Change default enharmonic spelling of accidentals ?
(sorry if my nomenclature is incorrect)
Is there a way to make MS avoid the use of flatted notes & chord symbols, and default to sharps instead ? For example, when I transposed a tune down a whole step, MS converted C to Bb (notes and chord symbols). I would like it to give me A# and A# chords instead (I know I can select all the Bb notes and hit J, and I can manually paste in the A# chord symbol at each note).
Comments
To change every accidental to a sharp, select a selection and press the down arrow followed by the up arrow. You can use ctrl+a to select everything.
if you transpose as "By Interval: Diminished Third => Down", you can get the result you want.
C => B => A # <= "diminished-third interval"
After you do this, you can delete the key signature in the first measure; Or you can add C# Major (7 sharps) key signature (which is the closest) to the first measure.
The default spelling should already be correct, are you saying you want it to be incorrect? That is, if you transpose down a major second, you want accidentals spelled as if you had actually transposed down a diminished third? I'd suggest simply doing that transposition then. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding something. Attaching your actual score and steps to reproduce the problem would help us understand and assist better.
In reply to The default spelling should… by Marc Sabatella
Hello, friends.
My question is how to change the enharmonic spelling of the CHORD SYMBOLS. The nifty J keyboard shortcut is great for re-spelling the notes, but the chord symbols above the staff do not follow suit.
To be more specific, the problem that I am currently having is that, after typing in several pages of chord symbols above the staff, such as F#, and so on, I have inadvertently ended up with a score in Gb but with all the chord symbols using sharps. The key signature is Gb, and the notes do whatever I ask when pressing J, but the chord symbols refuse to adapt to the FLAT spellings. I have tried transposing to different keys and back, but nothing seems to fix this. Help!
I'll attach my score, if you don't mind having a look at it and sharing some of your expert counsel.
In fact, I started out with a GuitarPro file, and added the chord symbols to it, so it may have some bugs in the document acquired during the conversion. There is also a key change half-way through, where the entire song is repeated in the new key. In fact, I typed out the whole score in concert key, and then re-defined the staff properties to display the part for alto saxophone.
In reply to Hello, friends. My question… by ErikJon
By the way, I am using MuseScore 2.3.2 and cannot upgrade for the moment.
In reply to By the way, I am using… by ErikJon
In fact, I often find myself faced with chord symbols such as Cb or E#, and I don't know how to repair those either, other than manually.
In reply to In fact, I often find myself… by ErikJon
Meanwhile, I wonder if there is also a find-and-replace feature, by which I could search and replace all occurrences of certain chord symbols at once, and replace them somewhat automatically. (e.g., find E# globally and replace it with F)
In reply to Meanwhile, I wonder if there… by ErikJon
And, while I am on a roll here, with so many related questions, I wonder how, worst case, I would change the key signature to something standard but less common (e.g., D# vs. Eb) without having to manually create a new signature.
In reply to And, while I am on a roll… by ErikJon
D# is not standard at all, it would require 9 sharps (including a couple of double sharps). So no, that's not a thing.
In reply to D# is not standard at all,… by Marc Sabatella
I've seen G# major once, and that's a nightmare already, with six sharps and one double-sharp. Things like D# major shouldn't exist at all.
In reply to In fact, I often find myself… by ErikJon
I've solved a similar problem by transposing up and then down (or v/v) by different but 'equivalent' intervals, eg, "augmented unison" and "dimished second". There's surely some systematic way to do this (per
Marc Sabatella), but so far a bit of trial & error has worked for me
In reply to Hello, friends. My question… by ErikJon
Not sure how the score got into this state, but to get it out, I guess the thing is to ask MuseScore to transpose the notes and key but not the chords. Probably a couple of ways to do that, but this worked for me in MuseScore 3.3.4, should work in older versions too:
1) enable Concert Pitch
2) Ctrl+A to select all
3) Tools / Transpose (Notes / Transpose in 2.3.2)
4) select key of F#, uncheck chord symbols
5) OK
6) Transpose again
7) select key of Gb, check chord symbols
8) OK
9) disable Concert Pitch
In reply to Not sure how the score got… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you, friends, for sharing your good ideas. I will try what you suggested. Very clever work-arounds, actually.
Sorry not to respond sooner.
In reply to Thank you, friends, for… by ErikJon
Hi I have a similar issue with Chord symbols.
I copy chords from the C instrument (Guitar) to a Bb Instrument (Sax) for the guy to do improvisation.
When I do this I get double flat chords eg, Abb Ebb Abb7/Gbb, I want Abb to read as G chord?
For your information I also get double flats against corresponding notes in the score but these can
be changed with a workaround to shift all the notes in that stave down then up by 1 semi tone.
But this does not correct the chords....
I also don't like Fb (would prefer E)....
This message is a bit garbled, I hope you can understand me!
In reply to Hi I have a similar issue… by john in 6 piec…
I have found a workaround. Transpose all parts down by a semi tone eg Bb to B, then back
again (instead of shifting the notes). This actually gets rid of double flats in the chord symbols. You can copy and paste
these new versions of the chords across to the original score (as now the notes are messed up with
alternate versions of flats naturals and sharps).
In reply to Hi I have a similar issue… by john in 6 piec…
Hmm, you shouldn't be ending up with double flats in music transposed for horms - tranposing for Bb instruments generally adds sharps, not flats. Unless perhaps you are transposing from E to Gb or B to Db. So my guess is you aren't doing something correctly, but it's not clear what. If you attach your score and steps to reproduce the problem, we can understand and assist better.
In reply to Hmm, you shouldn't be ending… by Marc Sabatella
It probably was an Eb Instrument the Alto Sax as apposed to the Tennor Sax Bb,
In reply to It probably was an Eb… by john in 6 piec…
Same story. Again, what you describe shouldn't be happening, so in order to understand and assist, we'd need you to attach your score and describe the steps you are taking. Then we can see what's going wrong.
In reply to Same story. Again, what you… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc. I will do this for the next song our Band writes in the future.
For your information The steps I follows when we create a score are:
1. Our Maestro writes the separate parts all in Concert Pitch but looking correct as when played
by the Bb , Eb etc Instruments. MuseScore sees all these as C Instruments (piano) parts.
2. I put all these parts together in MuseScore and add the chords for Guitar.
I have to shift the notes for the Bb, Eb Instruments to be correct within Musescore.
Add Music annotation, DS al Coda etc. MuseScore now has the correct Instruments identified in the combined score.
3. Once assembled I creates a combined mp3 audio file for our Maestro to check it all sounds good etc.
4. I now send as pdf files of separate score for each Instrument alone to each Band member.
In reply to Thanks Marc. I will do this… by john in 6 piec…
Sorry I missed the step most relevant to our discussion
5. If our Sax play wants to Improvise over the song I copy the Guitar chords from the Guitar stave to
the Sax Stave. This is where the double flats appeared in the Chord symbols as they automatically
transpose during the copy.
In reply to Thanks Marc. I will do this… by john in 6 piec…
Your step 2, probably you aren't doing correctly. Should be as simple as right-clicking the staff and choosing Staff/Part Properties then selecting the desired instrument. If that's exactly what you are doing, again, wer'd need you to attach your score in order to understand what went wrong.
In reply to Your step 2, probably you… by Marc Sabatella
I think you may have a point there. I may try to suggest to our Maestro that when he writes
the scores for the individual non C type instruments that he does not pre-transpose them in his head so they
appear correct by eye for that Instrument.
Either he sets the correct Instrument type within MuseScore (probable too complicated), or he just does not pre-transpose it and writes in the same Key Signature as for the C Instrument. Then I would do the rest.
We will see if this improves the double flat issue. The only downside of this is I then don't see the Maesto's
selection of sharps flats naturals etc in the final score layout for non C instruments, its down to me.
For example choice of A# or Bb...
Thanks again for your help.
In reply to I think you may have a point… by john in 6 piec…
It should be perfectly possible either way. Usually it's best to set up the correct instrument in MuseScore first, before entering the music. It's not complicated at all - it's exactly as simple as I already - simply choose the correct instrument from the list. Then, if the music is given to you already transposed at written pitch for the instrument, you simply enter it directly. If the music is given to you at sounding pitch, simply enable Concert Pitch mode before entering the music. Again, when done correctly,. it works flawlessly right out of the box, regardless of which format you are given to work with. In fact, in this post, it seems like you are implying that the music is given to you already in MuseScore format, in which case it's even simpler - simply make sure the person who is entering the music creates music for the correct instruments to begin with. That is, when creating the new score, don't just select 10 flutes or whatever, but actually select the proper instruments.
We'd like to help you, so again, if you attach an example, we're happy to assist.