Free Brackets

• Apr 21, 2021 - 01:17

Hi I hope that someone can help me out with my MuseScore regarding Free Brackets i.e. brackets that are somewhere within the staff systems but not attached to the beginning of the system. I am an organist and we use plain brackets ( [ ) to note where both hands are playing or moving to the same manual. This can happen anywhere and is not specifically related to time. It can occur at the beginning of a system or on any portion of a beat anywhere else.

Normally manual changes work in MuseScore if only one hand goes to another manual by using the staff text feature and I always have to move it up and over under the key signature or clef so that it can be understood by the player. It is usually either the full name of the keyboard or the abbreviation such as (Gt. Sw. Ch. Ped. etc.) When moving only one hand to another keyboard on a staff this works fine.

It is when both hands come together to play on either another manual or both move to the same keyboard with the manual abbreviation.

I have tried to manipulate MuseScore (Which BTW is an amazing improvement) but the brackets only attach themselves to the front of the line and cannot be moved into the staff system. There is no edit for that item other than allowing the brace/bracket to expand to all of the staves within one system.

I can export the final result to PDF and then add it using Adobe PDF with the musical font but I would rather make less work for myself. I still can score manuscripts by hand much faster but MuseScore has improved so much and far greater than anything else available on the market. You have taken most of the frustration factor out of the process and although I am just starting out with this version I have found that it is fairly intuitive to use and thank you for the large arsenal of keyboard shortcuts. I am an old DOS IT Technician and if I don't have to use a mouse, I am pleased!


Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

I have tried both from the Arpeggios palette and from the master palette both have issues when spanning two staves of the system. I can get the bracket to behave all by itself, but when you add a dynamic and/or staff text for the manual signifier the spacing gets all wacky between the two staves and gets very exaggerated with a huge gap and then the bracket changes focus and does not cover two staves. I cannot move the dynamic or staff text successfully. Either one regardless of which note or rest I invoke for the command to add text or dynamic. I have tried every combination and all behave the same way.

It is not a big deal I can add this after converting the score to a PDF. I will tell you though that for the most part the last two new versions are remarkable and very versatile. I know that with the dwindling number of true organists using this software in the real world are few indeed. The compositional needs are quite different from a regular score and the most significant area is of being able to freely place text wherever it is needed not as a System or Staff text but embedded close to the point of execution or instructions to prepare ahead of time for an upcoming change. Not to worry no other software can even come close to meeting our needs, but there are work-arounds.

In reply to by gjephr

It's not really too clear without a score as an example, but if you mean the bracket I think you mean - from the Apreggios palette - add it to the top staff then use Shift+Down to extend it to the staff below.

Also I'm not too what you mean about text, but to be clear: staff text can be placed wherever you want. It shows by default just above the staff algined with the note you attached it to, but you can move it pretty much anywhere you want from there, including right onto the staff. Although chances are decent at that point you really mean to be using fingering?

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