Lyric entry beneath a rest?
I have a need to be able to enter lyrics beneath rests. Unfortunately pressing Space skips past a rest and on to the next note. I haven't been able to find any way to accomplish this other than to add System Text in the spaces where I actually need a lyric, but this is a highly unsatisfactory way to try to create the appearance of a lyric beneath a rest.
If it truly is not possible to add lyrics beneath rests, this should certainly be an added feature.
Comments
Lyrics on rests are indeed not possible, and I see no reason why it should.
You could fake it using a note in a different voice, make that silent and invisible. Or by appending it to the syllable before, separated by Ctrl+Space
In reply to Lyrics on rests are indeed… by Jojo-Schmitz
You may see no reason why lyrics should be allowed beneath rests, but as I noted "I have a need" to do just that. I'm actually surprised this isn't currently allowed.
Thanks for your suggestion, but that is too cumbersome and doesn't really produce satisfactory results for my purpose.
In reply to You may see no reason why… by carlkmn
Why do you have that need?
In reply to Why do you have that need? by Jojo-Schmitz
Why can't a vocalist sing while instrumentation is silent? I've witnessed many performances when that has happened. In such cases, there must be lyrics for the vocalist and rests for the instrument.
To be forthcoming in this particular case, though, I'm technically not entering lyrics but rather foot steps. The piece is intended to be used for meditative movement while the participants are singing the real lyrics. So, in my score, I've used the second lyric line to display R L R L R L . . . in order to make it clear when right and left footsteps are to be taken. There may be some other reasonable manner to do this, but entering the Rs and Ls as lyrics is very easy – except where footsteps fall on rests, moments of silence, which happens 10 times in the piece I just finished. But now I have a pretty reasonable work around which worked for me, thanks to Shoichi.
In reply to Why can't a vocalist sing… by carlkmn
Which pitch would a vocalist sing on a rest? Seems you're misusing an instrument staff, just at add a vocal staff and put the lyrics there. Or use a 2nd voice.
Your L and R is a classic case for staff text.
But see also https://musescore.org/en/node/270529
In reply to Why can't a vocalist sing… by carlkmn
Sure, vocalists sing while instruments are silent. Or while the instruments are playing entirely unrelated notes. Consider - the instruments might be holding a whole note while the vocalist sings a whole bunch of syllables. Not a rest in sight, so having the ability to enter lyrics on rests wouldn't help one bit.
That's why the instruments and vocal parts would normally separate staves, so each staff shows the proper notes for the person reading that part. In the case of a lead sheet, sometimes multiple voices are used for this. Either way, the key is that there are always notes for the vocalist.
What you are describing with movement is conceptually similar. You are really talking about two entirely different parts - one for a melody to be played, and another for movement. And just as with the first case, rests are only one small part of it. People might need to move left and right while singing a whole note, and so the ability to enter a lyric on a rest would not help.
What you really need is the ability to enter text at beat positions that may or may not have notes on them at all.
Probably the best way to do this is to use notes (possibly silent and/or invisible) in another voice to represent the rhythm for the steps. Then you can attach the L & R as lyrics to those notes. This works perfectly and is what I'd consider the "right" solution. It allows you to attach L & R anywhere you like whether the sung melody has a note there, a rest there, or is currently holding a longer note. It also greatly simplifies the entry of the L & R, because now there are no extraneous notes to skip. It also allows the rhythm of the movements to be specified explicitly (eg, what beats specifically to change between L and R while single a long note).
However, there are other valid ways of doing this as well. If you don't need the notes to appear in order to show the rhythm - if you are confident the beats will be apparent enough from context - you can use the chord symbol or figured bass facility for this. Both were specifically designed to allow text to be added at arbitrary beat positions, independent of the melody notes, which is exactly your use case. You could then use the same trick of changing text style to give the appearance of lyrics if desired.
Any of these approaches has the advantage of being about to attach text to points in the middle of a long held note, which staff text does not. Also of being potentially easier to enter, as you don't have to keep clicking individual notes one at a time to attach text to.
But anyhow, all of these approaches can work, and address the full use case better than merely attaching lyrics to rests would.
Meanwhile, if you settle, you can use Ctrl+T then use the options in Inspector
In reply to Meanwhile, if you settle,… by Shoichi
Thanks for your suggestion, but I'm not really sure what you are suggesting. Could you please add a bit more help for this new musescore user?
In reply to Thanks for your suggestion,… by carlkmn
It allows text that is not technically a lyric - such as in your case, since obviously a true lyric can't be sung on a rest - to look like a lyric. So, add as staff text (or whatever text type suits the actual musical purpose of the text, then set the style to Lyrics so it mimics the appearance of a true lyric.
If you explain your use case, we may be able to suggest a better solution.
In reply to Thanks for your suggestion,… by carlkmn
Click on the rest;
Ctrl+T https://musescore.org/en/handbook/text-basics#add-text
Enter the lyric;
Click it, open the Inspector:
As in the image above, select the 'lyric' format.
In reply to Click on the rest;… by Shoichi
Thanks so much, Shoichi. Now that I understand it and have tried it, that's a work around that works pretty well for me. It's reasonably easy to accomplish with precision and it looks just like a lyric. I just added 10 of them to my score. Much appreciated.