Misc. feature requests

• Nov 1, 2017 - 14:34

Hi!

I'm currently using Musescore 2.1. Here's some suggestions for future versions of Musescore.

  • "Master" chord symbols that would appear automatically to every staff instead of countless copy/paste. This is perhaps my biggest time-consumer while writing sheets with Musescore.

  • Layout option that would make line breaks automatically before marker, in parts too. I make a lot of sheet music for bands and structural readibility is more important for me than keeping note distances constant. Perhaps a plugin?

  • Make into system (as in sibelius) instead of stretch command. And sometimes I want to make really tight system and Musescore won't allow it.

  • I make slash notation above staff (under chord symbols) with voice 3. It makes all stems in voice 1 go up and it doesn't look ideal. This topic was discussed also in https://musescore.org/en/node/59266. Also, it would be better a little higher above staff than now, without using inspector. Perhaps Musescore 3's smart layout issues this?

  • Actually it would be far more intuitive to be able to see slash notation while writing it, without additional command afterwards. If possible. Perhaps slash input mode?

  • It isn't logical when I'm not in note input mode -> I select a note duration other than quarter -> press A or other note key -> I still get quarter note. Of course it is possible to press N first and then it gives the right duration. But still, I've done this "mistake" so many times and for me it seems fixable to be more logical, right?

This is all that I can remember right now. :) Hopefully these issues will be fixed at some point.

Comments

• Nov 1, 2017 - 16:15

Could you explain more about what you mean in #1? Published music normally shows chords symbols above each staff in the score if they are also to appear in the score. Every so often we get a request to produce some sort of non-standard format where the chords appear on the top staff only in the score but nonetheless appear on all parts - is that what you are experimenting with? How would you propose handling different transpositions? parts that have no need for chord symbols (the majority of parts in most scores)?

2 I don't understand at all - can you explain further?

3 would be useful indeed. Could probably be done via a plugin actually. The trick is in figuring out what the behavior should be as things change - further edits, etc. Worth discussing in a separate thread.

(BTW, better to start separate threads for speartae requests, much easier to follow discussion that way)

4 is indeed a known thing. Default location of slashes could be made configurable - feel free to file a formal request for this in the issue tracker. But FWIW, the current defaults are as per pretty standard publishing traditions.

5 I think maybe I see what you are suggesting, but to me it feels like more work to need to input slashes one at a time. How are you seeing this helping?

6 Really it's only an accident that you can enter a note at all while not in note input mode. Personally I'd prefer to see this simply disabled. Or made so that typing a letter name replaces the selected note with that pitch, much as works for duration. This is definitely worth discussing in a separate thread.

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 18:11

Sorry, I didn't make myself quite clear! I'm a bit newbie in this forum..

With #1 I mean:
For example, I have Piano chord part w/ slashes (no notes), Bass line with partly notes, partly slashes and trumpet player with some notes and some improvisation to chord changes (slashed). I want bass and trumpet player to see chord symbols also. IMO, in jazz/pop music it is preferable that chords are visible in all parts. There is always a possibility for improvised solo or other kind of improvisation. :) I have tested Dorico and it shows chord symbols to every staff automatically. It seems logical to me because chord symbols define harmony for the whole score/music. They are the same for every instrument And they usually help to follow the structure in music too.

Perhaps it is possible to make a plugin that copies chords from selected staff to every other staff or even better, you could choose to what staffs it will copy them? It is a bit akward for me to copy/paste them.. I know that it is a problem with my workflow also, but it would be a lot easier for me to have a command that does it for me.

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 18:25

It is true that in published jazz/pop music, chords appear on all parts for which the chords are valuable (eg, piano/bass/guitar but not drums; for horns only the horn improvising at that moment. So in a typical ensemble there would normally be some instruments - perhaps a majority of them - for which it does not make sense to show chord symbols. And in any case, it is invariably true that if the chords appear in the parts, they also appear in the score. The idea of just showing chord symbols on one staff in the score but also on all parts is simply not done in published music anywhere in my experience.

But I can see why someone not interested on how published music is presented but just doing something for their own benefit might nevertheless want to show chords on all parts and not show them on the score, so I can believe other programs might provide such a facility. The question now is, how to handle transposition? What if the top staff is Bb trumpet - does the score show transposed chords? What if you are using "Hide empty staves" so sometimes the top staff is trumpet but other times it is alto sax and other times it is piano and other times it is drums?

Anyhow, copying and pasting chord symbols is designed to be very simple When done with the chart, select the source staff, right click one chord, Select / All Similar Elements on Same Staff, copy, click each staff in turn for which chord symbols are appropriate, and paste. Then you have control over which staves get the chords.

In principle a plugin could automate this for the rare cases where you literally want every single instrument include drums to show chord symbols.

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 18:25

On #2 Check the attached score, that is the way I normally want my scores to look like. Before every Rehearsal mark, there's a line break so that for example "B" starts at it's own row. And "intelligent bar splitting" would be also nice. For example I have a line break, then 12 bars, and another line break. Musescore puts 11 bars on the first row and 1 bar on the second. Looks awful that way and I need to put some more line breaks to fix it. Learn_To_Fly.mscz

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 18:32

So you mean, basically, a new option to Edit / Tools / Add/Remove Line Breaks that says "add line breaks at rehearsal marks", or perhaps an option to simply automatically break at rehearsal marks? I too often try to do this but find the number of exceptions where it isn't feasible makes it that I would rarely be able to take advantage of an automated facility. Still I can see it would occasionally be useful. here again, feel free to start a new thread devoted to this topic specifically, with a descriptive title so others can find it, and then hopefully there will be discussion among others as to how such a feature might look.

Intelligent line splitting sounds nice in principle but in practice, no automated scheme is likely to ever produce results as good as what an expert human will produce. Plus the "best" results are very subjective. For example, some would strongly disagree you and I that it is good to strive to put rehearsal marks at the beginning of lines anyhow and that any real intelligent splitting would actually not sacrifice optimum consistency of measure widths to that. Anyhow, here again it could be worth starting another thread to brainstorm appropriate AI algorithms. I suspect you'll find not a lot of agreement and hence nothing really worth implementing, but I could be wrong.

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 19:24

On #5 I don't understand what more work you are referring? I just mean that it is nice to see straight away what you're trying to write. If I want slashes, it is nicer to see slashes when I input them. Now have to I input notes first, then change them to slashes with command. Not a such a big deal, but when I have melody written first and then I decide that I want slash notation above staff, whilst writing it everything is on top of the other (hard to read) until I make slash command.

On #6 Yes, it would be more logical to disable current behavior and perhaps make it work as you described.

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• Nov 1, 2017 - 19:55

(regarding the font: I learned this the hard way, the forum supports "markdown", which is a simple formatting scheme in which "#2" or whatever at the beginning of a line is treated a command to invoke special formatting)

For #5, what I mean is, entering 8 measures of slashes the current way requires only a handful of clicks (select the range, Edit / Tools / Fill with Slashes). Whereas entering slashes one by one is like 32 steps to enter those same 8 bars. Hard for me to imagine any situation where that is a win. So maybe you are talking about something else but if so I don't understand what. If you have an alternate scheme in mind you think actually would be more efficient, I do recommend you start a new thread with an appropriate title to see what discussion it generates.

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• Nov 3, 2017 - 09:53

Regarding no. 6. the behaviour seem to be intentional.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#enter-pitch

It is also reproducable:
Start in 'Not Node Entry'. Select a duraton. Click in a new position in your score. Duration will be set to 1/4.

It will not happen if you do it like this:
Start in 'Not Node Entry'. Select your starting point in the score. Select duration, Enter note.

Whether it shoud be like this or not, I'm not sure,

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