Auto placement of articulation marks
I’m engraving a number of big band jazz scores. They all have a significant number of articulation marks.
> Accent, - Tuneto and . Staccato. The issue is this type of score usually places the articulations above the staff regardless of the note placement. The program uses note placement to determine where the accent will go. I know I can flip them using the “X” key or the on screen icon but it’s very tedious. Is there any way to set a default on these symbols so they will always be placed above the staff?
Comments
I don't think there's a style setting for it. But you can just ignore the positions during note entry, then right-click one symbol and "select all similar elements" and use the inspector to give them all "Direction: Above" in one go.
In reply to I don't think there's a… by jeetee
Thank you for the info. I tried this and it works fine. A lot less tedious.
Are you talking about drum parts specifically? Those do indeed place articulations above the staff. But not for other instruments. Most jazz publishers follow the standard engraving rules here. Here's a classic example:
In reply to Are you talking about drum… by Marc Sabatella
I prefer to have all articulations above the staff, too, and even outside the staff. So it is easier for the musicians to sight read the parts. (an experience of over 35 years of arranging music.)
I could do this in Musescore 3, even thought the distance to the notes was rather large.
Is there a way to do this by default in Musescore4?
In reply to I prefer to have all… by achim@achim-rothe.de
Hmm, if you're writing for drums specifically, articulations always above is common, but not for other instruments. So I wouldn't recommend d that unless you are only writing for musicians who have specifically told you they prefer this. In that case, then yes, you can set them above as a matter of score style - just set one above then in the properties panel select "Save as default style for this score". Another approach is to customize your palette to have separate versions of each relevant articulation - one set the default way for horns, the other set above for drums.
In reply to Hmm, if you're writing for… by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
thank you for your answer. I have found the "Save as default style for this score". What is bothering more is the lack of the option "place outside of staff", that has been availble in Musescore 3.
As you can see in you beautiful example (one of the best looking charts I know - cloud someone create a MuseJazzfont2 from this?) all the articulations are placed outside of the staff and are thatfor very easy to read.
Is this option still avaible in MuseScore4 and I just did not see it?
In reply to Hi Marc, thank you for your… by achim@achim-rothe.de
Which example do you mean? The Nestico? I agree it looks good, but that's precisely because it follows rather than breaks the standard rules of notation. Note the articulations are not all above the staff - they follow the usual rule of being placed on the notehead side (aside from amrcato which is by convention always above, as are bow markings for strings).
The articulations in this brief sample do happen to be all outside the staff, but that's only because there aren't any notes on the interior lines or spaces with staccato or tenuto markings. Those always go as close to the notehead as possible, so for notes that are on the middle line or adjacent spaces, these articulations will be within the staff. Nestico and his copyists follow that rule just as any other professional in this field would. Here's the next two lines of that very same page:
Notice the staccato and tenuto markings on the A's and C's here - all within the staff, exactly as standard rules of notation require and exactly as MuseScore does by default. Forcing staccato and tenuto outside the staff in case like these - and worse, forcing them to the stem side of the note - is going to make it much harder to read.
That said, you can certainly force these staccato and tenuto markings outside the staff if you truly wish. Just press Ctrl+Down to move the articulations 1 sp further away, which places it outside the staff (or Ctrl+Up if the current location is the top space).