Measure changes time when I delete a rest or note.
When entering notes I frequently end up with extra rests. Sometimes two 1/4 rests that I'd like to make into a 1/2 rest. I'm usually unsuccessful. So I'll delete one of the rests and a little grey box appears above the measure indicating the time of the measure is not the 4/4 timing I started with.
I'm new to reading/writing music as well as to MuseScore. What I'd like is to turn off all the automatic stuff until I learn more about music notation.How do I do this?
Thanks, Keith
Comments
All the automatic stuff is there to help protect you from yourself.
Don't delete rests. I f you have two quarter rests, select the first one and then select the half note in the toolbar. It will change to a half rest. Send some time in the manual
In reply to All the automatic stuff is… by bobjp
Good suggestion. The Handbook section "Entering notes and rests":
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/entering-notes-and-rests
In reply to Good suggestion. The… by DanielR
I read it. I'd still rather avoid dealing with the "help" from MuseScore.
In reply to All the automatic stuff is… by bobjp
Thanks for the reply. I tried it. It works. I'd just rather not have to work around MuseScore's automation.
" Sometimes two 1/4 rests that I'd like to make into a 1/2 rest. I'm usually unsuccessful."
Try this: select the first rest, then press the correct shortcut key to change its duration (5=quarter note, 6= half note). To put it another way: do not delete the rest, instead increase the duration of the earlier rest.
" So I'll delete one of the rests and a little grey box appears above the measure indicating the time of the measure is not the 4/4 timing I started with."
It sounds as if you are deleting the rest with Ctrl+Delete which does indeed remove that duration from the total duration of the measure. To avoid this, you can delete rests in Voices 2, 3 and 4 with a plain Delete. But you can never delete a rest in Voice 1- instead you can make it invisible.
In reply to " Sometimes two 1/4 rests… by DanielR
Makes sense to work with the earlier rest. I hadn't figured that out... thanks
"What I'd like is to turn off all the automatic stuff until I learn more about music notation."
You would probably be better doing things in the reverse order - learn about notation first before trying to write it. Here is one place to start https://www.wikihow.com/Read-Music
In reply to "What I'd like is to turn… by SteveBlower
I already know enough notation to get into trouble with MuseScore. What I'm doing is copying some music so I can easily transpose it to the C clef for viola. I probably should be able to play off the treble clef but my teacher had me start with the C clef.
Anyway, I read over the wikihow article and understand it. Now just need more experience,
Thanks for the help.
In reply to I already know enough… by keithvb
How about the way a word processor works. Let's say you want to change a word in the middle of a sentence. You could select the word and delete it, and type the word you want. But it's quicker to select the word and just type the word you want. Not the greatest analogy, but you get the idea.
The worst thing that MuseScore dose to me is that I can't put a quarter note on beat three without putting rests first. In other notation software, I can do it. But I deal with it because that's the way MuseScore wants it.
In reply to How about the way a word… by bobjp
I get the idea.
Thanks to your help I've adjusted sufficiently to MuseScore to accomplish my task...
Thanks everyone for your help.
As others have said, you can select and delete both rests and they will combine if they're on a beat where they would normall be combined. The way I usually do it is to select the whole bar and use the "Regroup rhythms" command. It's in the Tools menu, but I created a custom shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+R for regroup rhythms (I also made Ctrl+Shift+P for respell pitches), so it's just one click and one key combination to fix the rests (and any tied notes that could've been combined) in the whole bar.
In reply to As others have said, you can… by jscaranomusic
"you can select and delete both rests and they will combine if they're on a beat where they would normall be combined. "
I tried both your ideas to the original problem. Two quarter rests at the end of a measure. I selected the rests and hit delete. Nothing happened. Ctrl+delete removed the beats from the measure, as expected. Regroup rhythms did nothing. In this case, you don't need to delete anything. You just need to input what you want, where you want it.
I'm old enough to pre-date notation software. By a lot. To do the same thing on paper, yes, you had to "erase" (delete) the quarter rests and "write" (input) what you wanted.
In reply to "you can select and delete… by bobjp
Odd, both working OK for me.
OS: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 4.1.1-232071203, revision: e4d1ddf
In reply to Odd, both working OK for me… by underquark
Must be a difference between Ubuntu and Windows. Can you select the first rest and select a half note and have a half rest appear?
In reply to Must be a difference between… by bobjp
I can select pretty much any rest, it seems, and if I then select half-note duration a half-note rest is place starting on that beat. Same idea for notes, Doesn't seem to matter what beat it's on either.
In reply to I can select pretty much any… by underquark
What I meant was that he said that you could select and delete both rests and they would combine. ?
In reply to What I meant was that he… by bobjp
In 4/4 time, when i select both rests and press [Del], they combine into one rest IF it fits the beat - ie select the first two quarter rests and they combine to a half rest, same for selecting beats 3 & 4 but beats 2 & 3 do not combine if selected. In 5/4 I can select beats 1&2, 2&3 or 4&5, but not 3&4.
In 4/4 time I can click on pretty much any beat/half-beat/quarter-beat etc. and select half-note duration or press 6 and a half-note rest is created starting right where I clicked and ignoring any beat "rules". In 5/4 time, ditto,
In 6/8 time it seems that selecting two or more notes and pressing [Del] doesn't work as predicted but selecting a single note/ret and then a duration (even, say 5. to get a dotted crotchet) works as per 4/4 and 5/4.
In reply to In 4/4 time, when i select… by underquark
OK. I've had a chance to sleep it off, so to speak. Here is how my poor old brain has to deal with this.
Sure, in certain situations, I can select 2 rests, hit delete and they will combine into 1 rest. For that to make any sense, I half to further extrapolate that when I delete a note, what happens? A rest appears. But what should happen when I delete a rest? Nothing. I have to delete 2 rests. But only in certain situations. Seems inconsistent and not worth remembering. I don't want to delete the rests, per say. I want to change them. Yes, the first part of changing them is to delete them, I know. But deleting them is not the end goal. Changing them is the goal.
So with the end goal of combining 2 rests, I select 1 rest and select a duration. Done. Works on any beat in any situation I'm likely to run into. Works with rests or notes. Consistent and easy for my old brain to deal with.
The fact that I can select 2 rests and hit delete and they combine, sometimes, is interesting. But not very useful in general. And now my poor old brain needs a break.