Lining up barlines from line to line?
I mostly use MuseScore to write lead sheets. When I used to write them by hand, I was taught to put four bars on each line and to line up the barlines as much as possible line to line (or at the very least the barline in the middle of each line dividing the first two measures from the last two should line up on every line). This style of writing makes the lead sheet very readable to other musicians. I'd like to use the same approach in MuseScore, but so far I haven't found an easy or exact way to do it, since MuseScore automatically sets bar width based on what's written in the bar.
Right now my process is arduous: I write my music, then I have to use a lot of [ and ] on various selections of bars, and even then things don't line up exactly.
Is there some kind of global setting to have a certain number of bars per line and then to set the location of the barlines, regardless of what music is written in the respective lines/bars? Thanks!
Comments
No, MuseScore expands and contracts measure based upon what you put into them. There are tricks like filling voice 2 or 3 with invisible 8th rests or 16th rests in every measure but with lyrics that might get even messier than without the invisible rests.
In reply to No, MuseScore expands and… by mike320
You wrote:
Is there some kind of global setting to have a certain number of bars per line...
Are you aware of this formatting tool?
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#system-breaks
Using it, you can set a break every 4 measures.
You wrote:
...regardless of what music is written in the respective lines/bars.
Whaaat?
You can't possibly cram more notes into 4 measures than will fit across your paper size, so the words "regardless of what music is written" is never always achievable - unless you wish to allow notes in very crowded measures to touch (even overlap) each other to follow some "4 bars on a single line" rule. Such would be disastrous for readability.
So...
The "break every 4 measures' tool will honor 4 measures per line if they can fit. If they can't fit, you'll have fewer than 4 measures on that line.
You wrote:
...my process is arduous... I have to use a lot of [ and ] on various selections of bars...
I don't know if you are applying this to one measure at a time, but...
...you can select more than 1 measure, so once you have 4 measures per line you can adjust the first 2 measures (or the last 2 measures) on a line to align the middle barlines of all staves. (If you insist.)
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes#select-measure-range
Having said that, please look at this published "lead sheet": It is very readable.
![Lead_sheet.png]( "Lead_sheet.png")
(In fact, to line up the middle barlines of lines 1 & 2 (or of lines 3 & 4) would make it less readable.
Also...
The B section is almost lined up at the middle barline (and with the first line of the C section). This is more by coincidence than intent,
Lining up barlines perfectly is only absolutely necessary with, for example, a score for multiple instruments.
Lead sheets can have both a consistent "look" and "readability" without a steadfast adherence to a one-size-fits-all approach to layout. Just look through any fakebook to see tons of examples.
Regards
In reply to You wrote: Is there some… by Jm6stringer
I realize now I could've expressed myself better. By "readability" I didn't so much mean ability to read the melody or even the changes with ease, which you're right could be enhanced by variable bar length, but rather the ability to follow the form. After all if I' m sharing a new tune with fellow musicians, they only need to play the melody once or twice but will need to follow the form over and over...
In reply to I realize now I could've… by albanmjberg
You wrote:
... they only need to play the melody once or twice but will need to follow the form over and over...
OK... so after they play the melody once (or twice), they continue following the "form" over and over? Are they playing anything while following the form "over and over"?
Perhaps you mean slash notation?
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tools#fill-with-slashes
It's really a myth that lining up barlines makes things easier to read, it's actually quite the opposite, and professional engravers go out of their way not to align the barlines. If things are too aligned, it makes increases the likelihood of getting lost reading if your eyes wander off the page and back. The real reason lead sheets often had barlines aligned was they tended to be written in by hand, and it was simpler to just draw in barlines first at constant size then fill in the notes, even though this produces poor spacing.
So, I would say to simply not bother trying to align things, except there actually is one important reason to consider at least having something close to constant size for measures, and that is to make the chord symbols space out more directly proportionally to their duration. For rhythm section players who might be ignoring the melody and looking only at chord symbols, this can indeed aid reading.
So my advice is to try "a little" to align things here and there, but deliberately stop short of making it perfect. Best of all worlds!
As for how to do this partial alignment, "{" and "}" work. So does increasing the minimum measure width setting in Format / Style / Measure. So does filling the measures with invisible rests notes in voice 4.
In reply to It's really a myth that… by Marc Sabatella
The guy is asking about lead sheets.
It would perfectly make sense for lead sheet to have an easy way to properly align 4 measures by line.
And even to add dotted lines between the staves.
It doesn't exist in MuseScore currently unfortunately.
The best you can do is prepare a template based on the input of Mike (hidden voice 2) and reuse it to create your lead sheets.
In reply to The guy is asking about lead… by frfancha
Thanks for the support, frfancha!
Unfortunately the proposed solution sounds like more of a pain that what I'm doing now. I think I'll just stick to approximately equal bar lengths...
In reply to Thanks for the support,… by albanmjberg
I think you will find increasing the minimum measure width does more or less exactly the right thing much more easily than fiddling with stretch individually. You can then stretch above and beyond that if you want to tweak things further.
Also, keep in mind that much depends on context. A piece that is mostly quarters and halves can get by with relatively consistent measures widths and not look ridiculous, and the technique I described works great in those cases. A piece that has some measures full of eighths and others whole notes won't look nearly as good, and you'll probably want to relax the consistency of measure widths more. Also, it's also usually considered to get major sections of the piece to line up predictably, so if an "A" section of a piece has a first and second ending, or a pickup measure, it's usually worthwhile to have different numbers of measures per line to get that bridge to start on a new system. This also will necessarily have barlines not align.
Just a quick glance through any professionally-edited fakebook will show you that while some simpler tunes may align barlines, many do not, for all of these reasons and more. It really does pay to spend a little time doing things optimally, if you are truly concerned about readability. But starting by increasing minimum measure width (you might also consider reducing minimum note distance to compensate) really does produces very good results out of the box in many real world cases.
In reply to The guy is asking about lead… by frfancha
I understood it is about lead sheets, and that is why I gave my best advice as a professional editor of such materials (I worked, for example, on the well-known Real Book series from Hal Leonard). It really is better not to align the barlines perfectly, but in cases where the rhythms are simple enough, it can also be good to get the measure widths at least somewhat close to consistent, to produce more consistent chord symbol spacing. The ideal would be, chord symbols that are consistently space enough to make following the form easy, but barlines that don't align perfectly
So, while I have nothing against the eventual addition of an option to produce sub-optimal results (perfectly aligned barlines are less optimal than what I described in this context), I would still advise people, not as a developer of MuseScore but as a professional editor, not to do this in most cases, but to instead do what I am saying is actually better.
In reply to It's really a myth that… by Marc Sabatella
Repeat from a response to a different comment, just for the sake of clarity:
I realize now I could've expressed myself better. By "readability" I didn't so much mean ability to read the melody or even the changes with ease, which you're right could be enhanced by variable bar length, but rather the ability to follow the form. After all if I' m sharing a new tune with fellow musicians, they only need to play the melody once or twice but will need to follow the form over and over...
In reply to Repeat from a response to a… by albanmjberg
Are you able to attach an image of a lead sheet with the particular "form" you mention?
The mention of dotted lines and hidden voices does indeed sound like a pain.
There may be a much easier way to accomplish your goal.
For a lead sheet with only chord symbols and no notes, the following gets very close to even bar spacing:
Select all bars and use "Fill with diagonal lines". Select all chord symbols and deselect "Automatic placement". Then you get gridlike placement of all. A remaining few items like the time signature on the first line or the double line at the end, their automatic placement end up moving bar lines slightly, but the effect is small.