Smart Slur-Creation

Okay, thank you for clarifying your intentions;

Yes, phrasing depends on user desire. Some types of phrasing, like complex ones that you've described, may be unsupported by a simple plugin/feature like this. However, let's cite standard examples of musical literature to understand the statistical application of phrasing.

Here is an excerpt from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring,

In this example, similar phrasing guidelines to what I described apply. Slur markings are only to begin on sixteenth-note tuplets and will always end on eighth notes. Moreover, slur markings will end on notes marked with "staccato." These runs appear multiple times throughout this movement. I could input two values to change the phrasing to what we see here. Start: 16th, and end: 8th (or stacc). Then, I can highlight the entire group in question, press a shortcut, and immediately see the results I seek.

Here's another example from Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy,

These would be identical to what I described above. If you were to highlight this whole section in MuseScore currently, it would draw a slur over the entire run. Editing the filter would allow us to remove correct phrasing immediately. You might say that this doesn't save time due to the short duration of this run. However, keep in mind that this run takes place in multiple instruments. It also is simply an example, and a professional composer writing runs like this may write ones that are far longer.

Here's another one from Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra,

This is almost identical to the example I provided in my original post, where slurs should be separated based on rest. Note that this system could allow immediate smart slur-creation in multiple layers such that the above is true. This would save the user from having to switch between modes.

This one is from Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 2,

These slurs could be created with the "begin on accents" guideline or "only cover six notes." Specifying the amount of notes you want each slur to cover could be incredibly useful for consistent, simple runs like this. Maybe this feature could be implemented in the form of highlighting an excerpt and then pressing S+6, or S+X, with X being the number of notes each slur should cover.

Your immediate thought might be that I'm "cherry-picking" excerpts to prove my point. However, I could find several other instances if I wanted to. When discussing design, it is crucial to appeal to various audiences. While some may not use a feature, others may save time with it. Not everyone needs to use fretboard diagrams or tablature styles, but they're still included for the "what if?" scenario.

There can be several layers to this feature. The simplest would be what I initially described, where slurs will not cover rests unless stated otherwise. Or, for a more complex addition like you inquired about, you could implement the "filter" idea. I imagine it would look similar to Finale's dialogue boxes for "tuplet properties" or "edit filter." (see below)


Finale could use some cleaning up regarding these, but you get the idea. Entering values may be complicated for new users, so we could change it to a slider or dropdown. There are plenty of ways to implement this with brainstorming, and I created this post for others to give their ideas.

(If anyone thinks this is too complicated, you can let me know. However, I've only taken the idea this far as per Bob’s suggestion. The initial objective of this post was to cut slurs over rests.)