Straight Tie - is it possible?
Hi folks
Notation for Scots fiddle music uses a straight tie - this is a tie between two notes in the form of a straight line. It should slope in relation to the note heads in the same way as a curved tie.
Is there any way to achieve this in MuseScore? There's nothing obvious from a quick scan of the docs...
Comments
from the palette, drag the line (last simbol below);
Double-click on the line: use the handles to size and inclination
or:
Enter the tie/slur and fits as above.
Welcome
For a straight line between notes I would suggest a straight-line glissando:
Click on first note, click on glissando and then right-click on the glissando and un-check the text.
If you want a line that spans more than one note or more than one bar, use a standard slur then double-click on it and use [Shift][Tab] a couple of time sto take you back to the second handle then use the arrow keys +/- [Ctrl] and arrow to flatten the slur at the handle then click [Tab] again and repeat for the next handle. I assure you that this sounds way more complicated than it really is.
My reasoning is that a glissando or a slur more closely follow the notes to which they are attached and also you can copy and paste a segment of music containing a glissando or a slur but you can't copy and paste a bit containing a line (the line doesn't get copied).
In reply to For a straight line between by underquark
"For a straight line between notes I would suggest a straight-line glissando"
Thank you! Much better result than my attempt at using a slur, then having to hand-place the two endpoints, hand-flatten the curve, and then tolerate the bulge in the center. I just wanted a line connecting two noteheads, as an instructional way to indicate the voice movement from chord to chord, and this is great! THANKS!
In reply to "For a straight line between… by reggoboy
Glissandi will play back which is presumably not what you want. The correct symbol to use is the note anchored line, from the Add / Lines menu.
In reply to Glissandi will play back… by Marc Sabatella
I think he means a slide, not a tie or slur. Aren’t there slides in the articulations palette? I’m not near my PC at the moment.
In reply to Glissandi will play back… by Marc Sabatella
"The correct symbol to use is the note anchored "
Oh, thanks! That looks promising! Two questions:
1) why isn't that in the Lines Palette?
2) is there a way to change the default to not run the line all the way into the center of the notehead? The default for the straight-line glissando saves me a lot of work
In reply to "The correct symbol to use… by reggoboy
1) lost in the mists of time
2) No.
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/21279
In reply to 1) lost in the mists of time… by SteveBlower
Aha, thanks. Looks like someone agrees with my request.
But in that case, the "note anchored line" is much more work to format than the straight-line glissando. And since I don't care about playback, I'm going to use the latter.
But thanks for that info!
In reply to "The correct symbol to use… by reggoboy
Only a dumb reason why bit isn’t in the palette - it was added as something of an experiment, and it was feared that in the palette, it would be impossible to distinguish it from a “regular” line.
No way to default to not connected the note heads, but it’s only a few keystrokes to move it - a couple of clicks of the cursor per handle. Definitely in the future it would be nice to have setting to control default placement though.
Thanks folks
So it seems I didn't miss any built-in feature - I'll have to use a hack?
Of the 3 suggestions, the glissando doesn't work for my needs - the tie has to be above/below the notes, not between them, and when the pitches are similar the line isn't very visible.
Flattening a tie has the advantage that it moves with the notes as you edit, but it's quite tricky to get the line completely straight.
Drawing a line is pretty straightforward, but you have to move it manually if you edit.
Possibly workable, but not ideal.
I'm a programmer, so I'll look into the possibility of hacking together a little plugin...
In reply to Thanks for the suggestions by ghcaplan
there are so many options to explore:
Right-click on the line and select Line properties.
You can also try a version Nightly: http://prereleases.musescore.org/windows/nightly/
In reply to Thanks for the suggestions by ghcaplan
I'm not sure a plugin would be able to access and maniuplate the data structures it would need to in order to pull this off. However, it might not be that hard to modify the code itself to provide an option for straight ties.
In reply to Thanks for the suggestions by ghcaplan
"when the pitches are similar the line isn't very visible" -- ghcaplan, are you sure you're talking about a tie? With a tie, the pitches must be the same.
In reply to "when the pitches are similar by MikeN
If by "similar" he meant "close together horizontally", then indeed, ties *are* hard to see in these cases for 1.3. This will be much improved for 2.0, however.
Although since he also talks about sloping with the noteheads, you are probably right. In which case, general purpose lines that attach to notes at both ends - a commonly requested feature - would do the trick.
In reply to If by "similar" he meant by Marc Sabatella
Isn’t there a way to enter a straight line with visible endpoints that could be dragged to a desired position? Like Finale’s SmartShape tools?
In reply to Isn’t there a way to enter a… by mikey12045
Yes, that is exactly what the note anchored line is for. Connects two notes, but with moveable endpoint. Or if you don’t want to connect notes but instead draw a line above or below them, the other lines in the Lines palette or Add / Lines menu. There are other types of lines too - it all depends on what yoh want the line to indicate, how you want it to affect playback, and how it should be understood be blind users reading the score via a screen reader or braille translation, etc.