The confusing world of repeats and jumps

• Aug 12, 2018 - 02:16

Hi all,

So I'm trying in vain to get my head round putting a couple of jumps and repeats into a piece of music I've transcribed from the net. The source I've transcribed from uses 'To Coda I' and 'To Coda II', 'D.S. al Coda I' and 'D.S. al Coda II', Segno's and Coda's. I've tried using the same in MuseScore but it only recognises To Coda, D.S. al Coda, Coda and Segno, and then obviously you need to use the Inspector to set where it repeats, what it jumps to etc...
And this is where I'm getting confused. I can't find a suitable explanation in the handbook for the difference in MuseScore between Coda and To Coda, where to use one, or the other, or both. Any explanation here would be gratefully received. As it stands I've just removed the To Coda's as they seemed to do nothing.

I've attached my score so you can see what is happening so far, but in words I'd like:

To play all the way through until reaching the D.S. al Coda at the end of bar 62. This should then jump to Segno1 in bar 29 and play until Coda1 at the end of bar 37 and then continue at Coda 2 in bar 63.

At the end of bar 63 it should hit the second D.S. al Coda and then jump to Segno2 in bar 21, and then play until Coda3 at the end of bar 31 and then continue at Coda4 in bar 64 and play and repeat until the end.

I'm not sure why the first D.S. al Coda and the relative Codas are behaving as expected but the second D.S. al Coda and its related Codas aren't. They aren't setup any differently. As I say I got rid of the To Codas because they just made it even worse.

Any pointers/help would be gratefully received. Thank you very much.

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It Must Be Love.mscz 29.81 KB

Comments

• Aug 12, 2018 - 02:22

DS means jump to the sign.
DS al coda means jump to the sign and when you get to the place where you should jump to the coda, jump to the coda.
To coda tell the program where that place is. "Jump to the coda".

Be aware that by convention repeats are not taken after a DS or a DC.

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• Aug 12, 2018 - 04:47

You are trying to interlace the D.S.'s. You can't do that. You can't have two signs between the beginning of the song and the first D.S. The road map you have laid out is not easy for a human to understand and impossible for MuseScore.

Here is a brief explanation of a D.S. al Coda. To use one you need to use the following order of items:

start of song (automatically identified by MuseScore).
Segno - In the inspector the default label is "segno"
to Coda - In the inspector the label is "coda"
D.S. al Coda - this tells MuseScore to jump to the label "segno", play until "coda" then continue at "codab"
Coda Symbol - in the inspector the label is "codab"

So the fields in the D.S. al Coda command is to play until the D.S. al Coda is encountered, jump back to the Segno, Play until it reaches to Coda then jump to the Coda symbol and then play until directed otherwise.

All of these labels from the Repeats & Jumps palette must be entered in this order.

After the coda it is possible to add additional D.S. al coda commands, but after the first Coda sign there must be a second set with unique labels such as segno2, coda2, coda2b with the jump points identified in the inspector for the D.S. al coda. If you use this, it is advised to change the segno to a Segno variation symbol, and the second coda to two coda symbols. I would also replace the first word coda with a coda symbol (so it still says to coda) and the second word coda to two coda symbols so they match their destinations.

The answer to your dilemma is that you must rewrite (or copy and paste) the sections that are not permitted by these rules but need to be played again.

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• Aug 12, 2018 - 15:56

When I first started writing out Hymns for church I attempted to use 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th time bars with the associated lines etc. as I wanted different things happening each verse and I then export to mp3 for use. I found it very confusing in that the number of repeats and other ideas did not come out as expected(I fully accept responsibility for useless user control!) and found things so much simpler to copy sections, as mentioned above( so easily done in Musescore) and just play through fully, it then behaves perfectly in mp3 file.
As a composer, it may not be what you want to see in print, but for playback, it is far easier in the long run especially if you have any problems.
Sometimes one has use 'Artists Licence'!
Best of luck

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• Aug 12, 2018 - 16:52

Thanks Mike, much appreciated.

Following your explanation and label advice I have actually got it to work now using the combination of D.S. al Coda, Segno, To Coda and Coda for the first jump/repeat and D.S. al Coda, Segno variation, To Coda and Varied Coda for the second jump/repeat.

It works perfectly now but I wholeheartedly agree with what you're saying about not being easy to read for a human player, let alone MuseScore. I may well, bite the bullet and just copy and paste the relevant sections in a separate copy of the score.

Thanks again!

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