Mouse-Tracking Octave placement when inserting notes
When I typically put in notation in Musescore it's almost entirely with the hotkeys except for the times when the note I place is not where I want it (Ex. I want a G3 and it gives me a G4). This slows me down tremendously especially if I need to transcribe something very fast.
I wish Musescore's octave detection was not off the previous note but where my mouse is currently. That way I don't have to pause and insert the correct octave afterwards.
TLDR: Want an auto track on mouse so If I click (n) and then (g) it will place a quarter note G in the octave where my cursor is.
Let me know if Musescore has already addressed this but to my knowledge they haven't...
Comments
I could imagine this working, but I'm having a hard time imagine how having to constantly move your mouse just to enter notes would do anything but slow you down even more. Right now, you need an extra keystroke only for leaps of a fifth or more, which happen relatively seldom. With the proposed change,e you'd need an extra mouse movement on half your notes, because wherever your mouse is now (above or below), it's going to wrong half the time. If you're going to use the mouse that much, might as well just click the notes in too.
So maybe there is some detail of what you are proposing that I am not understanding?
In reply to I could imagine this working… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you for the fast response!!!
What extra keystroke would that be for the leaps? Perhaps if there was an octave hotkey (up/down) that would be more than sufficient. I usually trace the melodic line with my mouse as I input the notes with my keyboard so it doesn't slow me down at all. Would you like if I created a video for you?
I wanted to reinstate the purpose: To just speed up the musescore input process. I want it to be as fast as me putting a rhythmic dots and notes in paper when doing a dictation in music class. Hopefully this will make it easier to understand why I desire the change
With the hotkeys I currently know at the moment. The only time I need to accurately place my mouse is when the note I placed in was in the wrong octave. Using the mouse actually slows me down the most because I may accidentally place the note on the A of beat 2 instead of beat 3 etc. so I would love to see a bigger transition to being more keyboard dependent while keeping the same features if that makes sense.
"With the proposed change,e you'd need an extra mouse movement on half your notes, because wherever your mouse is now (above or below), it's going to wrong half the time."
Reply to this quote:
Usually I can leave my mouse off the measure and Musescore will automatically have an octave for my note to go (which is perfect I love that). If I want to make the note go an octave up or down, rather than click and potentially miss the note I want, why not hover my cursor over the general area and press the note I want? It will be consistently faster in every perceivable way with little room for human error since it is a general area rather than a small one. After that octave change I will just drag my mouse out the way and resume as usual.
This is just and idea on making the cursor more smart rather than just a tool to input. I want to thank you again for taking the time to read my proposal since I thought this would never see the light of day. If this change ever gets implemented my piano students would see so many more arrangements
In reply to Thank you for the fast… by domochomp
The keyboard shortcut for octaves is Ctrl+Up/Down
In reply to The keyboard shortcut for… by Jojo-Schmitz
And those actions can be assigned to single keys (i.e without the need to hold CTRL) if suitable keys can be found and, if necessary re-purposed. See [Edit]>[Preferences]>[Shortcuts].
On my keyboard I find the defaults can be conveniently accessed with right thumb on CTRL and first finger on up or down arrow, but other keyboard layouts may make this less comfortable.
In reply to And those actions can be… by SteveBlower
thank you for this comment and the one above about the hotkey octave shortcut. i'll find one suitable for me
In reply to Thank you for the fast… by domochomp
As mentioned above, it's just Cltr+Up/Down to change octaves. For more on note input, see the Handbook, or this tutorial video:
https://school.masteringmusescore.com/courses/complete/lectures/31890621
As you will see, it's completely unnecessary to even touch the mouse at all during note input - everything is doable completely via keyboard, and it's extremely efficient.
Needing to constantly trace your line with the mouse would make things many times slower than it currently is. And you would need to constantly trace the line with the mouse if MuseScore worked the way you suggest. Right now, MuseScore assumes you want the closest interval, which is correct probably 90% of the time. So you only need to correct this with Ctrl+Up/Down 10% of the time. You don't need to touch the mouse ever, and you only the need the extra key 10% of the time. But I MuseScore started looking at the mouse position, you'd have to move your mouse for each and every note, because half of them go up, half of them go down, and MuseScore would then be placing notes incorrectly half the time if you didn't constantly adjust your mouse position. It would be probably many times slower than simply typing the notes and using Ctrl-Up/Down as needed.
As for entering notes direct with the mouse, I don't really recommend this either as it's also slower than keyboard, but using mouse alone would also be more efficient than needing to constantly use both for every note. You mention having trouble entering notes on the wrong beat, but perhaps you simply aren't zoomed in far enough, or haven't added system breaks to space out your measures a little more before entering notes? Either of those can helo mouse entry be more accurate. Againk though, if the goal is efficiency, there is no beating the keyboard, once you know about Ctrl+Up/Down and realize you literally don't need to touch the mouse at all.
In reply to As mentioned above, it's… by Marc Sabatella
With my knowledge of this shortcut now yes complete keyboard control is now achievable.
"And you would need to constantly trace the line with the mouse if MuseScore worked the way you suggest."
There still seems to be some misunderstanding. I want to keep the same features, just add to it.
I was trying to see if a hybrid of both mouse and keyboard would be a nice feature. When you click (n) there is a blue box that appears to place the note. If say, my cursor was one octave above my written note of C4 in the blue box and I pressed (c) it would then put a C5 there. If the cursor was not in the blue box at all it would resume as normal and assume the closest interval which would then be C4. It's such a minor thing that wouldn't really change much but it would be a feature I could imagine be easily added and enabled to be turned off and on.
Most people wouldn't even notice it, but those that do want to use it would see that as a nice touch. Also since the mouse would only be traceable in the blue box which would mean it wouldn't interfere with the next few notes that would assume the closest interval.
Now that I know all keyboard controls, this wouldn't be needed but it would still be an awesome touch. I definitely don't want to be tracing with my mouse for the entire piece but for arpeggios and the remaining 10%, I would find it easier than hot keying it yes.
Take the example below. Try recreating it by all the hotkeys you know. You would have to either fix or know by heart that the next F you want would be an octave up. Instead of doing so many inputs why not have the mouse be traceable only in the blue box and everything else be the same? Best of both worlds. It wouldn't affect anything but enhance what you were trying to communicate in the first place
In reply to With my knowledge of this… by domochomp
I could imagine such a thing being implemented, but I still l can't see how moving your hand from your keyboard to the mouse and then moving the mouse to the correct position every time you enter a note could possibly be faster than simply pressing 10% of the time. Or if as you say, the feature would kick in only when the mouse is within the blue box, you'd still have anticipate in advance when to move your hand to the mouse. I guess if someone were to produce a video showing a prototype of this in action and it were actually measured to be faster, I'd be able to understand it better.
I tried your example and it's simple to enter with keyboard alone. Typng "Ctr+lUp" or Ctrl+Down is crazy fast in comparison to anything that requires one to move the mouse into position. I suspect because it's new to you, you might not realize just how quick and automatic this becomes. But moving the hand constantly between keyboard and mouse, and carefully the positioning the mouse above or below as necessary - it's really hard for me to imagine that ever coming close to as fast as press Ctrl+up or Ctrl+Down. Probably likely to be literally 10X slower in any real world usage I can imagine.
In reply to I could imagine such a thing… by Marc Sabatella
Hmm, we use musescore a bit differently. My hands are always on my mouse and keyboard because I want to scroll in and out with my scroll wheel as well as use the palettes on the left. Why limit the user to both hands on keyboard to make inputting fast when you kill the versatility of having one hand do the inputs while the other hand does the rest (clicking on sharps/flats/articulations/etc in the palettes)?
If I eventually need to use the palettes, there wouldn't be enough hotkeys in the world to ever get what I want thus eliminating the "just use both hands on the keyboard" advice. It also wouldn't be very user friendly either and frankly, it'd be easier to just use the mouse to select the glissando I want
Implementing a blue-box tracker where it will trace the cursor and input the note in the closest octave your cursor is over I would find that so much easier.
For example, lets say my request was implemented and I want my very first note in my new piece being A5. Well, just by pressing (n) and moving my mouse just slightly over where I want it I can do that. Press (a) and done. Super intuitive and I didn't have to use two hands like I do for typing. Now I can take advantage of musescore's fantastic advanced palettes on the left. Awesome and I didn't have to use both hands on the keyboard or assign a new hotkey or fix it afterwards.
As it is right now, it will put it as a default A4 probably then I have to fix it afterwards which is pretty tedious and at that point I'll have had to use both hands on the keyboard or put another input. Then I want a glissando on that A5 so I have to shift my hand back to my mouse to go to the palette or customize one hotkey for that one gliss that I'll only ever use for this one note... man I just made a lot of movements.
Moving away from the speed debate this is for sure a 100% quality of life change. This request is literally removing an input from the equation and I assume it can be added feature that you can toggle on and off.
"you'd still have anticipate in advance when to move your hand to the mouse"
- I'd rather anticipate than fix it after. The current system is very much like putting a sharp but after the note instead of before and forcing everyone to do it that way.
I'm so adamant about this change because I believe it won't just save my time, but everyone else that uses musescore.
In reply to Hmm, we use musescore a bit… by domochomp
Even with one's hand on the mouse at all times, you'd still have to move it for each and every note you enter (otherwise half the time, it would pick the wrong octave). That's still a lot of extra movement that isn't necessary current (you never need to touch the mouse right now), and a lot of changes the focus of your attention (back and forth from keyboard to mouse constantly). So it's just hard for me to envision it going faster than simply pressing one extra key every once in a while.
But as I said, if you can prepare a video demonstration with a mockup that shows how it could be more efficient, I'm sure someone might consider implementing it!