Voice Selection - Note vs Measure Mode
Hello,
Entering Notes in the "note" mode vs "measure" mode in my estimation can easily conflict. I have this piano sheet that is something that I want to expand on and am entering it into MuseScore Studio. The vocal line was entered first and then copied to the treble stave of the piano. Then I select note mode, 2nd voice and start entering those notes and rests. If part way through the measure there are only rests remaining and MS has properly identified them, then I use Cntrl+R arrow to advance to the next measure, whereby MS kicks me out of the 2nd voice into 1st voice, and I have to reselect the 2nd voice. For an eight-page piano piece this is a pain in the butt. I set myself up to work IN the 2nd voice, and MS keeps "thinking" that I should be in the 1st voice everytime I use Cntrl+R arrow. We need to have some flexibility here.
I would like to propose to make this a selectable feature not a mandated feature. Like in Reaper we can edit how controls act. Something in MuseScore need the same flexibility, for either user likes/dislikes, the type of score being worked on, or for workflow. Just like setting up shortcuts we have control to modify the defaults.
Thanks for listening.
Ted Maciag
packinheatband.com
Comments
Fwiw, I mentioned >4 years ago about: https://musescore.org/en/node/299792, but got no response from anyone. Good luck! Maybe consider making a github request for the Mu4 dev team...
That's because CTRL+R is a reset command. Just hit the right arrow to advance through rests. You might spend some time in the list of short cuts.
In reply to That's because CTRL+R is a… by bobjp
"That's because CTRL+R is a reset command
🤣
Reread. The user has written Ctrl + R(ight) arrow: "then I use Cntrl+R arrow to advance to the next measure"
In reply to That's because CTRL+R is a… by bobjp
That's what I'm doing. Ctrl + R-arrow. How's that for nomenclature?
"...then I use Ctrl+Right-arrow to advance to the next measure, whereby MS kicks me out of the 2nd voice into 1st voice, and I have to reselect the 2nd voice"
It sounds to me that in certain points of your score there are perhaps neither notes nor rests in Voice 2?
When I am transcribing a score and I have entered the Voice 1 notes, I use this menu option twice:
Tools > Voices > Exchange voice 1-2
This creates a Voice 2 whole-measure rest in every measure of the selected passage.
After that I can enter notes and rests in Voice 2 throughout, confident that I will not be forced into Voice 1 entry mode by accident.
Yes, Ctrl+RightArrow goes to the next measure and changes to voice 1 then.
Try the right arrow without pressing Ctrl. Maybe you need to press the arrow key several times if there are notes or rests already written. But it does not change the voice.
At least in 3.x.
In reply to Yes, Ctrl+RightArrow goes to… by HildeK
I have the tune I'll give it a try.
Having the same command work different depending on some setting somewhere is not good UI design. If both behaviors are desirable, better to have two separate commands, also you can always simply choose the one you want in the moment instead of being stuck with only one or the other.
To me what makes sense is a special command valid in note input mode that skips past trailing rests and moves to the next measure without changing voice. It's conceivable that Ctrl+Right could actually do that instead of its current behavior, as its current behavior of always selecting the first element in the measure really makes sense mostly for normal mode, not so much for note input. Unless others can think of a good reason why you'd want that behavior in note input mode as well.
Meanwhile, seems this would probably be a pretty trivial plugin.
In reply to Having the same command work… by Marc Sabatella
Another idea - instead of modifying the behavior of the existing "next measure" command to special-case note input mode, or adding a new command to move to the next measure while staying in the current voice even if that means not selecting the first element in the next measure, what if there were a note input command that said "fill the rest of this measure with rests and continue". If the measure already had rests - correct ones - this would be the same as the original request. But, if the measure currently has notes in it, this could be a quick - clear out the rest of the notes in this measure and move on" command. Same if it has rests but they aren't correct (eg, quarter rests on offbeats). I can't say it's something I'd probably use very often in that way, but it's free functionality and you never know when it might come in handy.
In reply to Another idea - instead of… by Marc Sabatella
I am uneasy about the "clear out" part of that functionality. Perhaps it would be better (less dangerous) if the prospective new command would move the entry point to the start of the next measure, leaving any notes in the current measure intact but filling any empty (no notes, no rests) part of the current measure with rests. Having parts of a voice in a measure with content and part without is always a bad idea, or at least there is no good reason to do that, or is there?
Another suggestion is in the meantime to consider making [voice-2] command a simple one-character/symbol shortcut, to make switching into it as easy as possible when needed.