Some beginner questions about copying

• Apr 16, 2015 - 14:24

Sorry if these have been covered; not finding them on a quick search.
1) Is there an easy way to select all of one voice in a score? Selection is difficult if the score is too large to display on one screen.
2) Is it possible to change an instrument in a score to a different instrument and have the part simply convert all at once (e.g. change trumpet to alto sax)?
3) Is there a quick way (other than copy/paste) to copy one voice in a score to another voice? E.g. I have an existing trumpet part; I add alto sax to score as new instrument; I now want to just copy the entire trumpet part to the alto sax part.


Comments

1) I'm guesisng you don't literally mean one "voice", but rather, one "staff". Either way, the answer is yes, but assuming you really mean "staff", simply click the first measure, then use the standard shortcut Shift+Cltr+End to extend the selection to the last measure. Or click one measure, Shift+Click the last. Most of the standardard selection mechanisms work as expected in MuseScore. If you *do* literally want to limit the selection to a single voice, use View / Selection Filter to control the selection.

2) Yes, right click the staff, Staff Properties, Chsnge Instrument

3) Isn't that exactly what copy and paste is?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I take advantage of this discussion to ask a question to Marc:
Today I wrote a melody using voice 1. Since the melody of the voice 2 (same stave) uses the same rhythmic division of voice 1, I decided to copy voice 1 and paste it in voice 2 and then change notes with respell pitches.
I did not succeed, and then I followed another workaround:
I added thirds to the melody (alt + 3) and then I selected the lowest notes (cmd + click on each note) and then I clicked on the button of item 2 (green). It is not very easy but I managed it.
I thought it would be useful to have some automation more immediate in order to operate in these situations rather common. That is, another feature request :)
Obviously if there is a procedure that I do not know, please help me to do it better.

In reply to by Tommotide

OK, here's how I've been doing it since long: enter voice 1, copy it, swap voice 1 and 2, paste, respell.

I've just recently used the technique you described, but on a score that was enterd with chords already. This method is new in 2.0, wasn't possible in 1.x (I think). But indeed more work.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

another question: I understand how to hide bar lines in a staff / instrument, but I want to hide bar lines for a few measures of all staves in a score. I tried selecting the bars in question and using staff properties, but this doesn't work -- it picks one staff/instrument and takes out the bar lines throughout the score for that staff. Is there a way to hide bar lines for a selection only, even for just one staff?
thank you again!

In reply to by Jeb Bishop

NHot that I know of, but I'm confused by your question. I suspect that whatever it is you are trying to do could really be done better a different way. Like, for instance, actually *jopining* the measures (Edit / Measure / Join Measures) which completely removes the barlines and combines the measures, or the more manual way of doing the same thing: right click a measure, Measure Properties, increate the Actual duration to include as many beats as you apparently are trying to include in the measure for whatever reason.

EDIT: actually, there *is* a way to hide barlines for a selection, including however many staves you wish. Make the select, then right click a barline within it, then Select / All similar elements in range selection. Then press "V" to toggle visibiltiy. But again, whatevber it is you are actually trying to accomplish is probably better done a different way, so if "join measures" doesn't already do it, maybe you could explain your actual goal here?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Trying to try out Join Measures, which sounds promising, but it stays grayed out (at Edit / Measure / Join Measures) no matter how I select beforehand ... not sure why that is.

Also, I find the Join Measure explanation in the handbook a little confusing. Not sure what it means to select just one measure and then "join" that (to what? the following measure?). In any case I'm having a hard time getting that to work also.

This suggestion: "Select / All similar elements in range selection. Then press "V" to toggle visibility" -- also isn't working for some reason. I tried this and the bar lines do gray out (though do not disappear completely) in the score, but then are still visible in the generated parts (after generating them again).

The musical point (or "actual goal") is to have a way of representing a passage where the tempo is not strict and it's not really in a meter/time signature, but still uses quasi-standard notation to indicate approximate relative durations of notes. (e.g. quarter notes vs half notes, etc.). In my circles we work this way a lot. Anyway, even with the bar lines I can explain what the idea is in rehearsal.

thank you again!

In reply to by Jeb Bishop

Joining measures means literally that. You can't "join" one thing - that doesn't make sense ("we now join this man in holy matrimony" - join him to what? :-). You join *multiple* things. So, you don't select *one* measure - you select *several*, and they become joined - merged into one measure. So, what most people who have tried to hide a barline are *really* trying to do - create one big long measure. Seems to be exactly what you are describing. You don't just separate measures with invisible barlines - you want one long measure. The old way to do that in 1.3 was what I said about measure properties and actual duration, and that way sitll exists in 2.0. But 2.0 provides the new "join measures command" to greatly simplify the process. Just select the measures and go to edit / measure join measures, and they are autoamtically combined into one big measure.

So indeed, hiding barlines really isn't what you want to do here. There really wouodn't be a ton of real-world cases where this would be preferable to joining measures, or manually creating "big" measure via measure properties.

In reply to by Jeb Bishop

It's also dsiabled if the score *has* parts. That is, if the parts have been generated. It is best to only generate parts when basically done with substantive changes to a score. You could delete the parts and try again. Or you could use the manual method which accomplishes the same thing - use measure properties to increase the actual duration of a measure, then enter the notes.

The point being, you probably really want a single big measure not a bunch of separate measures whose barlines happen to be invisible. The latter will have awkward gaps betwene notes on either side of the invisible barline, plus there won't be any guarantee the measures will stay together on one system, plus the measure numbering will be off unless you also fudge that with measure properties, etc.

In reply to by Jeb Bishop

Re: "I tried this and the bar lines do gray out (though do not disappear completely) in the score, but then are still visible in the generated parts (after generating them again)."

If you prefer to not see them at all, go to the View menu and uncheck "Show Invisible."

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

But note, even without doing this, they won't print or export to PDF etc. Invisible elements show grey on screen within MuseScore only, so you know they are there, taking up space and available to select and make visible again, but they truly are invisible.

If you want them invisible in parts too, you can just do the same there. But again, invisible barlines is not what you want. You want a measure with lots of beats in it, whether created by "join measure" or via "measure properties".

"3) Is there a quick way (other than copy/paste) to copy one voice in a score to another voice? E.g. I have an existing trumpet part; I add alto sax to score as new instrument; I now want to just copy the entire trumpet part to the alto sax part."

I have the same problem, but with a twist: I want to copy/paste a trumpet part to a string bass. I've changed the first voice in the bass to voice 2, and have copy/pasted the new bass notes as voice 1, but:

The notes on the ledger lines extend into the previous stave due to the octave difference, and if I increase the stave spacing, the bass line is lost below the edge of the paper.

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