Contemporary Music Notation: Staff type change, feathered beams, adding extra noteheads, symbols and accidentals
Hello,
I've been using MuseScore for a few days and I'm very impressed in a positive sense. But there are a few things I coudn't manage to do, and they are very common in contemporary music notation:
1. Staff type change: how to change the number of lines in a staff at any point? That means also having the options of a no-line staff (specially neat for long tacets).
2. Feathered beams: those tilted beams used for indicanting accelerandos and ritardandos independently from other instruments (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_notation for instance)
3. Adding extra notehead types, symbols and accidentals: Is this possible?
Thank you very much,
Rodolfo Valente
Composer
www.myspace.com/rodolfovalente
Comments
1- not possible to reduce the number of lines at a given point. For no line staff, you can select a measure and make it invisible by right click -> measure properties
3- You can drag and drop any graphic files to the score. What sort of symbol, accidentals etc... would you like?
In reply to 1- not possible to reduce the by [DELETED] 5
When I asked about I was just wondering I could create my own accidentals (such as sharps and flats with arrows up and down for microtonal inflection) and noteheads (I use square noteheads sometimes..... like in Sciarrino's flute pieces) and simply add them to the lists in the program...
Is there a way to change several noteheads at once?
1. You cannot change staff type mid-way through a piece, but you can hide empty staves on a score (search for "hide empty staves").
2. Feathered beams are not supported. However you can achieve some graphic notation by dragging-and-dropping images into the score (PNG or JPG files).
In reply to 1. You cannot change staff by David Bolton
1. Start with the smallest number you're going to use (e.g. 2 lines) and add the others manually using Line. That can be time consuming in some cases but usabel in others.
2. Feathered beams may not be played back, but i can use a graphical solution pretty close to the one i used in Sibelius:
a) create a tuplet with as many notes as you want (if you want something different than 2, 4, 8, 16 etc.), without number or bracket
b) put all the beams together and tilt them the way you want the outer boarder of the feathered beam to be
c) create Lines and adjust their thickness to be the same as the beams (this feature is really useful)
d) put them in the place to complete the feathered beams and adjust the inclination to make them look good
This is ok for me. But in the meanwhile I had these strange difficulties:
1. if i try to complete a tuplet the program just stops respondig (i tried 17 eight notes in a 4/4 bar)
2. after changing the thickness of a line its very difficult to select and move it.
3. Another thing is copy and paste do not work for lines apparently (is there another copy paste option, such as alt+click?)
I've trying the program both in Tiger and Snow Leopard and the behaviour is similar.
In reply to Personal provisory solutions for these issues by rodolfo valente
1. seventeen eighth notes in a 4/4 bar seems to work in the latest nightly build
2. The problem with selecting lines after you have changed the properties was a know bug that is fixed in the nightlies. See http://www.musescore.org/en/node/2132
3. Lasconic file a bug report about copy-paste of lines. See http://www.musescore.org/en/node/2861
Has anyone found a shortcut for feathered beams?
I am using them to a great extent in a new piece.
In reply to Is there a faster way for feathered beams by Haotian Yu
How are you doing it currently? There is no good way I know of in current version, but development version that will become 2.0 has an icon on the Beams palette that does it in a single (ok, double) click.
In reply to How are you doing it by Marc Sabatella
I use a "fake" version (I hope we're both referring to the same type of feathered beam), following
![Feathered.jpg]( "Feathered.jpg")
"Personal provisory solutions for these issues" in the comment above.
In reply to Well... by Haotian Yu
For the record, yes, that's the same type of feathered beam that will be supported in 2.0. Just create a normal set of sixteenths or smaller (to get the number of notes & beams you like), click the beam, then double click the feathered beam icon on the Beams palette.