Piano Pedal Lines
The way pedal markings currently work is very intuitive, but also very limited.
I'm tryin to add pedal markings to a duet score that I have. I want the pedal to be controlled by the left hand of the secondo part, which means all the pedal markings are on the bottom of the score. However, the pedal markings only affect the line they're on. They don't affect the other part, and I'm not sure they even affect the other hand of the person playing the piano.
Is there a setting or switch somewhere I can check to tell musescore that all four hands are on the same piano, and the pedal markings affect all of them?
Also, the pedal lines function the same way as all the other kinds of lines. That means you manipulate them using the convenient and intuitive shift + left and shift + right keys to make them align with the notes you want. The problem is, when I shift left or shift right, they only align with the notes next to them on the same line. For example, if I wanted to adjust the pedal to line up with the eighth notes in the first image, I would have to put the pedal markings in the bass clef of the primo part because that's where the eighth notes are. I could also break the chord in the bass clef of the secondo part into eighth notes with slurs, but that would be ugly and confusing.
I looked pretty hard for a feature that would allow me to do this but to no avail. Is there such a feature? If there isn't, could there be eventually, please?
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Comments
I may be missing something, but...
You show 2 piano instruments playing the score.
Each piano instrument has its own damper pedal - just like in real life.
Using the pedal on one piano does not affect the sustain on the other piano - just like in real life.
The pedal works only on the piano to which it's attached.
"However, the pedal markings only affect the line they're on. "
As jm6stringer said: "Each piano instrument has its own damper pedal - just like in real life."
"They don't affect the other part"
Just as in real life, because each piano has its own pedals.
"... and I'm not sure they even affect the other hand of the person playing the piano."
No, the pedal affects the entire piano part (LH and RH), just as it would on a real piano.
"Is there a setting or switch somewhere I can check to tell musescore that all four hands are on the same piano, and the pedal markings affect all of them?"
No, because your score has chosen two separate piano parts. If you crammed all the notes onto a single piano part, then the pedal would affect both player 1 and player 2.
"...you manipulate them [pedal lines] using the convenient and intuitive shift + left and shift + right keys to make them align with the notes you want. The problem is, when I shift left or shift right, they only align with the notes next to them on the same line. "
The easy workaround is to create invisible rests in Voice 2 of the bass clef stave. Choose a rest duration short enough to position the Ped. line's start and end point accurately. You can still attach the Ped. line to Voice 1, but now you can move its anchors with Shift+Left or Shift+Right in the smaller increments of Voice 2.
In reply to "However, the pedal markings… by DanielR
"No, because your score has chosen two separate piano parts. If you crammed all the notes onto a single piano part, then the pedal would affect both player 1 and player 2."
Thanks for the info. I still think being able to group them as on the same piano would be helpful though, because piano duets are written as separate piano parts played on the same piano. If I grouped them together I would have to do a lot of copying and pasting around to print them as separate parts.
"The easy workaround is to create invisible rests in Voice 2 of the bass clef stave. Choose a rest duration short enough to position the Ped. line's start and end point accurately. You can still attach the Ped. line to Voice 1, but now you can move its anchors with Shift+Left or Shift+Right in the smaller increments of Voice 2."
That's brilliant. Thank you!
In reply to "No, because your score has… by cloelius
You can create a (score for a) single 4-hand Piano, 2 treble staves, 2 bass staves. Then you'd have only one pedal for them all.
In reply to You can create a single 4… by Jojo-Schmitz
Example score based on Jojo's advice. It is even possible to show double instrument names (using multiple Enter keystrokes for the vertical separation).
In reply to Example score based on Jojo… by DanielR
Wow. Thank you.