Multiple Staff spacings on same page

• Oct 28, 2017 - 19:30

Hi,

I would like to have different spacings for different systems on the same page. It is for a song that has multiple verses but one chorus. In this case, one staff "needs" spacing for only one line of lyrics for the chorus, but then next one used for the verses needs four or more. See the attached sheet for what I mean.

I try to keep all my songs on one page, so in this case, I would like to decrease the spacing between the 1st & 2nd systems and also between the 2nd & 3rd systems. Then, it would be possible to increase the space between the 3rd & 4th systems to separate the lyrics of the 3rd system and chords of the 4th system that are slightly overlapping.

I could not find a way of doing this.
Does anyone see a method to achieve what I need, or is it even possible on Musescore 2.1?

Dan

Gloire a Dieu - 2 voix (G).pdf

Attachment Size
Gloire a Dieu - 2 voix (G).pdf 29.67 KB

Comments

• Oct 28, 2017 - 20:40

Wow! Thanks a bunch kuwitt, that is exactly what I needed.
I didn't know about spacers and I discovered about section breaks at the same time.

I should probably spend more time to learn the intricacies of Musescore,
but then to learn every single aspect and/or feature would take too much time for me.
I don't know which feature will be needed in the future as I tend to use the same process over and over again. And a search didn't provide me with what I was looking for.

Thanks again, that is really appreciated.
Dan

Reply

• Oct 28, 2017 - 21:10

I would suggest you read the PDF handbook because it is easier to navigate than the web version. Read the sections that you use more carefully and make a mental note of things you don't think you'll use so you can get familiar with some of the terminology a be more likely to be able to find it later.

Reply

• Oct 29, 2017 - 14:24

In most cases you won't even need spacers. MuseScore automatically adds space for lyrics. Leave the system spacing and lyric margin settings at their defaults and chances are everything will work perfectly. If not, please attach your actual score (not just a picture and we can help further).

Reply

• Oct 29, 2017 - 17:43

Thanks for your input, Marc. I realize what you are saying, having been using Musescore for quite a while now, but with a quick look at my pdf, you should have understood what is going on. Maybe there is another way around this and if there is, I would appreciate you letting me know. What is happening I believe is that Musescore assumes all systems have 4 lines of lyrics and leaves the space for them in the chorus although there is only on set of lyrics in the chorus. All that extra space between systems is wasted.

Kuwitt helped me with one solution that worked perfectly for me, but there may be others, I don't know. Is there a way to let Musescore allow spaces for a certain number of lines of lyrics in one section (i.e. verses), and less (or more) in another section (i.e. choruses)?

I would post the score now, but it has been fixed and there is no copy of where it was when I first posted; next time I have a question, the score will be included.

@mike320: I have done that a long time ago and will try to do that again, if I can find the time. ;)

Cheers,
Dan

Reply

• Oct 29, 2017 - 18:15

I did look at your PDF, and that is exactly why I was confused and said it would help to see the actual score. Because again, if you leave the default settings alone, MuseScore already allocates extra space as needed, so that systems with four verses will receive more space than systems with only one. It is not true that systems with only one line get as much space as systems with four. Depending on your mix & max system settings, it might be that MuseScore adds padding between the systems to fill out to the page bottom thus equalizing things a bit, but this would only be a good thing, not a bad. It's possible that's what you are seeing, or it's possible you actually have empty/invisible lyrics on that first system causing extra space there, or its possible you bumped up min system distance too much.

Again, we can't tell this from a picture, but try recreating this from scratch without messing with any of those settings and you'll see it does work as I've described - systems with more lines of lyrics really do get more space, automatically, no need to mess with settings or spacers in most cases (although they are there for the cases where for whatever reason it does turn out to be necessary)

Reply

• Oct 29, 2017 - 19:41

Ok, I will have to go back and check. Guess I supposed wrong. I don't think there were extra lyrics in the choruses. I did play around with page settings, maybe I got mixed up. I do admit being a little bit confused by some of those settings; sometimes I make changes and do not get the expected results, but then I find a way around it.
If I can re-create the same situation, I'll re-post with with the actual score.
Dan

Reply

• Oct 29, 2017 - 23:18

If I understand what you are saying correctly, this isn't true. There is always enough room for allocated for lyrics. For example, setting both min and max system distance to 0, as well as the lyric bottom margin to 0 (an interesting experiment!) results in the top line of the next system exactly touching the bottom of the last line of lyric. This works whether there is one verse or twenty. No overlap will happen under normal circumstances.

Reply

• Oct 30, 2017 - 17:26

Got it. Yes, elements above the staff colliding with things on the previous staff is an issue indeed. For now, the right solution is probably to add spacers above the staves to cover the chord symbols, notes on ledger lines, etc. This is already handled better in master / 3.0 builds.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.