Voice confusion: redundant rests

• Sep 2, 2017 - 18:25

I have a 2 part score. Somehow there are rests duplicating notes within the same voice. I.e., i could have a measure (in 4/4) of 4 quarter notes, and there are multiple rests of the same voice within the measure! I can't delete them, either. It certainly clutters up the score. Any way to fix this?

For example, what's the whole rest doing here?!

xtra-rest.png

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xtra-rest.png 9.72 KB

Comments

"For example, what's the whole rest doing here?!"
You have typed the notes the first staff in another voice than Voice 1 (voice 2 probably or 4). Hence the rest which, in a multi-voices context, can be fully justified. We should see more of the score to see this context.
Otherwise, select this measure (or staff?) and exchange voices in Edit menu -> Voices -> Exchange voice1-2 (or other). And so, now, the rest (voice 2) may be remove (never a rest in voice1) or preferably made invisible, depending on the context.

See the difference between measure 1 and measure 3: voices.mscz (select all, Ctrl +A, for observing the voices color)
In handbook; https://musescore.org/en/handbook/voices

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voices.mscz 3.88 KB

In reply to by AaronPDX

No corrupt at all.
Each staff always starts at voice 1 and should always have a voice 1 that accounts for all beats (as in, you can't delete those rests).
If you enter notes in a different voice, then that voice will also ensure it adds up to a full measure duration; those rests however can be deleted.

Looking at your colors, you can see that the notes for the top staff are now in voice 1 (blue) and total the full measure duration: this is correct. Also in the top staff, you have a 2nd voice, but without any notes in it, it shows a full measure rest: this is also correct and a result of having used the exchange voices command.
You can simply select this rest (only this rest) and press delete to remove it. (If desired, you might find the Selection Filter to help with easily selecting that rest)

On the bottom staff however, the note is started in voice 2 (green), where that should've been voice 1 (as each staff always starts with a required and complete first voice). To solve this, select only this measure in this staff and use the Exchange voices command.
It will put the half note and half rest into voice 1; and it will put the (currently) full measure rest of voice 1 into voice 2. You can then again select that full measure rest and delete it.

In reply to by jeetee

Thanks to both of you! I had no idea that each staff requires a voice 1. I thought any additional polyphony required another numbered voice. (The result of jumping into software without having a foundation in its logic.)

I find the voice swapping thing a little tricky but it's easy enough to go measure by measure and reassign any voice 2 to voice 1, then remove the resultant voice 2 rests.

In reply to by AaronPDX

You can, for a single line of music or several adjacent lines of music, select several measures. Select one measure, scroll to when the last measure is then press shift and click to extend the measure to that point. There is no reason to exchange voices in one measure at a time.

The term voice in music notation software is commonly used to indicate individual lines of music on a single staff. Unfortunately, this occasionally leads to confusion with singing voices for new users.

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