fewer measure on the line in places where this is a problem
- if you eventually plan to add lyrics, those *will* space the notes out, so don't bother with anything else until you've added lyrics
In reply to Other possibilities: - while by Marc Sabatella
Great - thanks, both! So much to learn - and to re-learn having been used to Noteworthy Composer for 15 years! They never did bother with transposable chord symbols, AFAIK.