Multiple instruments on a part
Music classical and popular very, very frequently features staves marked "oboe, violin 1, soprano" or "violoncello and contrabass", where all the named instruments play all the notes on that staff, identically but for (usually implicit) octave transposition. Right now, this has to be done with one staff per instrument, hiding or not hiding duplicate staves, but burdening the author with the need to manually keep them in sync, a great burden if the composition or arrangement is under development.
If this were done as I imagine, the "instrument" dropdown in "staff properties" would be a list, along with possible octave transposition. The mixer would have a row for each instrument, not the staff. This particularly useful for those rendering organ music, whereby sounds must be composed by adding registers, whether real organ registers are available or such sounds as are available are conscripted to serve in their place.
This seems well within things that MS could do, and it would help many kinds of users. Other than a robust ornamentation system and powerful articulation control, I don't think there's anything I would more want than this.
Comments
Hi there, first post here.
I'm adopting Musescore and really grateful that it exists and for the work that's been put into it, so deep thanks to all who have contributed.
I think similarly to the parent poster, I am looking for a work flow which would allow me to write for multiple instruments that all play the same melodic line but that use different clefs and transpositions in the simplest way possible.
If anyone has an idea if and how this might be already possible then please feel free to reply, otherwise count me as another voice asking for this feature !
Best,
Peter
In reply to Hi there, first post here. by preidorg
If they use different clefs & transposition, then the simplest is to just use three separate staves, then copy and paste the content between them. This thread is actually talking about something different - using a *single* staff - and hence the same clef and transposition - for several instruments.
In reply to If they use different clefs & by Marc Sabatella
I'm a school teacher with unpredictably constituted instrumental ensembles and I would like to use a *single* staff for (eg) the clarinet, the violin and the flute, and then be able to print out all the different parts (with correct clefs and transpositions) without having to create new instruments and parts and do a bunch of copying and pasting.
I think this is fairly similar to what the original poster was asking although I can see that it's not identical. I suspect that this wouldn't be useful to that many users and the extra options would probably be confusing for the others, I do however think it would be pretty neat nevertheless and could save me lots of time.
Thanks,
Peter
In reply to I'm a school teacher with by preidorg
I just found the "Add Linked Staff" option in the "Instruments" dialogue and it seems to do *almost* what I want. For instance for the guitar it can translate a melody into tablature continually on the fly, but it can't seem to transpose the notes from one staff on to another as I had hoped.
I hope I'm being clear.
Peter
In reply to I'm a school teacher with by preidorg
This method of notating a score is not standard, but given your situation as a music educator I can understand the reasons you want to do it that way. Fortunately, using the current MuseScore features, you can create a score containing any number of hidden staves which will propagate as individual parts when you create them. This will enable you to print a score which shows a single staff labelled for multiple instruments playing in unison, and also print individual parts properly transposed for such instruments as B-flat clarinets or trumpets or F or D horns.
Here's the procedure:
1. Create your basic score.
2. Right click on the staff to which you wish to add additional unison instruments, select "Staff Properties," and edit the Long and Short instrument names to include the additional instruments which will be playing this line.
3. Type "I" to bring up the Instruments dialogue, and add staves (not 'linked staves'!) for those additional instruments. (You can use the "Up" (or "Down") buttons to position those new staves where you would want them to appear if they were to appear at all.) Click OK to close the Instruments dialogue.
4. Type "I" again to re-open the Instruments dialogue, and then UNCHECK the 'Visible' boxes for the staves you don't want to show up in the score itself, then click OK. The new additional staves will disappear from your score when you do this.
5. From the main menu, click File>Parts>New All to create the parts for all your staves, then click OK. The program willl automatically generate an individual part, properly transposed, for every staff in your score, whether it is visible or not.
Now you can export to PDF (File>Export Parts) and print.
In reply to This method of notating a by Recorder485
Here is a quote from the OP (but in a later post):
I think the point is that when he decides to make an update to the score, he wants to edit in one place, since it is really one part, and then print the part for the different instruments.
It would exactly be like having linked parts.
In reply to Here is a quote from the OP by AndreasKågedal
I'm the "OP". I don't particularly care to print parts at all, although your extension seems useful. I want to represent scores as they are in published (or manuscript) editions, and play them as they should sound, including Contrabassi playing the same part as Violoncelli an octave lower (non-octave transpositions for simulating organ mutations stops would be nice, but I won't push that). Scores, esp. of early music, often say, "Violin 1, Oboe 1, Soprano" on one staff, "Violin 2, Oboe 2, Alto" on an other, etc. (colla parte), and it seems reasonable that a quality score-preparation program should be able to do the same and play it back as indicated.
Using "hidden voices" is a poor workaround which is a rich fount of error when changes are not reflected to them (and the clumsy UI for exposing voices makes this very tedious).
In reply to I'm the "OP". I don't by [DELETED] 1831606
Yes, your are right of course. I was, as I now realize, referring to preidorg who "hijacked" your thread :-)
And my comment was in response to recorder485 who where responding to preidorg's question, which was not the same as your question.
Sorry for the confusion.
In reply to Yes, your are right of by AndreasKågedal
Sorry about the threadjacking BSG!
Thank you so much Recorder485 for taking the time to help me out, you confirmed that I was mostly doing everything the right way.
Just to be totally clear, I will still have to manually copy and paste the music from the "master / concert pitch" part to the transposing instrument parts, and there is not a way to link the parts automagically? At least not yet... ;-)
Thanks Andreas for your comment too.
Peter
(Happy to be using MuseScore/libre software and finding such helpful people)