Can't Figure Out How to Add a Bracket/Brace to Just One System and Not All Others
I'm new to MuseScore 4, and I'm writing a simple children's song for church. I'm trying to be consistent with the style I've seen for similar songs in which a system with a piano introduction (the very first system) has a curly brace spanning the treble and bass clefs (typical for piano scores), and all other systems that follow (the ones with lyrics sung by the children but still two staves for piano--bass and treble clefs) do NOT have a bracket/brace. I thought this was commonplace because I've seen it so many times in published songs.
As nearly as I can tell, when MuseScore inserts a bracket/brace, it always applies to ALL systems in the score. I tried selecting individual braces for the systems where I don't want a bracket/brace, and deleting such a bracket/brace deletes ALL of them for ALL systems. Very frustrating. I also tried making individual brackets/braces invisible through the Properties palette, and that behaves globally, too (i.e., it applies to all the bracket/brace for systems). By the way, I tried setting the brackets/braces to invisible, but they didn't change in appearance on the screen (not dimmed), and they still appear when I print the score.
If I can't find a solution to this silly little problem, I'm going to have to dust off my orphaned copy of Sibelius 8 and create this score in that application instead. I'm very disappointed that I don't have control over brackets/braces on individual systems. I can't imagine why that feature is not supported in a program this powerful. It's so basic.
Comments
True. MuseScore can not do certain things that Sibelius can.
And yet thumbing through a few hymnals doesn't show me quite the same thing you are talking about. None of them show an introduction. That has traditionally just been the last phrase or two of the song. Tunes with lyrics between the two clefs have to brace. Tunes with the lyrics and melody above the keyboard part do have the brace in the keyboard part only. But that's only what I've seen. Your experience is different, so you have to do what you have to do.
In reply to True. MuseScore can not do… by bobjp
Thanks for confirming the limitation. I was hoping maybe I was missing a simple workaround. The only workaround I've been able to think of is using the full Adobe Acrobat application to delete the unwanted braces after the score is complete and has been printed to PDF.
I see what you're saying, but this is not a hymn. It's a children's song, and our church has a whole book full of them, so I'm trying to be consistent with the style in which those songs are scored. I've written several such songs in the past, but I've always used Sibelius, and I've had no problems deleting the braces from specific systems in Sibelius 8.
In reply to Thanks for confirming the… by tom_croft24
Possible workaround: create two pianosystems. Delete the brace of the second. Change in Staff props 'hide when empty' setting. Drawback: Voice names will only appear in abbreviated form.