Can't add third voice

• May 8, 2022 - 19:33

I wanted to put the bass clef notes as a third voice. No matter what I do it thinks the first voice is still there so it either messes up the measure with rests (image), won't let me enter at al/changes back to 1l, or messes up the treble line. I have "note input" selected.

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Screen Shot 2022-05-08 at 1.29.35 PM.png 19.25 KB

Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

To explain further: voices are numbered 1 to 4 on each stave. So the first voice on each stave is voice1 for that stave. If you only have one voice then use voice 1. If you have two voices on each stave then use voice 1 and voice 2 on the first stave and voice 1 and voice 2 on the second stave. There is no need to use voice 3 unless you are in the uncommon situation of having three voices on one stave. And similarly you only need to use voice 4 if you are in the very uncommon situation of having four voices on one stave.

In reply to by nagahogep

You wrote:
I am aligning the SATB into the piano accompaniment, and might need to separate them later...

Align? What exactly do you mean by this?

Surely you are not attempting to manually enter the SATB notes into the piano (grand) staff - to be possibly separated later!
Please attach a more substantive example than the image you previously posted - e.g., show a few measures of the SATB you are "aligning", along with the corresponding piano accompaniment.

In reply to by nagahogep

Why would I not put them together to make it easier for me to lead?

Here's a SATB with piano accompaniment score. How can putting all the notes together into the piano make it easier to read?
SATB_score.png
Here's the MuseScore file:
SATB.mscz

On the other hand, you might be talking about a piano reduction of the SATB parts:
piano_reduction.png
where all the SATB notes are combined into the piano. Compare the notes on the piano to the SATB notes. (So not a separate, independent piano accompaniment.)

In reply to by nagahogep

To be absolutely 100% clear: do not use voice 3 until you have already used voices 1 & 2 on that staff. As explained in the Handbook, each and every staff needs to start with voice 1. So four voices are not 1 & 2 on one staff, 3 & 4 on the next. They are 1 & 2 on each staff.

Also, I see you have inserted extra beats into that measure, presumably using Insert mode, If that's you're intent - this is Renaissance or modern music that doesn't use meter - great. But otherwise, best not to use Insert mode. If this was inadvertent, delete the extra beats with Ctrl+Delete.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks. To me the set of staves is an entire unit, not just treble OR bass (this is for piano). So even reading the instructions was not clear.

I didn't put in those extra notes; the software stuck all those extra rests above when I was trying to put in the 3rd voice (the song is in 6/4). That is one of the reasons I posted: instead of just not letting me add the voice (which would have prompted me to just use one of the existing ones), it messed up what I had already entered above. It was extremely frustrating.

In reply to by nagahogep

FWIW, The specific part of the Handbook to re-read about voices is this:

"There is no need to use (MuseScore) voices 3 and 4 unless there are more than two parts in the same staff. This means that in the bass clef of a “close score”, the tenor is voice 1 and the bass is voice 2—beginners often without thinking assign the bass to 1, resulting in stem-direction confusion, or assign tenor to voice 3 and bass to voice 4, which then leads to confusing rests appearing in voice 1 (which cannot be deleted)."

To me, this is quite explicit right in that very first sentence - no need for voices 3 and 4 unless there are more than two parts in the same staff. Not in the same set of staves, but literally in the same staff. And it gives this very example of tenor and bass being 1 & 2 and not 3 & 4. If you can think of way to make that paragraph even more clear, feel free to suggest changes to the wording. It's a common point of confusion, which is why that paragraph was added. So if you can think of what would have made that paragraph "click" for you better, it might help others too.

Anyhow, MuseScore never adds beats unless you ask it to. So you must have either used the special-purpose Insert mode, or used the special-purpose insert note commands (Ctrl+Shift+letter), or used the special-purpose command to join and split measures in Tools / Measure. none of those commands should ever be used except when you want a measure to have the "wrong" number of beats.

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