Pasting into an empty Voice -- Best practices?
Starting with an old BWV 820 score, very similar to this one I performed a number of transformations and eventually decided to try to make a solo guitar arrangement.
Superficially I figured this would require a few simple steps:
• Create a new Guitar score (with an 8vb staff)
• Copy and paste the melodic Voice 1 material into Voice 1 of the new score
• Then copy the accompaniment and paste it into Voice 2 on the same 8vb treble clef.
I hesitated at this last step, because in MuseScore I usually struggle when attempting to paste material into an empty voice 2, or 3, or 4 ... even when I employ the Selection Filter.
Can anyone shed a light on this for me? I must be missing something obvious. In other notation apps I find the process quite straight forward.
Thanks!
scorster
Comments
I think it's best if you copy voice 2 into an additional staff and then imlode.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/tools#implode
In reply to I think it's best if you… by Mr Fox
+1 This is the method that I use. Alternate ideas can then be tried in different voices of this second stave before you settle on the best result and do a final implode.
The selection filter affects what gets copied, not what gets pasted.
If Implode is not an option, then I usually go by first copying in what should go in the 2nd voice. Assuming the accompaniment is currently in voice 1, it'll be pasted as such as well.
Then use Tools > Voices > Exchange Voice 1-2 on it to move it over.
Now copy-paste the melody in.
As others have mentioned, implode is the simpler way to do this in most cases. jeetee's method for manipulating the voices manually works as well. Another related way is, first move the notes of the second part to voice 2, then copy the voice 1 part directly onto that staff.
Thanks everyone! Implode works fine for the task I outlined, so I'm now further along with the two-voice solo guitar score.
But I'd think MuseScore would provide a more intuitive and discoverable option to "paste into voice." A form of paste as opposed to merging staves/parts.
For instance, MuseScore could have a mode that "isolates" a particular voice and grays out other voices. Since the isolated voice is the only available destination anything on the clipboard pastes into the isolated voice—regardless of the material's prior voice property.
Seem logical, discoverable, and more akin to the method I've used in other notation apps.
scorster
In reply to Thanks everyone. Implode… by scorster
Definitely sounds more intuitive. Another suggestion for MS4 perhaps?
In reply to Thanks everyone. Implode… by scorster
I could imagine something like that, but - how would you expect it to work if the clipboard currently contains multiple voices?
Meanwhile, in addition to implode, the two different paste methods described above also work.
In reply to I could imagine something… by Marc Sabatella
Aside from the fact that the implode/explode function is designed for another purpose (which is combining/separating voices) and its use for a copy/paste event is far from intuitive, it is also not simple to use. I just had to copy a line from voice 2 (boys) to voice 1 (girls) and then octave up for the girls. It took me nearly an hour to:
- create a new stave
- copy the line from stave 1 to stave 2
- change voice 1 - 2 in stave 1
- imploding both staves
- and most tediously: get rid of any rests and misassigned notes from voices 3 and 4 which were created in the course of the imploding.
I have the impression that if a voice (1, 2) is used somewhere in any of the staves, even outside the affected selection, Implode takes the next higher voices (3, 4) which is clearly unwanted (have to check this behaviour more generally). Some of the mistaken notes I noticed only when entering lyrics. Even more annoyingly, the voice change tool seems not to work for single notes selected - please advise when I overlook something here.
It can also not be the final solution to have users try around which voice has to be used in which stave to get the best result after imploding. After all, I feel that use of the Implode tool is very picky, time-consuming, and prone for messing up in the given context.
As to the question how such function should work when more than one voices are in the clipboard: It's easy to imagine (don't know how easy to program though) to have a tool "Paste to voice" (accessible via right-click or Tools menu or Edit menu) which opens a user dialog saying:
| Paste all content in selected voice (check box) |
| (If unchecked:) |
| Paste voice 1 into voice (text entry field accepting numbers 1-4) |
| Paste voice 2 into voice (text entry field accepting numbers 1-4) |
| Paste voice 3 into voice (text entry field accepting numbers 1-4) |
| Paste voice 4 into voice (text entry field accepting numbers 1-4) |
Lines including voices not occupied in the clipboard being grayed of course.
Text entry fields could be replaced by any other selection field, list field, arrow up/down etc. Range would have to be observed, default values to be considered.
Default could be
- check box checked, if unchecked:
- best distribution to free voices in selection
- all contet to first free voice in selection.
I understand that the basic functionality of pasting different voices into one is already available in the implode feature.
Are there so few who would appreciate such a tool, and would it be so hard to program? What do you think?
In reply to Aside from the fact that the… by RudoSaxx
Hmm, unless I am misunderstanding something, there is no way it should have taken more than half a minute to do what you describe. It's not clear what detail you might have missed - or what I might be misunderstanding - but please start a new thread, attach your score there, and describe in more detail exactly what you are trying to do. Between I'm,plode/explode but also the voice exchange functions and the selection filter, it should be a simple to do pretty much any variation on the things you probably have in mind.