Beaming 4/4

• Feb 8, 2011 - 12:54

MuseScore seems to beam 4/4 as 2/2 by default - i.e 8 quavers in a bar is beamed as 4+4 instead of 2+2+2+2. Sometimes I can fix it by twiddling (in a random and illogical way) with the beam palette, but as it has no 'end a beam here' icon, it doesn't always work. It's particularly intractable when I have two quavers and 4 semiquavers at the start of a bar - it all gets beamed together.

Sorry for the torrent of questions - I've just found the package and I'm very impressed.


Comments

Click on the note in the middle of the set of connected notes where you want to start a new set, and double click on the "Start beam" icon on the far left in the Beam Properties palette. It will break the beam, and the note that you had highlighted will be the start of a new set.

When I came to MuseScore, I had been using Finale and had it set up only do groups of 2 eighth notes by default, but you can't do that in MuseScore. I understand that grouping eighth notes in groups of 4 is the standard, so I got used to it. What I can't get used to is having a set that includes an eighth note, two sixteenth notes, and two more eighth notes (or some similar combination). I always manually break that using the instructions above.

In reply to by newsome

newsome, the beaming of sixteenth notes and eighth notes that you are referring to is a known bug. To follow developments on this issue subscribe to the following bug report:
#3459: Beaming of sixteenth and eighth note sequences in 4/4

As it happens, there is also a thread to track development on the default beam properties for a key signature.
#7491: An option to choose how you want to group notes in a measure

In reply to by David Bolton

Thanks for the update. Customisable beaming would be particularly useful in traditional music, where the distinction between common time (C or 4/4) and 'cut' time (2/2) is important . The first is strathspey, the second reel, and ideally this should be evident from the notation.

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