Staff distance frustrations
I've had some trouble with the lay-out for a score similar to the one below. I didn't want to make it a feature request because I'm not sure if there already is a better way to solve this problem.
In a four-part chorale, you're bound to have to change staff distance to make room for lyrics, or prevent beams from overlapping. "Great Staff Distance" simply didn't do anything for me (though that wouldn't be an option anyway, if the score had multiple great staves). Getting a separate spacer for each system would be tedious, so I settled with somewhat of a workaround:
- "Staff Properties>Extra distance above staff" for the T+B staff to move it 3sp down
- "Style>Text>Lyrics Odd Lines>Offset>Vertical" to automatically move the lyrics 3sp down with it (moving lyrics via Inspector takes a long time, too)
This workaround created some problems in the Solo staff, though. The solo lyrics are also automatically moved down, and when I manually move them back up, the large margin stays (see the second system).
So I guess my issues with this process were:
1) "Great Staff Distance" didn't work
2) Moving lyrics manually is an annoying process, because every single syllable needs to be selected separately
3) Margin for low lyrics stayed when lyrics were moved up
But I'm sure there's a better way to do this... right?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Choral + Solo.mscz | 17.32 KB |
Comments
I would suggest that you look at the score layout guide located in https://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#style-edit-gene…. You will have to scroll past the first picture to see it. I think this has the best explanation of all the spacings.
Thee are two other things that might help. You can use spacers from the breaks and spacers palette to increase the space on a singe system. You can also put extra space after lyrics if needed on every system.
In reply to I would suggest that you… by mike320
Spacers from the Palettes would work, but as I said, it'd be a lot of work to make a separate one for every system. Besides, I'm very okay with the great staff distance being the same all the time, which is why that option would have been great if it worked.
I can't find the option for extra space after lyrics you're talking about, but I don't think that'd help in this case.
There is no "Great Staff" (like for Piano or Organ, 2 or 3 staves for one part), so "Great Staff Distance" can't work, there are 3 independant staves (and parts), so "Staff distance" is the setting you're looking for.
And also "Lyrics upper/lower border". And for the choir, start with 2nd verse, to not collide with the Alto notes, but still be one line higher up for the Solo part
MuseScore 3.0 will handle that better, maybe you want to test Alpha 2
In reply to There is no "Great Stave",… by Jojo-Schmitz
Ah! I forgot I hadn't entered it as a great staff, thanks for the heads-up Jojo. But "Staff distance" only exists for all staves at once, correct?
Your solution for lyrics sounds like it'll work. I'll definitely look into the alpha!
In reply to Ah! I forgot I hadn't… by Teun Buwalda
Yes, staff distance is for all staves. There is also "extra distance above staff" in staff properties, and that is fir the individual staff. But as I demonstrated none of that is really needed, not for this score at least
In reply to Yes, staff distance is for… by Jojo-Schmitz
I still can't find this "Lyrics upper/lower border" you're talking about. This solution worked for the example score, but in the original score the tenors have some high Es which will still overlap with lyrics.
In the meantime, I'll have a taste of that sexy collision-detection everyone's talking about.
In reply to I still can't find this … by Teun Buwalda
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#style-edit-gene…
In reply to https://musescore.org/en… by Jojo-Schmitz
Solved.