Multiple voices on one staff
Guitar music is notated on a single treble staff and may include 2 or 3 independent voices with different pitches and note durations. Here are some issues I have encountered in Musescore:
1) When adding Voice 2, the rests and notes overlap the rests and notes for Voice 1. The program doesn't recognize that there are multiple voices on the staff and simply layers one on top of the other. As a result, I spend a lot of time moving notes/rests around. How about adding an autofit option to address this issue?
2) In guitar notation, note stems for the bass part point down and note stems for the treble part point up, regardless of the pitch or placement on the staff. This conflicts with the existing note stem rules built into the program. I can use the Flip Direction feature to fix this, but as soon as I edit anything else in the score the program reverts to the original note stem rules. Is there a way to override the note stem rule setting? Better yet, can I "lock" a portion of the score (say, the bass line) so the program will not make arbitrary changes in the future.
Comments
2) When more than one voice is used, the odd numbered voices always point stems up and even numbered voices point stem down. Use 2 or 4 for the bass and 1 or 3 for the treble parts. If you need 3 voice in one or the other, you can use the filter selector (F6) to select an entire voice in a selection and use x to flip the stems.
1) I sometimes get annoyed with the rests from voice 2 crashing with voice 1 notes, but I use them seldom enough I just move them one by one. If you want to move all voice 2 rests down 2 spaces, then you can
select a group of measures if applicable
Right click a rest
use select>more...
Check in selection if applicable
check in voice
then click OK and all of the rests you want to move will be selected
Open the inspector (F8) if it's not open
Use the Vertical offset to move all of the rests at once.
You could press V to make all of the selected rests invisible at once rather than move them if this would be helpful
1) is not automated, but these steps should make it easier to contend with.
One word of note. This may be obvious, but these actions only affect existing notes, none of these actions in 1 or 2 affect notes entered afterward.
In reply to 2) When more than one voice… by mike320
Mike320:
Thanks for sharing those tips. I haven't tried them all, but you've already saved me a lot of frustration. I found that only voice 3 displays stems up, for some reason, but that is exactly what I needed. Thanks again.
In reply to Mike320: Thanks for sharing… by 6Stringz
voice 1 and 3 are stems up, voice 2 and 4 stem down.
When there is just voice 1 (i.e. no other visible voice, not even a rest), that flips between stem up and down depending on pitch (or rather on position in staff, above or below the middle line)
In reply to voice 1 and 3 are stems up,… by Jojo-Schmitz
Jojo:
Thanks for the clarification!
In reply to Mike320: Thanks for sharing… by 6Stringz
My initial response to you started 2) When more than one voice is used, perhaps I should have emphasized that phrase.