Dotted and undotted unison: shared notehead or separate noteheads?
MuseScore handles both situations, depending on what the user wants to do. The default is to use separate noteheads, which I think is what Elaine Gould recommends in "Behind Bars". The exception is repeated patterns (e.g. in piano music) where it is clear to the performer what is required, and for such a case shared noteheads are fine.
MuseScore's spacing seems visually very satisfactory with shared noteheads:
But the default case (separate noteheads) is not handled well at all:
It looks as if the spacing algorithm is still leaving space for the dot, although the dot is now moved to the left of the undotted note. Presumably this is a bug and nothing intentional?
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Comments
Indeed. I've seen it mentioned in the forums, but don't remember (and can't find in a search) a specific issue in the tracker for it. I would encourage you submit it. FWIW, I don't think the dot explains this fully - spacing isn't great in the same case but with a half note instead of the dotted note.
In reply to Indeed. I've seen it… by Marc Sabatella
" I don't think the dot explains this fully - spacing isn't great in the same case but with a half note instead of the dotted note "
Marc, I agree that the spacing issue is handled a lot better when the separate noteheads are half-note + eighth note (case C below). But a dotted half note (case D below) still has spacing which is not ideal:
I have now raised this in the Issue Tracker:
#323925: Shared unison noteheads and separate unison noteheads: spacing anomalies with dotted notes
It's not quite the same situation, but I dare to put my question here, anyway. I ran into a situation where the handling of double augmentation dots is different from what I'd expected.
![musescore standard.JPG]( "musescore standard.JPG")
![target.JPG]( "target.JPG")
. Is there something wrong with this solution? Can I achieve this with musescore?
I had expected
Daniel mentioned that MuseScore also allows shared noteheads. I did not find a means to configure MuseScore to do that - and I'm not sure whether I should use this option, but I really want to learn how to set this option).
In reply to It's not quite the same… by SlyDr
" Is there something wrong with this solution? "
Having both noteheads to the left of the augmentation dot(s) implies that the augmentation applies to both notes. I think that MuseScore's default layout is more correct, because it's clear that the augmentation does not apply to the stem-down note in Piano LH, beat 3.
"Can I achieve this with musescore?"
Yes, in the Inspector by adjusting the X-offset by a negative value for the Chord of the stem-down note (not the X-offset for the Note of the stem-down note)
"MuseScore also allows shared noteheads. I did not find a means to configure MuseScore to do that"
I don't think that there is any global option to change the default of separate noteheads - but someone else may be able to correct me.
However you can make two unison noteheads shared on an individual basis. Click the notehead you want to hide, press V to make it invisible - and the two unison noteheads will now share the same space.
In reply to It's not quite the same… by SlyDr
I thought I had replied to this as well but apparently not. Anyone, I would also say the result shown as "expected" is not optimal, as it is ambiguous. If the notes involved were beamed it might be clearer. Different engravers handle these situations differently, and Gould mentions several options in "Behind Bars". Ours is probably the "safest".