How can I add a "courtesy natural" in addition to an accidental?

• Mar 18, 2018 - 04:23

What I am trying to transcribe is in the key of C Major, but includes passages in the mediant E Major. I'm used to seeing notation that (the way I've grown to read it) uses accidentals on the notes for the scale, and sharps a note by adding another sharp to it (or the double sharp), then using a natural and sharp if that note in the scale occurs again in the same measure, as opposed to using what would look like an augmented unisons for two different notes.

I don't think I am saying what I'm trying to explain in words very well, but for example, the E major scale written in the key signature of C major would have sharps on the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th degree. An augmented second would be written as an F with a double sharp, instead of G, which would be confusing for a number of reasons. if the second degree occurred afterwards in the same measure, it might have a "courtesy natural" before the regular sharp, which sort of clarifies that the augmented second before isn't a minor third, which would be written as a g (possibly also with a courtesy natural).

This is probably a bit tl;dr, basically what I'm trying to do is put an accidental on a note, but also have a natural in front of the accidental, even though it isn't necessary (as far as indicating what key to press on a keyboard goes). Is this possible, and if so, how?


Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

Entering the symbol as text would be perfect... but do you know what the shortcut would be on the Mac version? Command-T didn't work, I also tried fn-Ctrl, fn-Cmd, and Ctrl for the modifier key, none of them seemed to bring up the menu bar at the bottom in your picture. Or if there is a menu bar item to click that does this, that would be very helpful, as I could just search for it.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks, although the natural isn't strictly necessary even after a double sharp (the way I've always read it) that would be very helpful. In the meantime, do you know the keyboard shortcut or the exact menu item that lets you enter text mode on the Mac? I couldn't get (lots of modifier keys I could think of) – T to do anything, and in the meantime, I had to resort to inserting a superimposed note in a different voice, making it invisible except the natural, then unchecking the "play" option.

In reply to by kumowoon1025

cmd+T is supposed to enter staff text on a Mac. If this isn't the case, look in the second menu from the left (maybe it called MuseScore on a Mac?) then choose preferences... and the shortcuts tab and in the search box at the bottom search for staff (or stave in England) for the shortcut.

I'm not entirely following, but to the extent I understand, I don't think you want text at all. I think you should add the natural by using the Symbols palette (press "Z" to display). then it can be attached to individual notes rather than just the entire chord.

In reply to by kumowoon1025

I suspect you actually used the Accidentals palette, which indeed does only the single. The Symbols palette is a completely different thing and does allow multiple symbols. And be sure they can be attached to individual notes, they work better than text for chords where you might want more than one note to have these, they'll be positioned better by default, they'll move with the note, etc. But text can indeed work too - just more effort in these cases.

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