old note entry

• Oct 31, 2019 - 18:29

I am transcribing and old music piece. I need some advice on how to enter the notes for the organ right hand, the time is 6/8. This is an old style of engraving and I don't know how to get Musescore to look this way. That being said, how would this be engraved today.


Comments

I suspect you are referring to the top notes of some chords being put in as cross staff. Enter the notes on the staff they are displayed on. To make the notes on the bottom staff look like they are connected to the top, select the beam (the horizontal bar) and press v to make it invisible. The beam will be gray on the screen. Double click this gray beam and drag the left grab box to make the notes look like they are connected.

This notation is still used.

In reply to by mike320

No, I know how to do that. What I don't see how to do is in the right hand first measure there is 1/8 rest then 2 eight notes, below those are 2 B notes and then 2 F notes. Once I go past a certain point in the staff, musescore wants to flip the note into the left hand which messes up the count. Unless you're advocating that the left hand notes are entered as two voices.

In reply to by Don9of11

You must enter the 2 G's in measure 5 in a different voice than any other notes in the measure. You could put them in voice 2 of the top staff and use cross staff notation (ctrl+shift+down arrow) to move them or you can put them into voice 1 the bottom staff (my reccommendation) so all of the notes have stems pointed the correct direction and the amount of work to make it look right is less. BTW, this is how I would do the entire first line of music except measure 3 which can be put into voice 1 in each staff and moved using cross staff notation as needed.

Note there have been discussions about allowing individual notes to be moved using cross staff notation, but it hasn't been implemented, mostly because it's not a real simple thing to write the code for.

In reply to by mike320

I kind of understand but I'm confused, how do you add the notes in voice 1 of the bottom staff without first adding an 1/8 rest above the low note. In my example I tried the method you suggested in measure 1. However, I think another solution is how I did it in measure 2 and 3 which is more agreeable to me and is patterned after the very last measure. Yes, it doesn't look like the original score but I think its a better solution and less work.

Attachment Size
Cross_Staff_Notation.mscz 10.61 KB

If I understand the score and you guys, there is a mis-interpretation of the score here. Here is how I read it.

There is exactly one voice in each staff. In measure 1, the Bb2 and F2 in the bass staff are voice 1 of the bass staff. There is no voice 2 in the bass staff. All three notes of the three note chords are voice 1 of the treble staff, even though some of them are written lowish in the bass staff. Yes, the stems are a bit confusing or invisible on the lowest part.

This explains why there is no rest in the bass staff on beat 1, above the low note. The rest in the treble staff does that duty.

If you look at the very last measure of the piece, that is a clear example of the scheme of the whole thing. Cross-staff notation and faint stems are used elsewhere just to keep you on your toes.

In reply to by MikeN

What you say is true, but part of the chords have been moved from the right hand to the left. MuseScore does not permit only part of a chord to be moved to the other staff so it is necessary to use my method to make it look proper. As I pointed out, measure 3 clearly uses cross staff notation as can be seen by the lack of rest in the right hand and all of the notes being in the left hand.

In reply to by MikeN

Ah, I think we are mostly "on the same page", and "in the same voice", but... not "in the same hand" :)
I disagree that "part of the chords have been moved from the right hand to the left". The chords are all fully in the right hand. (Ignoring the last 3 bars, which are quite clear and have chords in both hands.) A pianist can split a chord in a single voice across two hands, but it's not intended here, even in measure 3.

I understand that MS does not support cross-staff chords, so your work-around is good. I'm only musing on the semantics of the original.

In reply to by MikeN

I'm not a keyboard player, so the musician's interpretation of the score can be anything and I wouldn't know the difference. What matters right now is how to notate it in MuseScore and that is all I'm concerned with on this topic. In the PDF it is clear that cross staff notation has been used to put certain notes in the bottom staff and leave others in the top staff.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.