Repeats after a dal segno
I have a score, and what I wanted to do was repeat the A section, which itself has a repeat of the first system. So, I figured I'd just put a dal segno at the end of the section, and put the segno at the start of it, and bob's your uncle.
However, when I did this, it didn't repeat the first system of that section, as indicated with the normal repeats. They were ignored after the playback skipped back to the segno.
It this a bug, or is it supposed to behave this way? Is this how a human person would read that score I created?
Comments
It is common musical practice to not play repeats on a DS. However, sometimes repeats are wanted and MuseScore allows this practice also. Right click on the DS and tick the box "Play repeats".
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/repeats-and-jumps#jumps
It would also be good to add a note to the score like "play repeats on DS" or edit the DS text to read "DS con rep" for the benefit of human musicians that you hand the score to.
In reply to It is common musical… by SteveBlower
Oh ok thanks fore the reply! Is there a more common simpler way to notate what I'd like to do? Or is "DS con rep" a commona traditional way. And, would I put that at the start of the ||: I guess? Or at the "D.S."? Or both?
In reply to Oh ok thanks fore the reply!… by a-muse-sing
For English-speaking audiences, the simplest way to tell people you want them to take the repeats would be to write "D.S. al Coda (play repeats)". Just edit the text of the DS itself to indicate this.
In reply to For English-speaking… by Marc Sabatella
Oh ok, thanks a lot!
In reply to It is common musical… by SteveBlower
I don't seem to get a tickbox when right clicking the DS text, nor the symbol itself. Oh wait maybe I need inspector open or something.
Oh ya, that was it. Left click selects it, and the checkbox is at the bottom of inspector. Thanks a lot!
EDIT: it didn't work when I tried it. Any ideas why? The play repeats toggle is on, the checkbox is checked. I used D.S. al Fine, and added my own string of text (play repeats) in D.S. text box.
In reply to From what I can tell, that … by a-muse-sing
Do you have a Fine as well as the DS al Fine? If not telling Musescore (or humans) to stop at the Fine will confuse.
If that is not the problem, please attach your score (.mscz file) here so we can see what id going on.
In reply to Do you have a Fine as well… by SteveBlower
You got it! Thanks. I thought D.S. Al fine just meant "play to the end" lol. :facepalm:
Which makes me wonder, are there cases where using this makes more sense? Or using to coda? I noticed there are a couple different ways to do this same sort of thing, but I'm not sure which would be used in which situations, or any conventions related to skips and jumps.
In reply to You got it! Thanks. I… by a-muse-sing
Say you have a structure AABA you would normally write this as ||: A :|| (Fine) B (DC al Fine)
The route map would be
Play A.
Repeat A.
Play B
Go to start of A
Play A
Stop at Fine.
Note the convention that A is not repeated after the DC. And that is MuaeScore's default behaviour.
A coda (literally "tail") is a section that goes afte everything else (clue in the translated name).
So you might have
||: A :|| (to coda) B (DC al Coda) (Coda) C
The road map would be
Play A
Repeat A
Play B
Go to start of A
Play A
Skip to Coda
Play C
Stop (at the end)
Giving AABAC Which is quite a common structure.
There are other more complicated options like DS (Dal Segno) go to sign - useful if you have an intro that you don't want to repeat. And voltas which give you alternative endings - useful if you have an AABA structure where B is in a different key and you want to have a nice modulation to that new key second time round the A section but not the first time round.
In reply to Say you have a structure… by SteveBlower
Thanks! sorry, I am not used to the forum, so I only saw this now, but that was helpful.
In reply to Say you have a structure… by SteveBlower
Hi Steve. I have been working on this score for days and I can't get the 3rd volta to play. Can you look at it and comment?
In reply to Hi Steve. I have been… by Timothy Mawson
There are a number of problems I see in this score. The end repeat in bar 24 has no corresponding start repeat. it also has a D.C. in the same measure, making it unclear which you actually mean - repeat or DC.
Similar for measure 25. I'm guessing maybe you intend the repeat in bar 24 to go all the way back the beginning, but that would create a repeat within a repeat which doesn't make sense either. So, neither a human musician nor MuseScore can really follow this as is.
In reply to You got it! Thanks. I… by a-muse-sing
You wrote:
I noticed there are a couple different ways to do this same sort of thing, but I'm not sure which would be used in which situations, or any conventions related to skips and jumps.
While many scores (think of pop songs) have conventional verse/chorus structures, other compositions require more complicated roadmaps for repeats, voltas, codas. The basic idea is to use the available repeats and jumps tools to reduce the need to write out repeated sections, yet facilitate a playback sequence which is understandable to a musician playing from the score.
Here's an example of what not to do:
Happy Birthday.mscz
;-)
If you have a particular score you have questions about, please attach it to your post.
In reply to You wrote: I noticed there… by Jm6stringer
Ya, that was a little crazy lol.
In reply to Ya, that was a little crazy… by a-muse-sing
Glad you found it amusing. ;-)
In reply to It is common musical… by SteveBlower
Do you perhaps also know if it is possible to make it repeat a DS while on a DSS?
Commenting in 2024 bc it's slightly different and this is the first thing to pop up. Double click the DS. Should open the "Properties" tab and have the "Jump" header in it. Check the box "Play Repeats."