How Do I Stop One Measure Taking Up a Whole Page?

• Dec 8, 2015 - 22:33

Hi all
In my score I have a bar/measure that takes up a whole page on its own (see attached file). I can see it is stretched further than it needs to be. I'd love to have either 2 or 4 measures per page. I know how to push a measure to the next page, but not fit more on one page. Anyone able to help a brother out?
Love you all
Joel.

Attachment Size
THIS IS IT.mscz 25.02 KB

Comments

It's a lot easier to help based on the actual score than just a picture of part of it, but I can guess that either there's a line/page break at the end of that bar, or it and the next measure combined simply have way too many notes to fit both on one page. You could try changing various formatting options, such as making all the music smaller via Layout -> Page Settings… -> Scaling, or reducing the note spacing in Style -> General… -> Measure. If things are very close to fitting, simply selecting those two measures and reducing stretch might be all you need.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Sorry man, I edited it after realising the actual score would more helpful! haha
Anyone got any ideas now that the score is there?
But I get what you mean about the next bar being too big to fit with the first one on one page; they BOTH do have a LOT of notes...
I may just have to live with it and I guess that's okay...

Also, if I may ask, does anyone... like the score at all? It's my first real attempt at a multi-layered piece... It's for school.
Cheers all!

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

The 'excellence' one? Sure thing! I'll post another reply on this page with necessary praise when I've listened to it ;)
Just remember this score is my first ever!
It's a 'evil graveyard' themed sort of piece I guess, is key signature I think is D Harmonic Minor.
Love you for replying and helping me out, your '{' idea worked, I tried it but was only highlighting the first measure because that's what I thought I was meant to do! I'm very new to this program, but I already love it; it's almost criminal that it's free considering how good it is!!!

In reply to by Look Up Jeremy…

Your first score ever? Wow! The chorus in particular is such a well-planned chord progression I'm tempted to steal it (don't worry, I wouldn't)—flesh it out a bit, and that could practically be the core of a symphony. (I have symphonies on the brain because I just came from performing Brahms' No. 4.) Spot-on selection of instruments for your purposes, too. I would only suggest that a snare drum is wasted doing just one hit every now and then—spicing up the snare part could enhance the music in all sorts of ways, starting with keeping things moving during long notes when not much else is happening. All in all, nice work, especially for a first effort! How long have you had this music in your head?

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Thanks heaps for the encouragement and constructive criticism man; that's really awesome and means a lot! I'll have a look at what you've said and try and make it better!
Honestly I made up most of it as I went, then just refined afterwards; as it is my first piece I don't have much of a 'creative process' I stick to. I always have ideas swimming around and am only just grasping basic musical concepts to get the ideas into notation. I'm 17, and actually only play drums in real life, and that has been a very contemporary upbringing, far from any classical, so this is all VERY new to me!

In regards to your piece, I had a listen.
Holy crap man.
Your layering is brilliant, the subtle changes in dynamics and your mix of slurs and steccatto notes blows me away. I'm really sorry but I can't critique your piece at all, you are clearly LEAGUES ahead of me in knowledge and skill; the name of your piece is very accurate regarding its quality!

You've been a great help, thanks 'Zack'!

In reply to by Look Up Jeremy…

A couple of things I perhaps should mention:

1) I actually didn't do "Excellence March" alone! It's a collaboration, and even if I may have done most of the hard work, the other guy deserves credit not least for originating the melodies, and in general being my mentor. (He's a drummer, too.)

2) I've been working on that piece for over a year. The articulations you mention were relatively recently tacked on to an arguably "finished" piece.

3) I'm 18. ;-) A year ago, when "Excellence" was 2% of what it is now, I was 17.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think my "knowledge and skill" is so special, or if it is, you've got your share of it too. "Excellence" is as good as it is (if it is good) because of the amount of time invested in it, and if you have the time to spend on expanding "This Is It", it looks to me like you absolutely have the knowledge and skills to make it into something great.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Ah okay, cool!
Interesting to hear you're so young and even being a PART of something very spectacular!
Don't sell yourself short man, even with help, to put that piece together, and so young(!) is impressive.
While I wouldn't brag with my piece, I am happy with it, and have refined it since the version on this thread, making corrections and stuff, and I'm definitely excited to hear where it goes! If you do genuinely want me to, I'm happy to send you the finished version when I am fully satisfied with it...

In reply to by Look Up Jeremy…

"Fully satisfied" isn't easy to come by. You might still be making refinements a year from now. ;-) That said, I'd love to see what this develops into, if you're willing to share it. Also, are you familiar with musescore.com? See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/share-scores-online-0 —if you want to share your score with a wider audience, it may be right up your alley.

Also, you might like to look up John Mackey's "Xerxes"—it's at least a little bit similar thematically to "This Is It", and makes excellent dramatic use of percussion.

You mentioned you were writing "for school." Can I ask for any more details on the project? Just curious.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I was working on these that long from now, but at the same time I'd love to have a 'finished' product, y'know? That was I feel I can move on; I wouldn't want to have a whole bunch of unfinished projects at once. I guess ultimately I want to TRY and finish it.
Well I am happy to share it, so when I'm as close to 'satisfied' as I'm going to get I'll contact you somehow :) But as my knowledge is so limited, I don't know how far I can take it right now.
I am actually interested in sharing my scores for critique so I'll look into that, thanks heaps!
Xerxes sounds interesting, I'll have a listen; it may just be the inspiration I need to take my own piece to a new level! Thanks again!

Yeah well by 'for school' I mean I'm writing 'This is it' (named so because I had a lot of different versions in various stages of development, so THIS IS IT was to help me identify the finished one) for a composition assessment; my first assessment in my HSC Music course for year 12 of high school. I'm from Australia, so either HSC means nothing or everything to you depending where you are from haha but it's important to me I do well. My teacher said I'm possibly looking at a band 6, which is the highest, for a mark so I'm happy. It's actually due tomorrow! But for the assessment itself I'm content with the piece.

What about you Zack? Are you following music as a career or just as a hobby?

In reply to by Look Up Jeremy…

I like to finish things, too—just saying that I have trouble with it. ;)

Don't sell yourself short, either—you've got the creative spirit you need, and based on that solid foundation you've already put together, you have enough knowledge to take it as far as you want to go. (It will take hours of work, though. No way around it.)

HSC means nothing to me, over here in the United States, though I'm guessing it might be like our AP (Advanced Placement) system? Anyway, I'm sure that piece will get you through.

Are you looking to go into music yourself? I'm interested in pursuing music education, which is why I'm curious about your music class—looking for ideas for a curriculum of my own. ;-) Is it basically a composing class? What were the composition guidelines?

By the way, if you want to take this conversation out of the public sphere, you can click on my username and then use the "Send a Message" button.

I was just looking this up and although I see it is a very old post I think I have just conquered it! I had a bar on a couple of different pages which took up the whole breadth of the page. I couldn't see the answer here but what I did was go to: Format; Add Remove system breaks; I then hit on the third one down "remove current system breaks" and just clicking on that seemed to reorganise the pages and get rid of stray bars sitting alone.

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