indent and right-align the system

• Feb 5, 2013 - 06:37

Hi guys,

I'm creating some sheet music for Jazz and all the lines have 4 measure with fixed width (I'm using 'Style / Edit General Style / System / Fix Measure Width' for this).

Now, I would like to indent some measures for the second verse or the third verse and right-align them to the measures above.
I have tried 'horizontal frame' and managed to indent it, but it also disfigures the layout in some aspects.

1. The indented measures have different width from the others (which are all fixed at the same width).
2. I cannot get rid of the clef.

Is there a better option than 'horizontal frame, or does anybody know how I can work around this?

Thanks a bunch!


Comments

I don't really trust the "fix measure width" option and wouldn't really use it for the purpose you are. If I really needed to align all the barlines (and I don't recommend this - this *not* standard typesetting practice, although the Real Book did indeed do things that way), I'd just stretch measures individually to get the desired effect. That way I'd retain full flexibility to add frames, to allows some measures to have different widths, etc. More work, but you're more in control. For that matter, though, I'd also recommend against indenting systems just to indicate verse structure. That's not standard practice either, and would be more likely to confuse than clarify. Typically, indents would be used only for starts of new movements or Coda systems, so when people see an indented system, it's normally an indication to not fall right into it.

Not sure what you mean abut not being able to get rid of the clef. Which clef? Posting a score would help.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks Marc for your input!

I'm attaching a couple of files to this message.

What I'm trying to achieve is to make the format of the MuseScore file to look exactly like the attached png file, except, of course, the MuseScore file would have a lot more information.

So, with regards to the 2nd verse, I'm trying to make the measure in the fifth line to be the same width as the other measures.
What I meant by getting rid of the clef was that I want to erase the treble clef only from that measure.

I had a quick attempt on adjusting the measure width without the 'Fix Measure Width' option, but the measure width did't seem to be manually adjustable, though I'm very new to the software.

Thanks again!

In reply to by vivaBiBi

The only reason the example you posted (from iRealb, I assume?) has measures the same width is because they don't contain any notes. As soon as you add notes, it is the notes that are supposed to determine width. Measures with more notes should be wider than measures with fewer notes - that's normal and correct, and you really shouldn't be violating that without really good reason. But as I said, if you absolutely need to for some reason, you can use "stretch' (see Layout menu) to alter the sizes of individual measures.

I'm also not understandng why you want to remove any clefs. Again, in the iRealb example, there are no notes, so it makes sense not to have clefs, but your chart has notes, so you really need clefs. But if you do for some reason to to hide one, right click and set invisible.

Basically, what I am saying is that trying to copy the iRealb chart but then add notes is a bad idea. That style works fine when making a simple chord chart with no notes, but it just isn't the way notated music is normally printed. Gong with the MuseScore defaults makes a lot more sense. Making the measures the same width even though they have different numbers of notes just makes the chart harder to read, as does hiding clefs. But again, if you really really need to, "stretch" can be used to adjust measure widths, and just anything can be made invisible via the right click menu.

BTW, notice that your chord symbols don't match? Different sizes, also some times you see actual flat signs, other times you see the letter "b"? That's because you are emtering chord symbls MuseScore doesn't recognize. You'll also find the unrecognized chords won't transpose, and other bad things. See the Handbook entry on Chord name . If you switch to the cchords_sym style, then those chords will be recognized. Enter "ma" when you want the triangle. Also, starting from the Jazz Lead Sheet template set up a lot of things for you (like use of the MuseJazz font throughout) that will result in a better looking score.

I'd suggest reading my two part tutorial on producing good lead sheets with MuseScore: http://musescore.org/en/node/11723 and http://musescore.org/en/node/11726.

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