Using voices to make parts

• Jun 26, 2024 - 21:51

Here is an extract from a score for 3 trumpets
Pic1.jpg
I have assigned voices 1, 2 & 3 to trumpets 1, 2 & 3 so that I can make their parts.
Now the score looks like this
Pic2.jpg
Obviously the conductor wants the score to look like the top picture.
Rather than me going all through the score pressing X and V could MuseScore just do it?


Comments

Basically, you want to have Trumpet 1 and 2 in one staff and Trumpet 3 and 4 in another. The only way to tell that one part is to play this note and the other part is to play that one is with stems up versus stems down.

So you want to have Trumpet 1 notated on Voice 1 of the first staff, Trumpet 2 on Voice 2 of the first staff, Trumpet 3 on Voice 1 of the second staff, and Trumpet 4 on Voice 2 of the first staff. This will display Trumpets 1 and 3 with stems up on each of the two staves and Trumpets 2 and 4 with stems down on each. If your music has the first desk Trumpets consistently lower in pitch than the second desk Trumpets, reverse that, so that the lower notes have stems down and the higher notes have stems up. Most commonly though the first desk of a given instrument will have the higher notes.

https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/working-multiple-voices

IMPORTANT: Put Trumpets 3 and 4 on Voices 1 and 2 in that second staff. In general, always use Voice 1 first and Voice 2 second on a given staff, regardless of which "desk" a given instrument is playing.

In reply to by TheHutch

I disagree. It is usual to have just one staff in the conductor's score for all of each instrument. All the other instruments have to fit on the same page. My pictures are an extract from the score showing just the trumpets to demonstrate the problem.
The score should not be cluttered with up and down stems except where necessary, for example where the parts have different length notes. Small numbers can be annotated to show the conductor which note is which part where it is not obvious. Each players part shows only the notes they play (plus cues maybe), they don't need stem direction to tell them.
The layout that TheHutch describes is for SATB choirs, not bands and orchestras.

In reply to by AskStephen

All of the professionally printed, orchestral, conductors' scores that I've seen recently (say, a dozen or so, over the past 10 years) have been printed exactly as I described. No exceptions. I don't recall any instance where there were four "desks". The only instances of three I recall were for violins and trumpets. First and second trumpets or violins on one staff; third trumpet or violin on a second staff.

I do not recall seeing any instance of three voices notated as you describe. I'm sure there are plenty of them, but this method is certainly not only for SATB or barbershop. (Although it definitely is used for both of these!)

And, as you said in a later post, doing it your way this does cause you to have to edit the Parts multiple times. Doing it my way does not ... you'll simply have first and second trumpets together on one Part score and third and fourth together on another.

In reply to by TheHutch

All of the dozens of professionally printed conductor's scores that I have seen have the 3 trumpets on one staff. Likewise the 3 clarinets etc.
Jm6stringer's way requires any editing to be done once on the conductor's score and again on the part. Not mine.

Please bear in mind that I posted this as a feature request. I am fully aware that there are many ways of using MuseScore to make the score and parts look as readable as professionally printed ones. i am asking the kind, generous and highly skilled people at MuseScore to make it automated and less laborious if they can.

If this is what the conductor wants to see in their score:
Trumpets.png
...yet you wish to print separate parts for each individual trumpet, then add 3 trumpet staves and copy the conductor's trumpets staff into the first added staff:
Trumpets-2.png

Select that copied staff and use Tools > Explode::
Explode.png
You can re-name exploded parts to Trumpet 1,2,3.
Go to "Parts", and open Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, and Trumpet 3 as individual parts to create a tab for each, as in this score:
Trumpets.mscz
...where you can view your Pic1 (conductor) staff and still access each separate tab (though hidden for the conductor's score) so you can print each trumpet part separately.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

This method only works for the very simple composition I used for my example.
When trumpets 1 and 2 are playing the same note and trumpet 3 is playing a lower note, this method gives trumpet 2 the lower note.
When the 3 trumpets' notes are not all the same length voice 2 has to be used in the "conductor's" staff. Maybe voice 3 as well. Explode works differently when there is more than one voice and puts only voice 2 in the trumpet 2 staff and voice 3 in the trumpet 3 staff.
When parts have been generated this way any editing would have to be done twice, once in the conductor's staff and again in the part's staff.

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