Chord symbols completely illegible on printed parts
I just printed out the score and parts for a thing I wrote for jazz ensemble, and was very happy with all the notated parts, but the chord symbols for piano and the horns' solos came out all squished together and illegible.
The chord symbols on the printed out score came out fine, but the chord symbols on the individual parts came out as described above. Does anyone know what went wrong?
TIA
Comments
Attach the Musescore file. Without it any answer right now would be a guess.
In reply to Attach the Musescore file. … by xavierjazz
Sorry, I don't know how to do that.
In reply to Sorry, I don't know how to… by sgcim
Reply to this post, click the "Choose a file" button below and select your score.
In reply to Reply to this post, click… by mike320
It's not there.
In reply to It's not there. by sgcim
Reply to this post (see bottom of this post). A window will appear.
Scroll down and observe "choose a file".
Select that and then follow to the mscz file you are having trouble with.
Select it.
Regards,
In reply to It's not there. by sgcim
You must click "Reply" to see "Choose a file"
Meanwhile, I can at least try to guess while we wait for you to attach your file:
In the score, the nature of trying to align all the different parts generally means you get fewer measures per line than in any one single part. With fewer measures per line, there is naturally enough space for the chords. But in the parts, more measures can usually fit on each line, and that will put the chord symbols closer together. MuseScore automatically prevents them from actually overlapping, but it is true they can run right up against each other if your music has an unusually high chord-symbol-to-notes ratio. If you go to Style / General / Chord Symbols, you'll see a setting "Minimum chord spacing". Increase that to ensure more space between the chord symbols, or simply add line breaks or otherwise increase the overall spacing of your parts (eg, Layout / Increase Layout Stretch, or increase Style / General / Measure / Spacing).
In reply to Meanwhile, I can at least… by Marc Sabatella
Hey Marc, I remember you from the jazz guitar newsgroup RMMGJ- how have you been?
I'll try your suggestions. This is my first chart on Musescore, and it's a great alternative to the way I was working before; writing the chart out on score paper, then copying out the parts using a German program, Forte, which was more classically oriented.
I couldn't believe it when it took the concert score and extracted all the parts, transposing them,and adding extended rests. Everything is fine, except for the text parts (chord symbols for the rhythm players and soloists).
This is the first time I've been able to hear the chart, before a performance of it, and I think my writing will sound much cleaner as a result.
I've written eight charts that were all performed by some excellent players in NY, but I'd always have to revise after having them played, because of various mistakes. It will be interesting to hear this chart played this Monday by a new big band I just got called for, because every guy in it is a mother!
Thanks again,
Steve
In reply to Hey Marc, I remember you… by sgcim
Cool, nice to run into you again! A couple of other people from those days here too.
Again, if you continue to have trouble, do attach your score, we can usually sort you out within minutes or hours at most.
As I said, chord symbols should automatically avoid each other in most cases, but I forgot one case where they don't - chords that overlap barlines. The collision detect works only within a measure. So here again, the score generally has wider spacing than the parts, so overlap across barlines might not create collisions even though they do in the parts. Same suggestion applies, except now you could also pay with the setting in that same Style / General / Chord Symbols dialog to control how much much extra space a chord symbol is allocated before a barline. Oh, and speaking of that dialog - if you do happen to be German, note the options for German chord symbols :-)
Also, chord symbols avoid each other (mostly) but they don't necessarily avoid tempo markings or other text. For that you can simply move the text items manually using the cursor keys, Inspector, or mouse, according to your own taste.
In reply to Cool, nice to run into you… by Marc Sabatella
I just had my big band score played, and it went really good. The guys sight read it down almost perfect, and it sounds a million times better with real instruments than the wonky synthesizer.
The guys dug it, and want to hear the rest of my stuff. The only complaint was the chord symbols, as I described above. Besides being all scrunched together, they also don't transpose when you use the parts extraction and print out the parts. I wound up writing the changes in pen on the bottom of the part for one soloist, but it was a little confusing to the player.
I'd appreciate it if someone could suggest where in the manual to look for inserting chord symbols, or go over how they do it on a big band chart. One mistake I think I made was to use the space bar when I wrote in chord symbols. This causes all the chord symbols to be chained together, and might have caused them to get scrunched together when I extracted the parts and printed them out. It didn't affect the chord symbols when I printed out the score; only the parts extraction process.
Thanks in advance!
In reply to I just had my big band score… by sgcim
Just some thoughts about what you said. First of all the chords symbols should transpose correctly. Using the space is not a problem since this accepts a chord and moves the cursor to the next note.
Another possibility for your problems is that you forced the transposition of your instruments while in concert pitch. If you manually changed the key signature of an instrument to make it correct rather than MuseScore automatically doing it, you have made this mistake. If you did this, the chords will not transpose when you copy them. If you copy and paste chords that are properly entered, they will transpose as needed.
I would suggest that in the score (all of the instruments) you simply select all of the staves you don't want chords displayed in, right click a chord, use select>all similar elements in the selected range then press V to make them invisible. They will no be invisible in the parts when they are extracted and you won't need to resort to the archaic implement called a pen ;)
The reason the chords would be too close is that the notes are too close together in time, such as on the 16th note. The chords would then overlap in a smaller measure on extracted parts which have longer notes like quarter and half notes. The solution to this is to insert system breaks to put fewer measures on a system so the measures will be wider and the chord symbols farther apart.
In reply to Just some thoughts about… by mike320
When I printed out the score and parts, I forgot to do anything to transpose the saxes and trumpets and thought I'd have to do it over, but Musescore transposed the entire score by itself, which really surprised me.
I'll try putting fewer measures on a system, but it was nice to have some of the parts on one page, so I didn't have to tape them together like I did on the piano and bass parts.
Thanks for the advice!
In reply to I just had my big band score… by sgcim
Again, it's hard to say more until you attach your score. Chord symbols should avoid each other and they should transpose automatically and space should automatically move to the next chord, so something has clearly gone wrong, but what I cannot say without seeing the score.
My best guess right now is that you entered the chords as staff text (Ctrl+T) or something else other than using the true chord symbol facility (Ctrl+K).
To learn how to enter chord symbols correctly, see the section of the Handbook entitled "Chord symbols".
In reply to Again, it's hard to say more… by Marc Sabatella
I did enter the chords as staff text rather than Ctrl+K, because I thought the manual said it was the same as adding text. Thanks again, Marc!
In reply to I did enter the chords as… by sgcim
I'm pretty sure the manual does not say this, but if so I'd really like to know where, so we can fix that.
In reply to I'm pretty sure the manual… by Jojo-Schmitz
It said it when I searched for adding chord symbols. The search result said adding chord symbols is the same process as adding text, so I went to the text instructions. I don't remember where in the manual that was.
In reply to It said it when I searched… by sgcim
What it says is: "Chord symbols can be entered and edited just like normal text". What it means is, "like normal text in the sense of just typing Cmaj7#11 rather than needing to selecting the root, quality, extension, and alterations separately using radio boxes in a dialog box or some such". Not in the sense of "starting with the same shortcut you would use for staff text".
I could see that being ambiguous. Feel free to suggest a less-wordy-than-mine alternative :-)