Tuning of lutes should be related to sections not to the instrument

• Jan 6, 2016 - 12:27

It would be good to have the possibility to change tuning with a new section.
Currently tuning is part of the instruments definition, so you cannot use another tuning for a new section. I think it should be seen parallel to key definition regarding sections.
If that would be possible you could do whole lute books with different tunings in one musescore file.

It would be very helpful to have also the possibility to also save these tunings. Especially in the 17th century there had been many different accordes nouveaux beside the standard tunings of renaissance lutes and the more key orientated tunings of the later baroque lute in d minor.

To avoid misunderstandings: It is very helpful to have the different instrument types of lutes (renaisssance, baroque types with different course numbers) with their standard tuning (e.g. d minor / F major for baroque lute, etc.), but the possibility to easily change the tuning (=key) of an instrument per section would be very helpful.


Comments

I do not really know what you mean by new section, but if it is the ability to compile various scores with different tunings (as in the lute books) in a single musescore file, the Album feature (in File -> Album) is made for this.

And for the different tunings, you simply have to edit in the Staff Properties the String Data for such an instrument in a particular tuning, and then simply save it as a Template, reusable at will. And continue in the same way, for the same (or another) instrument in another tuning, and so on.
This done, you will have everything on hand easily and once and for all.

In reply to by cadiz1

Hi cadiz1, I already know what is possible with albums and it is not at all difficult to change the tuning.

But I think it is always easier to have one file for different short pieces than having many singular files that cannot be really combined.

With albums you even have the possibility to join the pieces, which will result in different sections in one mscz-file - but in case of pieces with different tunings of the lute instrument, that will end up in a chaos, as all sections will be tuned to the first one.
For me that is therefore not really a solution to that problem.

If you have short pieces you will have much space on every page, as pieces will not be combined but every piece in the layout and on the page you used will be printed that way.

In the case of ensemble music with the lute it is even more difficult as you have to extract parts for each key separately, and cannot combine them in a good way (the same problem as with different short pieces).

So I still think it would be very useful to have the tuning of lutes for sections only!
And I also think, that this could be interesting for guitar, and possibly other instruments also, that use scordaturas from time to time.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks a lot. In fact I also thought of this as a solution ;-) (, but I didn't want to weaken my request before putting it forward).

It is at least a possible one (I know it will work!), although I still would prefer the other one, as it would be easier to change the font etc. of one lute than of more than one.
As the lute thing is still in development, such changes will probably still be necessary.

But if the other thing is not possible or too time-consuming to be changed, I would for sure prefer to do it that way!

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