Changing a time signature for one measure and removing a beat
Hi - I'm sure this answer is somewhere out here, but I can't seem to find it. I have a choral score (SATB w/ organ) that I am working on that is in 4/4. However, I have one measure (just one) that I would like to change to 3/4 by removing a quarter rest. I can't seem to find a way to do this. If I change the time signature for that measure, the rest remains, but a subsequent beat is removed. I've tried everything I can think of (short of re-writing the whole thing) and can't seem to find the way to do this. Help please!
Comments
Right click, bar properties>set the actual value
I would expect the measure after the one with 3 beats in it to have only 1 beat in it. This is what's normal. If a measure has only 3 beats (in every part) and the next measure does not have 1 beat then you can change the actual duration of the measure as follows.
Right click the measure
select Measure Properties...
change the actual duration to 4/4 in the window
press OK
This will chop off the end of the measure and leave only the first 3 beats in it. If the rest you want to remove is on the first beat for some reason, you will have to rewrite the measure.
I would suggest you attach the score you are writing from here so we can look at it, because you are asking for something quite unusual.
In reply to I would expect the measure… by mike320
Thanks for the help guys. I've attached the before and after scores. Measure 6 is the one I was having trouble with, but I did what you suggested and then re-wrote the resulting 3/4 measure. It's too bad that when you deprecate a measure you can't choose which beat to remove, but that's what I was looking for and didn't figure out the workaround. I'm still learning the 'ins and outs' of MuseScore, but I really like it so far.
Thanks again!
In reply to Thanks for the help guys. I… by geojude
Also noticed that a measure was added (measure 11 in version 2). Easy to remove (that I know how to do!). Wish it wouldn't do that, but it's livable.
In reply to Also noticed that a measure… by geojude
Do I understand that the 3/4 time signature belongs in the song? If so, it makes sense. If it doesn't belong in there it sounds like the score you are copying from has an error or you are reading it wrong.
In reply to Do I understand that the 3/4… by mike320
Mike, it belongs there because that's how I ended up writing it :) . I'm not copying anything, just composing something entirely new.
Thanks for your help.
George
In reply to Also noticed that a measure… by geojude
Not sure what you mean here - you must have done something to cause that measure to be added. MuseScore doesn't add measures without you telling it to, directly or indirectly. It is true that changing a time signature from 4/4 to 3/4 means you get two measures, because it is assumed you want to keep all the notes you had originally. If you didn't want to keep the old notes, it's easy enough to delete the extra measure, but would be harder to add a new one and re-enter notes in the more usual case where you do mean to keep the notes. Again, normally you'd get the time signatures right before entering notes, and this wouldn't be an issue in the first place.
In reply to Not sure what you mean here … by Marc Sabatella
Not sure what I did to cause the extra measure to appear. I changed the one measure to 3/4 and it truncated the 4th beat of the original 4/4 measure. I then edited the 3/4 measure, overwriting a rest on beat 2 and some notes on beat 3 to be the contents of the original beats 3 and 4 (hope that makes sense). Anyway, I got it to work in the end and it didn't require me to rewrite everything I had from that point forward, which is what I was afraid might be necessary. However, in reviewing what I had, I discovered a measure containing a whole rest (since it was added after I was back in 4/4). Don't know why it happened, but it was easy enough to remove.
Overall, I really like the program. I do wish there was a tablet interface, but I understand the challenges inherent in creating one.
George
In reply to Thanks for the help guys. I… by geojude
Normally you'd fix the duration before entering notes. Indeed, if you've already entered the notes, MuseScore can't guess which to keep and which to throw away. But you can use cut & paste to preserve the notes you want (cut, shorten, paste).
In reply to Normally you'd fix the… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc - just got back to working on my piece. Since I'm composing 'from scratch', I sometimes find that a time change makes more sense than the original way I wrote it; thus, wanting the ability to change things 'on the fly'. As you say, MuseScore can't guess what to keep and what to get rid of, although that would be a nice enhancement (not easy to do, I'm afraid). I haven't looked at what the development would be - in fact, I don't even know what language MuseScore is written in. However, to do what I'm suggesting would be a complicated bit of code.
Again, thanks for your help (and everyone else that replied).
George
Let's say you are writing in 4/4 but you want to change only measure 5 to 3/4.
Rewrite measure 5 so that the extra beat of rest is on beat 4.
FIRST, Insert 4/4 time signature on measure 6.
Then change time signature of measure 5 to 3/4.
If you don't first tell it to return to 4/4 in the next measure, it will adjust the rest of the entire composition to 3/4 - unwanted!