How to enter smaller notes for descant
I'm working on a traditional northern Italian tune that has the harmony played as a descant. When I handwrite the score, I just make those descant notes smaller so that it's obvious that the lower note is actually the melody. I don't really want to enter them in MuseScore an octave lower because it's not the right sound when played.
Is there a way I can make those notes smaller in the score?
Comments
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/inspector-and-object-properties
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/inspector-and-object-properties#note
In reply to https://musescore.org/en… by Shoichi
Thank you! I can't figure out a way to highlight just those notes, so I guess I have to adjust each one separately.
In reply to Thank you! I can't figure… by Marie DiCocco
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes#range-select
and https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes#all-similar-selection
In reply to https://musescore.org/en… by Shoichi
Since I have these notes on the same staff as the melody, trying the various selections just selects all the notes and not the ones that I need to make smaller. As long as I keep the inspector window open, it's not that much more trouble to just make the note a small one when I add it.
In reply to Since I have these notes on… by Marie DiCocco
If you select a section of measures, there will be a notes button at the bottom of the inspector that will allow you to change several notes at once.
Use staff properties and make the staff small.
In reply to Use staff properties and… by mike320
I'm not entering them on a separate staff - they're on the same staff as the melody. Using the Inspector, I can make them small which works perfectly for this situation.
In reply to I'm not entering them on a… by Marie DiCocco
I've always seen descants on their own staves. See above for other ideas.
In reply to I've always seen descants on… by mike320
It's not really a descant. It's a harmony part that just happens to be higher than the melody. It's a northern Italian traditional dance tune, and I don't need to have all the parts on separate staves. It's just for a music jam, and by having that higher part print out as smaller notes, it indicates to our musicians that it's not the melody line.
And unfortunately, since it looks like a chord to MuseScore, there's no way to highlight or select just the upper note. But I've figured out how to do it relatively easily and won't encounter it too much, so I'm fine doing it the way I'm doing now.
In reply to It's not really a descant… by Marie DiCocco
It all now make perfect sense.
In reply to It's not really a descant… by Marie DiCocco
I do agree that you are probably doing it the best way. However, for the record, if you do encounter this again and it's more than just a few notes, there is a somewhat easier way. This assumes it's all one voice, a series of two-note chords where the top note in all cases is the one you want to make small.
1) add temporary staff below the main one
2) select contents of top staff
3) Edit / Tools / Explode
4) re-select top staff
5) press Notes in Inspector to limit selection to the notes only
6) enable the Small property under Notes sections
7) select both staves again
8) Edit / Tools / Implode
9) remove the extra staff
In the future, it's possible there may be an option in Select / More to select by position in the chord, which would of course simplify all this. This option has been discussed before, but so far no clear sense of exactly what it would look like.