Shaping phrase rhythm

Gordon Friesen

• Nov 17, 2017 - 00:10

HI,

Absolutely sure this has been covered extensively:

I would like to phrase with a little more time here, a little less time there.

What I see are tempo changes, articulations and fermata.

Maybe better to just tie on small values stolen from other notes (score would look pretty confused I think)

Any threads to suggest.

Other wisdom.

Thanks,

Gordon

Comments

Jm6stringer

• Nov 17, 2017 - 01:02

I would like to phrase with a little more time here, a little less time there.

See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook-sound-and-playback/swing
(saves confusion)

Regards.

Gordon Friesen

• Nov 17, 2017 - 01:07

Hi JM,

Thanks for the reply. Right. I had forgotten swing.

My problem is, I would like to be able to do it in a more detailed way.

Note by note.

Best,

Gordon

Jm6stringer

• Nov 17, 2017 - 01:50

Unless I'm missing something:
Note by note... is the raison d'être for the various note durations displayed on the note input toolbar. That is, a person selects the duration(s) and enters pitches note by note.

(Now is the proper time to post a score or image showing whatever that 'phrase rhythm' detail you wish to 'shape'.)
;-)

Regards.

jeetee

• Nov 17, 2017 - 11:30

If you're talking about playback only, then have a look at the piano roll editor. Be aware that it is a very underdeveloped and currently rather buggy thing.
If playback becomes that important to you, consider exporting the MIDI from MuseScore into a more DAW-oriented software package.

Gordon Friesen

• Nov 18, 2017 - 02:35

Hi Jee,

That is a great tip on the Piano Roll.

And you are right if playback is the goal, why not a production DAW.

My answer is : I want to be a composer, and I want to be able to dictate a result. Virtual pen on paper.

What I see now, is that I can lengthen a note with fermata, or with a tempo change. I can detach notes with the PRE length setting, and I think I can put the note ahead of or after straight time using OnTime. (I haven't done these things yet but I have seen the description of how to)

That pretty well covers everything I want, except that it promises to be extremely time consuming and it would be great to be able to to automate the process, as in develop templates that could be plugged into other scores later.

Thanks for the input

Gordon

Jm6stringer

• Nov 18, 2017 - 17:06

You wrote:
What I see now, is that I can lengthen a note with fermata, or with a tempo change.

It's true that a fermata can lengthen a note; but, a tempo change is not really used to lengthen (or shorten) an individual note, but rather to increase (or decrease) the 'playing speed' of the score, or a section thereof.

Also, when dealing note by note (your earlier words) it is also true that a fermata can be added to every single note to slow an entire score, but such is not established practice. (OTOH, a musical communication form, like midi, is not so much concerned as to how such sound is actually notated).

So...
There are different ways to approach music notation in MuseScore.
For example, transposing to a different key note by note (ala virtual pen on paper) is more time consuming than the tranpose feature built into MuseScore. See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/transposition
MuseScore can even handle 'transposing instruments'! See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/transposition#transposing-instruments

Concerning playback:
Fellow Musescorer jeetee mentioned the piano roll editor, where you can perform adjustments note by note , but anything done note by note will be more time consuming than doing things 'globally'.
Earlier I mentioned swing rhythm. That's a type of 'global playback' setting that affects all the notes in the score (or passage) to which swing is applied. It is done without the need for note by note adjustments.
Plus, the swing ratio can be changed.

Have a look here:

You can open this MuseScore file of the pictured example and have a listen (and even change the swing ratio yourself):
Swing_settings.mscz

So...
As you become comfortable with the software, and run into a more "specific" issue - unlike "shaping phrase rhythm" - please feel free to open a new thread.

Regards.

BTW: you mention templates:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/create-new-score#templates
if not this, please post a new thread.

Gordon Friesen

• Nov 19, 2017 - 03:49

HI JM,

Swing is a very good example of a template, and adjustable too, so even more useful.

There are a number of others that come immediately to mind.

There is the minuet style triplet where the rhythm is x : X o.. x: X, that is, semi accented upbeat on three leading to the down beat on one, neutral on two then repeat. These accents are reflected in note duration. The third beat (upbeat) is a little late to group it with the one. This is all very different from the beer garden oom pah pah which is phrased long short short. long short short.

When I got my first real classical teacher, the first thing he made me do (playing Bach) was exaggerate the first note in regular groupings like : o-n-e two thee four o-n-e which almost sounded like an eighth note followed by a sixteenth note triplet instead of straight sixteenths. Then, of course, he told me to do the same thing, only less obvious. Same principle with groups of six : the accent lengthend and followed by five shorter notes.

In the Piano Roll threads, it is mentioned that we can change the velocity of a single note through the inspector, as this is a midi parameter easy to code. Then the author of the post said we could easily have the same thing for the length of the note, also a midi parameter. That would really be very useful.

Thanks for your help.

I see I have a lot to get up to speed on here.

Gordon