How to get 4 bars per system?
I've tried the add/remove system breaks every 4 measures, but I always get something like this, with a measure or two on their own lines for some reason (3rd line). This is the most frustrating thing, and one of the reasons I am hesitant to use MuseScore.
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Comments
Select all of the measures you want on one line and press { several times. If after about 10 presses this doesn't work, you will need to decrease the scaling in Format->Style.
In reply to Select all of the measures… by mike320
Well that worked after 1 press. Don't know why it doesn't just do that automatically. Also, do you know how to easily decrease the vertical space between lines?
In reply to Well that worked after 1… by theblackspark
The default stretch, which is what } and { changes has a resonable minimum spacing between notes. If the user wants the notes a little closer he can press { to decrease the stretch like you did. } is generally only used to undo pressing {.
Space between lines... do you mean lines of music which are called systems in MuseScore? In Format->Style under Page there is a Min system distance. This will reduce the minimum space between each system. If it is low enough to add another system to the page you will see it reduced, otherwise it will have no effect. MuseScore uses the min and max system distances to evenly space systems on a page by default.
If this doesn't work and you don't mind a lot of empty space at the bottom of the page, then you can use the "Staff spacer fixed down" to bring the systems closer together. To make them even you will need to put one on each system, select it and decrease the size of it in the inspector (F8). I don't advise this though, it looks better when the space is between systems rather than at the bottom of the page.
You could also increase the top and bottom margins so the extra space is divided between the top and bottom of the page. As you can tell, there are lots of ways to format the page. You need to understand the different options and choose the one that works for the given situation. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/page-settings and https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/layout-and-formatting for more info.
In reply to The default stretch, which… by mike320
"Don't know why it doesn't just do that automatically."
a) some users want more or fewer or a variable number of measures per line.
b) measures with more notes take up more space. Automatically forcing a fixed number of measures per line would result in very squashed and unreadable scores in some cases.
c) as you have found, it is quite easy to adjust things manually to make your own layout compromises.
In reply to Well that worked after 1… by theblackspark
The standard in music is not to have only four bars per line, that's really limited only to very specific contexts. And most uses of line breaks are not to force more measures on a line, but less (just as in a word processor). So really, only you can know when you have one of those special situations where it makes sense to put more measures on a line than your spacing settings would normally allow.
Since this does come up often in couple of particular settings - lead sheets, music for children - it can make sense to create a template that already has tighter than usual spacing (Format / Style / Measures / Spacing), so then all you need to do is add the breaks.
In reply to The standard in music is not… by Marc Sabatella
I'm probably missing a technical point here, but when I first open MuseScore the template in Treble Clef shows 4 bars per line, etc. ???
I'm trying to format a Bass Clef page in the same way, but I can't figure it out.
Can ups help?
Mike Vendetti
In reply to I'm probably missing a… by mikevendetti
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/layout-and-formatting#system-breaks
In reply to See https://musescore.org/en… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thank you, my good sir!
In reply to Select all of the measures… by mike320
Thank you!