Auto-subdivision of "remaining space" in bar for easier note input
Problem Statement:
I often find myself wasting time manually subdividing and re-subdividing empty measures (by filling in the right number of rests of the right durations, and adjusting as necessary) so that I can place a quaver or something similar in the latter half of the measure, to line up with something in another part.
This is quite an annoying and disruptive workflow, as it forces to break your focus on the music you're creating and instead spend time micromanaging/babysitting the computer first.
Proposed Solution:
It would be nice to have some "auto-subdivision" features available to improve the workflow.
- In Selection/Normal Mode -- With a rest (i.e. whole bar, or smaller) selected, if you click on one of the note durations (or use the keyboard shortcuts), the selected rest(s) will be replaced by a series of rests of equivalent duration. For example, if you select a whole-measure rest in 4/4, and click on the crotchet button, you'll get 4 crotchet-rests. If instead you clicked the quaver button, you'd get 8 quaver rests instead.
- In Note-Input Mode -- While hovering over the measure, MuseScore will show a preview (i.e. semi-transparent, ghosted rest-glyph overlays) of how the remaining space in the measure could be subdivided into rests of the selected duration (i.e. it's like the normal-mode behaviour, except this is only a preview, and it won't do anything till you actually insert a note). As you move the mouse over these preview-rests, you'll get the noteheads showing up in place of the rest that would be replaced if you clicked. Finally, once you click, to place the note, the appropriate number of rests (of the appropriate durations) will be inserted into the measure to ensure that newly-added note can go where you clicked.
Notes:
#1 could probably be achieved in a plugin in the meantime - Actually, that's what I'm going to look into doing when I get time :)
#2 may prove to be tricky to implement (depending on how the rendering/note-input mode works)
Comments
Copy paste the section with the notes, select the target section, right-click a note, select all similar in selection, Del
Or select range, Edit/Tools/Fill with slashes
In reply to Copy paste the section with by Jojo-Schmitz
1) I'll play around with this technique a bit as an interim workaround. Still, it seems rather clumsy compared to something that feels like a natural extension of the notehead preview functionality we have already
2) Hmm... I've had a quick play around with this, but it's not quit what I'm looking for.
i) It's a bit too limited (i.e. it only seems to divide in certain ways)
ii) Sometimes, the slashes don't get properly replaced, and end up making the notes become stemless
In the meantime consider keyboard entry of notes/rests, which is often a way faster method of entering your music than by using the mouse.
In reply to In the meantime consider by jeetee
I already do ;)
It's more of a mix though:
* Sometimes I use keyboard only (i.e. mainly for whole sequence/run of notes, and also for chords within a single staff),
* Sometimes a mix of keyboard + mouse (i.e. keyboard for note names, mouse over note-input toolbar or over the palette adding articulation), and
* Occasionally mouse only (i.e. usually for adding the first note in a measure ==> the use case described here :)
While I can certainly imagine uses for such a feature, I don't think it is accurate to say that needing to enter rests breaks your focus on the music or that entering rests is "wasting time". Music is read and written left to right, and rests are just as significant as notes. Entering notes is deliberately not different from entering rests. If you want a measure to begin with notes, start by entering those notes, but if you want to begin with rests, you start by entering rests. It's quite logical and consistent. So to me, it's really about *how* you think of music notation.
Still, again, that said, the specific case of starting a measure with rests could possibly be made slightly more efficient.