Tenor Staff

• Nov 16, 2013 - 19:14

Many vocal arrangements place the Tenor part in the bass clef. I like a separate staff for each part, so I create four vocal staves. In MuseScore New:Vocals I can use Baritone instead of Tenor, to write the Tenor part in the bass clef. In that case, I'd like to change the label at the beginning of each line to say "Tenor" instead of "Baritone." I can't figure out how to edit that text. Is it possible? How?

I assume others have mentioned that it would be nice to choose between Tenor (treble clef) and Tenor (Bass Clef).


Comments

You can change the name of a staff by right clicking it and selecting Staff Properties. You can change clefs anywhere you like in a staff - including right at the very beginning - using the Clefs palette on the left of the screen.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thank you, Marc. That answers my main question. Except it doesn't quite work…

The first system now labels the third line as "Tenor." Subsequent systems are marked S. A. Bar. and B.

When learning to use MuseScore, I set up an SATB arrangement, and changed the Tenor treble clef to a bass clef. On playback, the Tenor instrument played an octave too low. Most instruments just made quiet growling noises. That's why I'm using Baritone instead of Tenor.

In reply to by Timborino

When you went to staff properties, you should have seen two different names: the full name that appears on the first staff and the abbreviation name that appears on subsequent staves. In this case, you need to change them both.

Clefs really do work. If you attach a score you are having trouble with (not just a picture, but the actual score) we can see what you are doing wrong and help you correct it. I'm guessing maybe you had already entered notes onto the tenor staff using the default clef but didn't realize the default clef is not a normal treble clef but instead a version with a little 8 underneath. This is the standard clef usedf or tenor voice in many if not most published vocal arrangements - it works like treble clef but sounds an octave lower than treble. So my guess is you entered the notes too low in the first place, and it would have played incorrectly even before the clef change. A clef change never changed the sounding pitch of notes alteady entered - just how they are displayed.

As for the growling noises, there was a known bug in earlier versions of MuseScore where playback would be distored on some systems until you aptouched the Reverb control and then it would get normal. That bug has since been fixed, and indeed that was one of the main reasons the 1.3 release happened. So whatever you remember happening before, you should make sure you have the current version (1.3) and try again. It really does work!

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

You're probably right about what went wrong. That's good to know. I was able to fix the abbreviation for Tenor, too.

Now I have two ways of setting up a staff for Tenor. Use Voice: Baritone, change the staff name and abbreviation to Tenor. -or- Set up an SATB system, change the clef in the tenor staff to Bass before entering any notes into that staff.

Thanks!

EDIT: If anyone is keeping track of this topic for the sake of bug fixes or developing version 2.0, changing the staff name did not change the original staff name in the mixer. Maybe there's a way to do this… I dunno. Maybe it's a teensy bug.

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