Re-pitch mode for grace notes

• Jul 26, 2018 - 15:15
Reported version
3.0
Type
Graphical (UI)
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
PR created
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

Currently, if you enter a grace note to a note in a chord, the grace note is entered on the same pitch as the parent note. Selecting the grace note and trying to change its pitch by typing a letter from A through G on the keyboard doesn't work as you would expect. It adds a new note before the parent chord with the grace note's duration. My request is to enable a grace note's pitch to be changed via the letters A through G on the keyboard as well.

Explanation

To see what I mean, do the following:

Untitled score
Enter a note
Add a grace note to the note. The grace note will be on the same pitch as the parent note
Click on the grace note (just to ensure it is in fact selected)
Type a letter note name on your keyboard

Expected result

The grace note's pitch changes to the pitch of the letter you pressed like a normal note

Actual result

A new note is entered at the position of the grace note with the duration of the grace note. (I.e. an eighth acciaccatura will cause an eighth note to be entered at that position).

Comments

• Jul 26, 2018 - 15:44

Since the a-g shortcuts are assigned to notes and musescore doesn't recognize grace notes as the same thing as a regular note, perhaps some sort of edit grace notes mode could be created that would allow for the same shortcuts to be used as for notes. Perhaps if the user selected a grace note and press alt+G the mode would be entered and escape would exit it as in other cases (chords, figured bass, lyrics...)

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• Jul 26, 2018 - 16:21

Definitely worth looking at this, I agree that needing the cursor keys to enter grace notes feels wrong. On the surface, it seems to me that simply changing the behavior of the letter names if the currently-selected note is a grace note would make sense. Still doesn't really help mouse users, I guess, but it's a start.

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• Jul 26, 2018 - 16:27

Mouse users have another way of doing this: click and drag. Just tested; it works (edit: in 2.3.1). That can be the workaround for keyboard users for now as well, although I (and I suspect Marc too) would like to see it changed so that you don't need to take your hands off the keyboard while notating.

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• Jul 27, 2018 - 09:22

@Marc

Yes, but I started this issue as a result of this forum topic. (I don't know why it is not listed in What links here, because I did link to this issue in that thread.) What I mean when calling the mouse method a workaround, is that it enables the user to push only one extra frame on the undo stack, regardless of the interval the grace note was changed. The up / down arrows method needs 7 stack frames to change the grace note's pitch by a perfect fifth, for example. So with the mouse method, the user can do / undo the whole perfect 5th repitch with only one do / undo command, while the currently available keyboard method needs 7(!) do / undo commands.

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• Jan 1, 2019 - 11:11

Not an editing mode, but a new entry mode GRACE_NOTE_ENTRY is quite necessary. Editig scores with many multiple grace notes as often found in baroque and early classic literature, let you get quite crazy. Count the number of steps you have to perform to add three grace notes with correct pitch and a slur to only one single note - I know people who gave up using MuseScore for that reason.

The following is as easy to use as to implement: For adding grace notes select the target note, then click on the desired grace note type icon in the palette while pressing the CTRL key. MuseScore changes to GRACE_NOTE_ENTRY, similar NOTE_ENTRY mode. Then work like in NOTE_ENTRY mode by mouse click or pressing the keys A-G. Mouse clicking saves correction of the octave. Pressing Shift key while clicking automatically adds a slur.

Give me three or four days to send a pull request with this feature.

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• Jan 1, 2019 - 16:41

I'm not at all opposed to a grace note entry mode, but I have a system to make it easier than the default. Do the following:

  • Assign shortcuts to the grace notes
  • exit note entry mode and select the note to add the grace note(s) to
  • Press the shortcut for each note needed (this will leave the first grace note in the group selected)
  • use arrow combination on a note to adjust the pitch
  • use shift+letter to add notes to chords if needed
  • press the right arrow to move to the next grace note and repeat until all grace notes are fixed.

I've been doing this a couple of years and it works well for me until a grace note entry mode is implemented.

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• Jan 1, 2019 - 17:24
Regression ⇒ Yes
Workaround ⇒ No

Ok., this little help by shortcuts may be helpful, but your detailed description shows just the problem. These steps are time consuming and tedious, not, what a common user would expect.

I've been using a grace note entry mode since some time, and it really works satisfying.

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