Box notation / note frame support

• Jan 16, 2021 - 23:53
Reported version
3.5
Type
Functional
Frequency
Many
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
MuseScore

I'd like to ask for the introduction of a feature consisting in being able to add a 'note frame' or 'note box' around a group of notes. Introducing this spanner element would eliminate the workarounds required for highlighting music* and writing box notation.

Graphically, there would be vertical lines drawn before the first note and after the last one, and two horizontal lines joining them.
By default the fill color should be transparent but both fill and border should be customizable for highlighting purposes.

The implementation of what I described would already be great, although further enhancements of this feature could include:
1) Adding an optional second spanner element, a centered horizontal line, which graphically would span from the end of the box to a later rhythmic position and end with a symbol (nothing/arrow/vertical line)
2) The repeated audio playback of the contents of the box until that centered horizontal line ends.

Frequency (many) - See the following requests
https://musescore.org/en/node/151191 (workaround in the comment by worldwideweary, attached image also taken from there)
https://musescore.org/en/node/314137
https://musescore.org/en/node/311848
https://musescore.org/en/node/306108
https://musescore.org/en/node/85821

*highlighting workaround 1 (text frame): https://musescore.org/en/node/270788; highlighting workaround 2 (line): https://musescore.org/en/node/220071

Selection_008_0.png

Comments

• Jan 19, 2021 - 17:48

I was in dire need of this but I did all my stuff manually. Like some have suggested, I just used transparent rehearsal marks with rectangular frames and disabled autoplace. Sometimes I have to put a period in the box and add some enters/spaces to make the box size correct. I also manually adjust a 1 sp. horizontal line and add the single thick barline from the symbols palette...with some care this does work but gets tedious to re-edit. It would be nice for symbols to have more than just a position editor in the Inspector but I suppose there are so many that it's near impossible to get them all...

I'm less concerned about playback but I'd think we need some frequency and randomizer setting to simulate something like this properly. Overlapping the figure too would be nice but not sure how that'd work.

I've attached what I've manually done in 3.6. I've used repeat bar symbols rather than larger boxes...but the implementation of some things are the same.

Attachment Size
boxednotation.png 38.4 KB

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• Jun 9, 2021 - 05:58
Type Functional ⇒ Graphical (UI)
Reported version 3.5 ⇒ 3.6

Maybe Quinn makes 7 people and I make 8. I'm sure there are others. Yes, I use box notation often and would like to see an easier process than the Rehearsal Mark fix. Add my name to the number of people interested in box notation/ note frame support . Thanks.

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• Aug 18, 2021 - 12:04

Agree this is a needed feature, but it's actually pretty easy just to do with a staff text element with a thick rectangular frame and setting the text color to invisible (alpha 0). Rehearsal mark seems a weird choice as that will extract to all parts. Admittedly it doesn't really maintain its size properly as the measure stretches. But doing it as two parallel lines, one with hooks, works ok too, just a pity you can't group them together as a single element.

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• Oct 16, 2022 - 06:45
Workaround Yes ⇒ No

Hi! Just wondering if there has been any plans of implementing this in Musescore 4. I've switched to Musescore for around 6 years now, this is one of the only things I REALLY miss from Sibelius. Creating a text box with a frame takes a lot of time compared to using a free box tool as in Sibelius, not to mention the flexibility of resizing and being able to further edit notes within the box and placement of any other elements within the box. I usually just export to svg and do it in inkscape, it takes just about the same time :S.

I've seen this notation in SO MANY scores, contemporary music literature from the mid XXth century and also recent. Ive used it plenty in my scores and seen it in scores from colleagues from all over the world. So yes I would definitely say that this is used quite frequently. Not to mention that this is also a very valuable tool for pedagogical purposes. I really hope this will be taken into account for future versions of Musescore!

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