Implode and explode

Explode

The explode command allows you to select a passage of music in a single staff and split (explode) the chords into their constituent notes or voices as follows:

• If the passage is all in voice 1, the top note of the chord is retained on the top staff, while the lower notes are moved to subsequent staves.
• If the passage contains multiple voices, voice 1 notes are retained on the top staff, while other voices are moved to subsequent staves. All exploded voices are now in voice 1.

To explode a section of the score:

1. Ensure that there are enough staves underneath the source staff to receive the exploded notes. Create extra staves if necessary using the Instruments dialog.
2. Choose one of two options:
   • Select a range of measures in the source staff: this allows all notes to be exploded if there are enough staves available.
   • Select a range of measures that includes both the source staff and also extends downwards to include one or more destination staves: This limits the number of exploded notes/voices to the number of selected staves.
3. Choose Tools → Explode .

Notes:

1. If the selection is all in voice 1, MuseScore will discard the lowest note(s) of any chord that contains more notes than the number of staves in the selection.
2. If the selection is all in voice 1, and If a given chord has fewer notes than the number of destination staves, then notes will be duplicated as needed so that every staff receives a note.
3. Any existing music in the destination staves is overwritten.
4. If you select a partial measure, the explode command will automatically expand it to a full measure.

Implode

The Implode command works in the opposite way to "explode":

• With one staff selected, all notes in voices 1–4 are combined into voice 1.
• With multiple staves selected, the notes in the second staff are copied to the first available voice in the top staff, the notes in the third staff are copied to the next available voice in the top staff and so on.

Apply implode to a single staff

1. Select a range of measures in the desired staff.
2. Choose Tools → Implode .

All selected notes in the staff are now displayed in voice 1.

Apply implode to multiple staves

1. Ensure that there is only one voice in each staff.
2. Select a range of measures in the destination staff and extend this selection downwards to include the other staves to be imploded.
3. Choose Tools → Implode .