Unwanted rests

• Nov 29, 2021 - 17:25

I've run into this before and don't understand it. My score has extra rests in the bass clef that show as "voice 1" even though I have notes in voices 1,2,3, and 4 that are correctly notated. I can't seem to delete them and don't know how they got there.

Is there some way to delete them or make them invisible?

How did I get them there in the first place and how do I keep this from happening?

Thank you

Attachment Size
Doxology Alternative.mscz 15.58 KB

Comments

• Nov 29, 2021 - 18:16

I'm so happy to find this exchange. I was wrestling with a similar problem -- I thought in writing piano music, you would use voices 1&2 in treble clef, 3&4 in bass. Are you & the linked page saying that every staff should have voice 1 on top, voice 2 below it (mostly), and only use 3 & 4 if absolutely needed for inner voices? Or only if those inner voices have different rhythms? Sometimes I'm thinking chordally rather than polyphonically, especially in piano-jazz mode; either way, I often start with the bass line and build from there -- how best to notate that kind of thing in Musescore? Is the attached done correctly? Thanks!

Attachment Size
Finlandia-ssa-excerpt_G-.mscz 14.59 KB

Reply

• Nov 29, 2021 - 19:21

Yes, in any staff, you should always use the fewest number of voices needed to accurately notate the rhythm, starting with voice 1 and working up from there. Otherwise you'll have to tweak your stem direction to make things look right, and also have a bunch of unwanted rests.
As for the attached file, it mostly looks good. A few things I noticed:
- In measure 5, top piano staff, one of your dotted half notes is in voice 4 instead of voice 2, even though it really doesn't need to be, since the duration matches the other voice 2 notes.
- Also in measure 5, bottom piano staff, you should swap the voices. Generally, you want the upper notes in voice 1 and lower notes in voice 2, so that the stems point in the proper directions.
- Measure 8 top staff has one of the whole notes in voice 2. Again, since the duration is the same as voice 1, there's no reason it needs to be a separate voice.
- Measure 8 bottom staff has the same issue as measure 5, where you want to swap voices 1 and 2.
- This is unrelated to voices, but I'm not quite sure what's going on with the eighth notes tied to half notes in the first two measures. You somehow seem to be missing an eighth note on beat 1.5, making the G and A be tied across a rest. Might want to take a look at that.

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