X notes

• Apr 29, 2018 - 23:08

can you help me get a note that looks like this into a measure WITHOUT ANY extra staff for instruments, i just want it in the piano measure can you please help me???

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Comments

• Apr 29, 2018 - 23:26

You didn't say you wanted another sound. Use an instrument change.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mid-staff-instrument-changes

You can reformat and change the text any way you like. If you want, for example, the pianist to slap the piano, you can change the text to non-bold, italic text that says "Slap piano above keyboard" or anything else you like. Finding a sound that's correct is another problem. You must have a soundfont installed that will make the sound you want.

To return to playing the piano in my example, since the pianist is not picking up another instrument and there is no ambiguity, you will still need to use instrument change text, but you can simply make it invisible and select the piano as the new instrument.

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• Apr 29, 2018 - 23:50

If the pianist is playing a note and hitting the fallboard at the same time, you will need to use an invisible staff for the hit, and make the x note not play on the piano staff. If the pianist never does both at the same time you will need to use as many instrument changes as necessary to switch between the hit and piano notes. To make a note not play, select it and remove the check from play in the inspector.

If there are a number of switches between the hits and piano notes, an invisible line for the hits might be the best solution. To create an invisible instrument, add it the normal way (press i, select it and click OK). After all of the notes are entered, press i to open the instruments again and remove the check from the visible column for that instrument.

As I said, if there are a number of switches between the hits a piano notes it might be best to use the invisible staff. This is because every time you use an instrument change text, a new channel is added to the mixer. Remember to put all of the x notes on the piano score and make them not play. As long as the x note always means the same thing, you only need to put one note on the score explaining the x note, either in notes before the score or at the first appearance of the x note.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 01:45

The only way to do this the way you want is to lie to Musescore. Lying is not easy.

Start a new score.
Enter a C trumpet as the instrument.
In the instruments dialog add a staff to staff 1 (Click staff 1 and "Add Staff") and click OK
double click one of the bar lines and drag the square at the bottom of it down to the bottom of the other staff. (This is to make it look right).
Put the bass clef in the left hand if applicable.
Now you will see the reason you started with a trumpet.
Press F10 to open the mixer
Notice that there are two mixer channels, one that says "C Trumpet" the other says "C Trumpet-mute"
Change the sound for "C Trumpet" to the piano of your choice
Change the sound for "C trumpet-mute" to the sound you will use for the knock (I chose wood block, you can chose anything).
Right click one of the staves and change the ranges of both the amateur and professional to A0 for low and G8 for the high pitch. (Click the pencil then click the note). This will prevent notes from being entered in any color besides black.
Enter your notes until you get to the first knock and make it an x note head.

Select the note and press ctrl+alt+4. This will put the knock in voice 4 and a rest in voice 1. Make the voice 1 rest on the same beat as the x note invisible (click it and press v). Delete any rests in voice 4. To move any other rests in voice 1 where they belong, click it and press the down arrow twice and they should be where they belong. If any voice 1 notes or other items are flipped, select them and press x to turn the stems the correct direction.

On the first X note on each staff add a staff text explaining its purpose. Right click this text and choose "Staff text properties..." Click the 4 in one of the lines and select mute from the dropdown to the right of the 4 you selected. Remember you assigned the sound of the knock to the mute trumpet?

I have suggested that you put the knock in voice 4 to keep voices 2 & 3 free for multiple rhythms being played on a single staff. If you need 4 voices to enter the music for one hand, you will need to add a staff text where the 4th voice starts and select normal rather than mute. When you go back to hitting the piano you will need to add a staff text, change channel 4 to mute and make the staff invisible since the pianist already knows what the x head means.

I have entered the first measure with the hits in the attached score. Extra voice.mscz

Let me know if something is still not clear.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 17:09

It is listed under brass in the common instruments. You can also type part of the name of any instrument in the search box at the bottom of the instruments dialog and all instruments that contain those letters will be listed in the window above it. So if you type "tru" you will see every trumpet.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 16:51

When you enter the instrument as a trumpet and add a staff, the staves are not connected like the grand staff of a piano. When you double click a bar line on the top staff squares appear on the bar line to indicate it is in edit mode. Click and drag the square at the bottom of the line down so it is at the bottom of the bottom staff. This will make it look like a grand staff on a piano. See: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/barlines#connect-barlines if this isn't clear.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 19:03
  1. You said your first language is English and that's the language I'm using to explain. I gave step by step instructions on how to create your score.
  2. You obviously have not read the handbook or you would understand what I'm saying. The words are not too foreign to anyone who has a little bit of experience with music.
  3. I don't have the capability to make a multimedia presentation of what you need to do, perhaps there is someone else who can.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 19:34

When you create a new score the second step has a bunch of templates on it. The first step was the title, composer and so forth. The first one says select instruments. When you select that, the Add Instruments dialog will pop up. At the bottom left is a search box that says search in light gray. Start to type trumpet and you will see all the trumpets including Trumpet in C. Select that one and click the add button.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 19:50

You added the trumpet to the file I sent you. The file I sent you has everything you need to use staff text (added by pressing ctrl+shift+t) to change the sound. It already has the second staff for the piano, it has the barlines already extended to make it look like a grand staff. It even has an example of the text to change the sound from piano to a hit. There is no need to add another instrument.

The instructions were for doing this by creating a new file.

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• Apr 30, 2018 - 23:18

There are lots of ways to do this, but for my money the easiest is to go ahead and use the extra staff, add whatever notes you want on to get the sound you want, then hide the staff in Edit / Instruments. Meanwhile, add the notes you want to see in the regular staff, but uncheck "Play" in the Inspector so they don't make sound. it's a different approach than what has been described, but I find it easier.

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• May 3, 2018 - 15:45

I want you to know that people on this forum are eager to help others, so never be afraid to ask questions. Reading the handbook, and having it to refer to, will at a minimum make it easier for you to find the help you need and to understand answers. I hope you enjoy MuseScore very much.

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