How to let the first measure have just one beat, on a 3/4 time signature?
I'd like to let the first measure of the song to just contain 1 beat, while the rest of the song stays on the same 3/4 time signature - Similar to how it's shown in this image.
So far I've tried deleting the excessive beats in the first measure on Musescore using Ctrl+Del, but the problem is that all the following measures will lose the connection to the Bb major key signature that's attached to the first measure. If I try to assign the key signature manually again the second measure, in attempt to fix it, the Bb major key signature will show on the second measure - which is not what we want.
How can I safely assign the first measure to just contain one beat?
Thank you!
Comments
When you first created the score, MuseScore asked if you wanted a pickup, best would have been to have said yes back then, then it would have happened automatically. but it's not too late, just right-click the measure, Measure Properties, set actual duration to 1/8, and also check the box to exclude from measure count.
BTW, Ctrl+Delete works also, but it doesn't set the option to exclude from count, and it does have the temporary glitch of messing up the key signature in certain cases. It fixes itself if you re-add the key signature to the first measure (not the second), or if you save and reload.
In reply to When you first created the… by Marc Sabatella
The term for the pickup is "anacrusis" - which does appear during the creation of a new score. See the image file attached.
If it's not done at startup all is not lost, as the number of beats in the first bar can be changed. Also if not counting the first bar, then the bar count setting needs to be changed - which can be done in Format->Styles.
The attached file shows the panel during the startup process to set the anacrusis.
For more on this do a search for "anacrusis+Musescore" or look in the MS handbook.
There is a mark placed in bars to indicated that they don't have the same number of beats as the time signature. I'm not sure if that mark can be made invisible in the normal way - if wanted.
Sometimes one also needs to adjust the number of beats at the end of a section or piece - for example before a repeat baroline.
In reply to The term for the pickup is … by dave2020X
It shows as "Anacrusis" in the British version / language setting, in the US version it reads "Pickup Measure".
In reply to It shows in the British… by Jojo-Schmitz
Perhaps both terms should be used, to make this clear.
Here we also often use the term "up beat" I think. It might just be one note, or could be several. Lead-in is another term.
Regarding the mark to indicate bars which have a number of beats which doesn't fit the time signature, I don't think that can be affected by visibility settings - so will always show up in MusesScore - but I could be wrong ....
If a score is exported to PDF the small mark does not show up.
In reply to Perhaps both terms should be… by dave2020X
View > Show Irregular Measures
In reply to Perhaps both terms should be… by dave2020X
We can't shows 4 different terms (Pickup Measure, Anacrusis, Up Beat, Lead-In) in that dialog at the same time.
Just to find out later there there is a 5th and 6th one we've forgotten. Then multiply by 68 languages MuseScore is available in.
The terms are described in the Glossary (and as such part of the handbook)
In reply to We can't shows 4 different… by Jojo-Schmitz
That doesn't seem too helpful. I agree that showing every language might be a challenge - example for languages in Outer Mongolia, but some of the common ones in major languages should be easy to do. It's not as if they take up much screen space in the dialogue.
Giving alternative terms might reduce the number of queries/requests for this kind of feature. When I first encountered that issue I had to look up what anacrusis meant - it wasn't - and really still isn't - a word I use every day.
How many languages are you truly committed to providing? I recently had a problem with another tool - not MS (actually Polyphone) where I couldn't even decode what the buttons meant as I think they were in Chinese.
Is there a Chinese version of MS?
Looks like there are only 11 supported languages at present according to Wikipedia:
Available in 11 languages
List of languages
Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English (United Kingdom and United States), French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Swedish
All are basically European languages written in Roman script (though Afrikaans may be written in Arabic script), so no Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Japanese.
In reply to That doesn't seem too… by dave2020X
MuseScore is translatable into 68 languages. Wikipedia is outdated, but also lists only those that are reasonably complete. 12 are currently completly translated (Chinese among them), a whole bunch more pretty close (2 more Chinese among them, for Taiwan and Hong Kong). Russian, Greek, even RTL languages like Hebrew, Arab are also available, as is Japanese, Taiwaneese and many more.
Check https://www.transifex.com/musescore/musescore/dashboard/
(Afrikaans may be written in Arabic script ??? I don't think so, it is similar to Dutch, not to any Arab)
In reply to MuseScore is translatable… by Jojo-Schmitz
Re "(Afrikaans may be written in Arabic script ??? I don't think so, it is similar to Dutch, not to any Arab)"
I did not mean "might" in the sense that Afrikaans is generally written in Arabic script - it is definitely written using Roman script, being based on Dutch. However there have been transliterations into Arabic script, and it might be used in that way sometimes - see this page https://omniglot.com/writing/afrikaans.htm which has a table showing Arabic script characters for rendering Afrikaans. There seems to be some evidence that Arabic script has been used for Afrikaans in the past, though whether that still persists I do not know.