Selection of voice
For inputting barbershop arrangements, I want to enter the lead as the 2nd voice (stems down), and I would like to do that first. I have not been able to enter the second voice until after the first voice is entered. The system refuses to change any entry from first voice (stem up) to second voice (stem down) until there are two voices entered into any give bar. When entering a song for a barbershop arrangement, the melody line is known (the lead, stems down). The other parts are yet to be determined. I can go through entering lead as first voice and tenor as second vice, and then go through again, note by note, changing the stem direction, but this is very frustrating. What am I missing?
Allen
Comments
Writing directly in voice 2 should be possible.
Alternatively, write your lead in voice 1. Then go to Edit → Voices → Swap voice 1-2
When you write in voice 2 first, you will have rests in voice 1. That is unavoidable, voice 1 will always have a rest on every beat of music. You can go ahead a write your lead in voice 2. As long as you stay in note input mode, the selected voice will not change unless you change it. There is one exception, if you use the tab or arrow key to move to the next measure, it will usually change back to voice 1. Either enter rests in voice 2 to get to the next measure or keep in mind you will have to return to voice 2 of you use tab to skip several measures.
As mentioned, if you want to enter notes into voice 2, best practice is to simply do so directly, by switching to voice 2 before entering the notes (but after entering note input mode).
However, it does work to enter notes into voice 1 then move them to voice 2, using Edit / Voices. I guess maybe you tried doing it by pressing the voice 2 button on the toolbar? That works too, but only if there are no ties or tuplets involved. Maybe that's the problem you were running into? feel free to attach your score and describe what you are doing more precisely, step by step.
Under no circumstances should you have to be resorting to changing stem direction, though. Even if you've already entered the lead into voice 2 and the tenor into voice 1, you can swap them easily with Edit / Voices. Furthermore, even if you you don't know about this command, you can also flip stems for all notes at once by doing Ctrl+A then "X".