Faded rest symbols
I'm fairly new to Musescore, but so far I love it! However, I've been having some trouble dealing with rests. The latest problem is when I delete some notes (which results in several new rests that appear to fill out the rest counts) and then try to force them to combine into fewer, longer rests. I do this to try to simplify the score. Sometimes, the rest symbols become dim/faded, and sometimes in different shades. I can't seem to do anything with them. Also, if I double click on a faded rest, the toolbar becomes disabled. I'm guessing that this is Musescore's way to telling me that I can't do anything to the affected rest. Can someone please tell me what these faded rest symbols are all about?
Comments
The faded rests are marked as not visible. If you single click one and look at the inspector (F8 toggles it) you will see visible is not checked. They are being made invisible because voice 1 rests cannot be deleted. Someone came up with the idea that if you select a voice 1 rest and press delete, the rest should become invisible. I and others questioned the wisdom of this, but in all honesty I think I remember one other person ever saying they are confused by this.
Double clicking any item will put MuseScore into edit mode. This is unfortunate because some items cannot be edited in edit mode. While MuseScore is in edit mode, you can only perform legal edit operations, which in the case of rests is nothing except move them which can be done not in edit mode. Pressing escape will always take you out of edit mode while keeping anything selected. Pressing escape while not in edit mode will deselect everything. Clicking on empty space will also take you out of edit mode but will deselect everything.
In reply to The faded rests are marked… by mike320
Our posts crossed :-)
One clarifications: rests can be edited in edit mode, just as most other elements can: the cursor keys function to "nudge" the position of the rest.
In reply to Our posts crossed :-)… by Marc Sabatella
I fixed my statement to avoid confusion.
The rests you are calling "faded" are presumably marked invisible - they don't appear in print, but show on screen by default. You can definitely still edit these, though. Double-click has nothing to to with the toolbar - it is to out an element in "edit mode", which allows it to be moved with the cursor keys. Ordinary operations are started with a single click. So, for instance, to change duration of a rest, click it, then select the desired duraiton on the toolbar - no "delete" of anything involved. When you lengthen a rest, it automatically "eats" the following rest. You can also try selecting a passage then doing Layout / Regroup Rhythms.
Sounds like you've managed to do something wrong in your entering or editing of the music - the invisible rests would be the result of improper attempts to delete rests that are musically necessary to show the correct number of beats in a measure. So my guess is you are somehow using multiple voices incorrectly and then trying to fix things later. If you attach your score and tell us more about what you have done, we can try to assist better.
Updated: The faded rests ARE tagged as non visible. Thanks for that tip, and thanks to all who have responded.
I'm sure I did something stupid to cause these problems, but I can't figure it out. I guess I'll just have to pay more attention to what I'm doing.
The weird thing is that after this occurs, the rest times don't add up (see attached pic - is the whole measure). The timing is 4/4, but the measure's total rest time indicates something else. Actually, this measure originally had several more faded rests, but I did something that eliminated some of them.
Thanks again for the help.
In reply to Updated: The faded rests ARE… by jolindapa
As mentioned, attempting to delete a voice 1 rest will mark it invisible, as this is something that occasionally can be useful in writing to multiple voices. But it's not relevant here, and basically, you shouldn't have tried deleting the rest. Just press "V" to turn it back (that's the usual shortcut for toggling visibility of any element).
Anyhow, you're mistaken about the pictures measure not adding up to four beats. Count again :-). I think you are getting confused by the fact that the first quarter rest shouldn't be a quarter rest but should be two eighth rests - quarter rests are not allowed to start on an offbeat.
So, what you should do to correct the example in your picture is:
1) click the first quarter rest
2) select the eight note duration to change it (which will automatically add a second eighth rest just as it should)
3) click the sixteenth rest
4) press "V"
This will produce the correct notation.
In reply to As mentioned, attempting to… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you, sir. You taught me something today. I had no idea that I could not start a quarter rest on an off beat! Back to the books for me, I guess!
Thanks again.