Guitar Bends in Musescore 4

• Mar 16, 2023 - 10:14

Hello there,
I recently started working on the last version of musescore 4.02 for my tabs and came accros an issue when I try to write solos. The bends in the articulation palette don't work as they should, you can add them to the score but they're not played by the software.
For instance if I put a Full bend on the 14th fret I should here the note from fret 16 (one step further), but Musescore 4 won't play this articulation and just ignore the bend.
It was not an issue in Musescore 3 which could play all kind of bends including half step, pre-bend, etc...

I hope my description is clear enough and that you can fix this issue for the next patch, can't wait to use all the new features of Musescore 4. Keep up the good work !

Best regards,

Samuel Durand

Comments

• Mar 19, 2023 - 15:43

I do have the same problem. MuseScore 4 does not play the articulation , full bend, half bend on guitar as it use to do on muse score 3 ... I hope they will fix it ...

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• Mar 27, 2024 - 17:17

1 year later and I still have this problem, they changed the way guitar bends work and it's now more confusing and difficult and far less customizable. In musescore 3 a bend and release was as simple as mapping out how you wanted the bend to be played in the properties tab, now it is impossible as bends cannot be edited by the properties tab other than the delay of the bend. Hope they fix this someday!

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• May 12, 2024 - 20:46

I have been successful in bending, pre-bend and release, as well as bend and release and have it play out properly. I'm using guitar Vol 1. However, the bend/release mechanism is quite different from Muse 3.x. Say you select a quarter note and double-click on the bend, it will add the bend symbol and add another greyed-out note after the bend. You will now have a half note bend. If you want it to be a bend and release, select the bend symbol on the stave and click on bend in the palette again. You will now have a second bend following the first and two greyed-out notes. Select the second bend, then click on properties. You will be able move the tail of the bend from up 1 note to down 1 note. If you want it bend below that, you exit properties, select the greyed-out note in non-entry mode, and lower the pitch (by using down arrow). You can extend the tail end of the bend by clicking on the greyed-out note and changing it from a quarter note (for example) to a whole note. Finally, if you want the start of the bend to be delayed, i.e. start on the original note and hold it, then bend after some time, you can do that in properties by dragging the leftmost node to the right.

Attachment Size
Bend and release.jpeg 128.85 KB

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• May 12, 2024 - 23:11

Didn't save one, but it only took me ~10 minutes to create one. This is from version 4.2.1. I have not updated to 4.3 yet and don't intend to at this time.

20240512 1755-bends.mscz

It's set to use the "Picked Acoustic" sound in this file. Change that (if you wish) in the Mixer.

I have made no change to the default bend "shape" in this file. Select the bend itself and open Properties to see and adjust that. On the graph, up and down adjust pitch; left and right adjust time. Play with it and hear what it does. (That idea--"play with it"--is the single most important thing to learn to do with any software.)

The "Full bends" are the best: both up and down. In Properties, there's only one node dot but it can be moved up, down, right, and left.

The "Pre-bend" apparently has no effect on playback. This is reflected in the fact that the shape of the bend in **Properties* cannot be changed. The node dot can be moved up and down, but not left and right. I have interpreted that to mean that it simply doesn't change the pitch at any time over the time of the note.

The "Grace note bend" does roughly what a "Pre-bend" ought to. Appears to be fully modifiable in Properties as the "Full Bend" is.

The "Slight bend" is just that: a 1/4-tone bend, and only up. You can adjust it only in time (that is, left and right).

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• May 13, 2024 - 02:18

@MtlMathman

Thanks. Nice examples!

A few of questions:

• When I click the first note of measure 2 (I.e. fret 13) it nicely sounds its bent pitch, which is equivalent to fret 14.

• In kind, on clicking it, I'd expect the score's third note (the first pre-bent note) to sound fret 14 rather than the written pitch of fret 13. What do you think?

• MuseSounds and Muse Guitars aside, do you find the handling of guitar bends in MuseScore 4' equal to or superior to that to the MuseScore 3?

• Do MuseScore 3 scores import guitar bends well for you into MuseScore 4?
https://musescore.com/user/35880724/scores/13951726

Thanks!

scorster

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• May 13, 2024 - 06:20

• When I click the first note of measure 2 (I.e. fret 13) it nicely sounds its bent pitch, which is equivalent to fret 14.

You'll notice that the first note of measure 2 is greyed-out. I interpreted that it is just the continuation of the bent note, just bent up one tone. As far as I can tell, the grey-out note will always be the same number as the original bending note. Try selecting that note, then hitting the down key several times. You'll find you can bend it down lower than the original fretted note. I guess that what you would do if you want to dive bomb.

• In kind, on clicking it, I'd expect the score's third note (the first pre-bent note) to sound fret 14 rather than the written pitch of fret 13. What do you think?

I think in all cases, the note will be the fret designator. The playback applies the bend value (½, 1, 1½, 2, -½. -1).

• MuseSounds and Muse Guitars aside, do you find the handling of guitar bends in MuseScore 4' equal to or superior to that to the MuseScore 3?

I found it very different than the handling of bends in MuseScore 3. It took me awhile to figure out how it worked, but now that I know, I prefer it. With MuseScore 3, you could place the nodes anywhere in the 3x4 grid, but the playback was not very predictable. With MuseScore 4, the bends and releases were independent, so you could specify (1) how long each part of the note bend was; (2) where it started (because you can delay the bend by moving the left node towards the right); (3) you can pre-bend; (4) you can bend down; and (5) you can stack them, one after another.

The only quirk right now is that you cannot bend less than one semi-tone. If you try to set it at ¼ tone, it will snap back to a ½ tone. The ¼ tone bend that is available as a separate operation does not have any flexibility, but has utility for that trailing sharpening of a note that is common (just not in this example).

• Do MuseScore 3 scores import guitar bends well for you into MuseScore 4?

I haven't tried to import from MuseScore 3, but I doubt it would work well because I think they are fundamentally different. I've only installed MuseScore 4 about three days ago and was busy scoring the solos from which I extracted the sample for practice and learning, so I have not fully explored how it works. I found this thread only because I was searching for some bend notation answers myself before discovering how it worked.

The link you sent me suggests that MuseScore can only have two bend points, whereas MuseScore 3 had many more. I think the author is looking at it the wrong way. It is true you can place many nodes in a MuseScore 3 bend, but with MuseScore 4, you can have as many bend points as you want just by stacking them. It's just that each bend segment is handled separately, and has two or three things you can modify: when to start the bend, how many semitones to bend, and when to stop the bend.

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• Jul 14, 2024 - 07:19

@MtlMathman wrote

... with MuseScore 4, you can have as many bend points as you want just by stacking them. It's just that each bend segment is handled separately, and has two or three things you can modify: when to start the bend, how many semitones to bend, and when to stop the bend.

I'm about ready to test bend in MS4 again. So I'm curious what you mean by stacking bends.

Thanks for your thoughtful and thorough input here!

scorster

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• Jul 14, 2024 - 19:03

Sure. I'm not sure that "stacking" is the appropriate term, but the way it operates makes me think of it that way. I hope the following description is clear enough. Let me know if you need an image, video or musescore file to illustrate.

Using string tablature (instead of staves): Let's say you have a blank measure and you add a quarter note on the first string, fifth fret, in the first beat. If you then select that note and click on bend, Musescore will put a full tone bend on that note and set another quarter note on the second beat, still showing the fifth fret, greyed out. Now, if you select the second (greyed-out) note, and click on bend again, Musescore will place another quarter note showing "5", and "stack" another full tone bend tail to head on the bend symbol (showing "2", meaning two tones above fret 5. That will have the effect of doing one full tone bend over a quarter note, then another.

To modify the bend, click on it and open properties..

For the first bend, you can only move the right point, and only upward and leftward. Moving it up changes the target pitch. Moving it left causes the bend to be executed faster (not taking the entire quarter note duration) and holding it at the target pitch.

For the subsequent bends, you can move both points. The right one is as described above, the left can be moved rightward and either up or down. Moving it rightward delays the bend. Moving it down changes it back down to the original unbent pitch, i.e. a bend and release.

I've found an even easier way to do this. Just score the target notes, then select each note in turn and click on bend. As long as the note duration spans to reach the second note (no rests between them), it will figure out how much of a bend you need to reach the target note.

Do note that if you want to start high and go down, you need to pre-bend the first note, then click on bend as well. Also, it is possible to drop the target note below the initial unbent note and it will sound correctly (e.g. start on an unbent A, drop it to a G, presumably with a tremolo, vibrato, or whammy bar, whichever term you prefer), but Musescore will show the bend in red. Finally, I've seen some situations where the bend will not actually sound out. I don't know under which circumstances this will happen and cannot reproduce it at will, but I suspect it has to do with the selection of sounds generated by the various instruments in the Mixer.

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• Jan 4, 2025 - 18:35

Yes, MtlMathman is correct here, that's how it works.
Its not how it should work but this is what's currently happening.

For those of you having issues still this statement is the major problem area...
"If you then select that note and click on bend, Musescore will put a full tone bend on that note and set another quarter note on the second beat"

I have no idea why the 2nd beat is involved. But it means that simple things like a bar with 4 quarter notes each with a tone bend is not a thing that can be drawn in MS4.

As soon as you put the 'Full bend' on the first note, you cant have a note on the next beat as thats taken by the bend.
prebends.jpg

You can change that note on beat 2 to an 8th or 16th or something. But it'll not let you get to beat 2.
The best you can do is use the pre-bends on each note as below
Quarters.jpg

Or this
Quarters Bent.jpg

Which, to me, looks messy, and would indicate that the pick hits the string 8 times.
And to me, a grace note bend and a straight bend are very different things on guitar.
Also, be prepared that neither may play correctly anyway as there are issues with playback etc etc.

So this sort of thing... is, for me, not a thing that can be done.
In bar 1 there are 3 strikes of the pick. The first dotted note, The pre-bent eight note before the release, and that last 16th on fret 10.
If anyone can do this let me know please.
Master Score.jpg

Currently, for me, the only solution I have for any score that has guitar bent notes is to go back and use MS3 or another package entirely. Maybe this'll be fixed in a future update, but its only been almost two years so I don't think this is priority.

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• Jan 4, 2025 - 22:59

Hi,
So thats exactly the problem :)
A bend will take the next note as well.
In your example that first note is a half note.
Its usually tied to the first note in a quarter note triplet. However, in your example the note on beat 3 is lost as its still taken by the bend. Which it should not be.

This is how Sultans is often scored.
Sultans.jpg

Simply 3 bent notes in bar 1.
But again, impossible in MS4

Ive had to change to two 8ths to get anything to sound correctly, but to answer your question, nope I havent managed to find a way yet.
I've been using MS4 to generate scores for our band with the guitar parts just cobbled in to sound correct. But I've now been using MS3 to draw the parts correctly for students.

Fingers crossed they eventually fix it. Having changed from what was Sonar (Cakewalk) to MS a long time ago we have now converted almost everything to MS. So moving to another platform that can score correctly is a big deal for us. But alas, Im aware that as a guitar player, and even worse, a linux user, I'm the bottom of the barrel as far as an MS4 user. :)

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