Adding grace notes WITH slurs attached automatically. A new Auto Hotkey script.

• May 3, 2020 - 10:26

Hi folks, I read a post a few days ago (did a quick search of the forum but can't find it now) in which the OP was asking if there was a way of adding a grace note INCLUDING the joining slur.
I agree with the OP in that when I add grace notes, 99% of the time I need them to be connected to the main note with slurs, and 99% of the time they will probably need to be a semitone lower than the main note.

SO:
For Windows users only .....

I wrote a short Auto Hotkey script. The attached script performs the following action in MuseScore when selecting a note then pressing the number 1:

It automatically adds a grace-note before the selected note which is a semitone lower than the selected note, then adds a slur connecting the grace note to the selected note. All in one keypress. Ta Da!

Pressing number 2 acts the same, but it also respells the grace note automatically - so, for example, if you apply the grace note to a D, it will make the grace note C#, not Db.

Try it!!

(For anyone not familiar with using AHK)......
1. Download and install the small free program Auto Hotkey.
2. Download the attached .txt file, put it somewhere handy like on the desktop.
3. Delete the extension of this file and change it from .txt to .ahk (a warning message might appear but click OK);
3. Right-click the .ahk file and select "Edit Script" to read it (text will appear in Notepad), then close Notepad;
4. Right-click the .ahk file and select "Run Script".

Then...
5. Open the attached file ("grace note experiment") or any other MS file.
6. Select the first note (C), press "1", and a grace note B will be added, with slur.
7. Select the next note (D), press "2", and a grace note C# will be added, wuth slur.
8. Experiment by pressing "1" or "2" after selecting the other notes.

PS I know there's a problem with applying the script to the F# (and might be for other accidentals) - pressing "1" gives a grace note of F natural, pressing "2" gives G double flat. I could amend the script to give a 3rd option, but feel this would be counter-productive - too many options. Just press "1", then respell the F natural to E# by pressing "j" twice....

Note : It's a good idea to de-activate the auto hotkey script as soon as you've finished with grace notes, otherwise your computer will do very strange things every time you press "1" or "2" therafter. It's easy to de-activate the script. Go to the up arrow (bottom right of your taskbar), right-click the green Auto HotKey script icon, and press "exit".:
auto hotkey taskbar graphic.jpg

Or you can change the hotkey to something different, for example the replacing th first entry of the script (after the SetKeyDelay line) to the code ^1:: will change the hotkey to "CTRL +1".

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