Ghost notes/anti-accents
All I want for the piano piece I'm working on is the exact opposite of an accent on one note/chord. I've seen parentheses, brackets, and a sort of 'u' above notes. Additionally, I'd like the software to actually play these notes quieter, since I've found ways to have these indicated visually, but they don't affect playback.
Comments
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/dynamics#single-note-dynamics
If this doesn't answer your question, it's not really clear about your aim for me. Also for changing the volume of notes you can use dynamics (see handbook).
Or are you talking about ghost notes concerning its meaning? Then use a staccato/staccatissimo and change the velocity in the inspector.
In general you can change the velocity for each note in your score.
In reply to If this doesn't answer your… by kuwitt
It sort of answered my question? All I want is the exact opposite equivalent of an accent - as in the symbol that gives a note emphasis/more volume - therefore it removes emphasis and makes the note play quieter. Am I correct in understanding that an accent increases velocity (not visibly, I just tried it and checked, but in theory)? If so than it'd be nice if there was a standard amount that an 'anti-accent' could reduce velocity. I don't mind going in and changing it in inspector, but will those changes play properly once I publish the score?
In reply to It sort of answered my… by Leighla Foster
This isn't quite correct: an accent affects in general the time stretch, not the velocity in general, but you can decrease the velocity of a note.
![ghostnote.png]( "ghostnote.png")
So if you want to achieve this in my understanding of a ghostnote (a mixture of velocity and time stretch) to notate it:
-select the note and decrease the velocity inside the inspector
- add a staccato to the note (to reduce the time stretch) and deselect "visible" for the staccato
- change the notehead to a x-notehead (at least my understanding, how ghostnotes should) appear
Or do I misunderstand your request?
In reply to This isn't quite correct: an… by kuwitt
I wasn't aware that accents were also about time stretch, but an element of that is still the emphasized beginning of the note, right? When you encounter an accented note it stands out from the rest around it. I'm looking for a way to indicate that the note is to be quieter and indistinct. I don't think staccato is what I'm looking for here. Decreasing the velocity made the note quieter, which is what I wanted, but I also want to make sure that I'm notating it correctly. I applied "unstress above" from the articulations palette, but since it didn't have any effect on the note is why I started asking about velocity etc.
In reply to I wasn't aware that accents… by Leighla Foster
Also, I thought ghost notes were supposed to be percussive or spoken notes without any pitch, which is a different thing than what I'm trying to do.
Through use, and perhaps the help of other entries, I've come to the understanding that dynamics and SND (Single Note Dynamics) only work on notes with Velocity Type set to Offset. Notes with Velocity Type = User are unaffected.
This is unfortunate for me because I have lots of nearly perfected MIDI projects, and those velocities come in MuseScore are User data. so I can't add dynamics to boost or decrease volume of sections. And if I convert to Offset all values are 0, so essentially I've lose all carefully crafted velocity nuance for the option of dynamics.
I've read the section cited, on occasion. Yet I don't see the word Offset anywhere on the page.
I wish there was a way to impart dynamic effects on User data, understanding that be issues like "clipping" may occur where a notes of varying velocity above User 110 at forte will all top out at v127. Have I overlooked something regarding User velocity and dynamics?
Alternately, I'm wondering if there's a way to convert User data velocities into Offset data and hear the same "volume" nuances?
In reply to Through use, and perhaps the… by scorster
Mine was already on offset when I changed the velocity; I just wanted to see if there was a more convenient way of making a note quieter than reducing the velocity, like how you can make a note louder with an accent.
In reply to Through use, and perhaps the… by scorster
Hi Leighla,
I think you’ve clearly articulated your anit-accent inquiry:
Leighla, wrote > I want … the exact opposite of an accent …[a] symbol that … removes emphasis and makes the note play quieter.
Leighla, wrote > When you encounter an accented note it stands out from the rest around it. I'm looking for a way to indicate that the note is to be quieter and indistinct.
Leighla, wrote > Decreasing the velocity [makes] the note quieter, which is what I [want], but I also want to make sure that I'm notating it correctly.
Leighla, wrote > [Is there] a more convenient way of making a note quieter than reducing the velocity, like how you can make a note louder with an accent.
To summarize:
1) you’re looking for a symbol that imparts the opposite effect of an accent: i.e. the symbol would reduce a note's velocity by a fixed value or percent.
2) The symbol is visible in the score (by default.)
+1 on all that
But to my knowledge—and surprisingly—there's no widely accepted approach for notating an anti-accented note. So that would be the first hurdle: to agree upon a notational approach. Then move forward with implementation. If such a symbol already exists, it should be supported in MuseScore for anti-accent purposes.
I’d like to steer clear of SND and ghost notes for anti-accents. We need something simple and something easily selectable and editable (perhaps en masse.)
Regarding accents in MuseScore, initially I too was surprised to see a time stretch property in the Inpector, partly because the user can always stretch a note (accented or not) with a fermata. But no harm done, I think time stretch default for accents is 1 (i.e. 100%) … so that’s innocuous, because the note plays 100% of it's face value. (Though I'm not sure what would happen if the duration is edited in the PRE.)
One thing strikes me peculiar though. Accented notes are painfully loud (at least on piano) and there’s no setting for reducing the extent of it’s impact (nothing similar overiding the impact of dynamics such as “p, mp, f”) which is quite easily done in the inspector. It was this issue/bug that caused me to search for a setting that reduces the amount of emphasis added by an accent mark.
To warp up and phrase this as a request: If accents had an “extent” property, and negative values were allowed, AND the user was allowed to choose an alternate display symbol, one could devise an anti-accent by a) setting the display symbol to < and b) setting a negative value, a fixed value or a percentage. Nice if this worked with both User and Offset velocity types. Can we have that please?
scorster
In reply to Hi Leighla, I think you’ve… by scorster
Exactly!