For a single-stave key signature, the courtesy key signature shows in all staves

• Jan 1, 2020 - 23:28
Reported version
3.3
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S4 - Minor
Reproducibility
Always
Status
PR created
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

Create new score with multiple staves
Place a key signature at the start that has some accidentals in it
Place a system break at some point, to prevent the layout changing unexpectedly
In the measure right after the system break, place a new, different key signature in one staff only (hold ctrl while dragging from pallette)

This will create a courtesy key signature at the end of the previous system, but the courtesy key signature will appear on all staves, not just the single stave that the actual key signature was placed on

Comments

• Jan 2, 2020 - 12:34

A few additional points after experimenting.

  • The behaviour is the same when a system break is added immediately before an added key signature mid system (i.e. the order of operations has no effect)
  • The courtesy key signatures only appear in the score, not in the parts.
  • Adding the single staff key signature at the start of a system also inserts a double bar line on all staves (which does not follow Gould's recommendations) but, as with the key signatures on other staves, doesn't if the insertion point is mid-system.

Having the "confirmatory" key signatures shown on other staves might be seen as a useful feature to confirm to the reader of the score that the key has not changed on those staves. However, such a feature ought to work consistently (i.e. if the key change is mid-system) and should allow it to be disabled.

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• Jan 2, 2020 - 17:29

>The courtesy key signatures only appear in the score, not in the parts.

Hmmm... I can't reproduce this, not in 3.3 or 3.4. Could you provide more detailed instructions how to reproduce this?

>Adding the single staff key signature at the start of a system also inserts a double bar line on all staves (which does not follow Gould's recommendations) but, as with the key signatures on other staves, doesn't if the insertion point is mid-system.

True, I've also fixed this in my pull request.

Reply

• Jan 2, 2020 - 17:58

The courtesy key signatures only appear in the score, not in the parts.

If you have a score full of rests and add the key change to one stave just after a system break, you see the spurious courtesy key signatures (and double bars) in the score but not the parts - the parts just consist of a multimeasure rest which is not broken where the courtesy key signatures appear in the score.

But then I experimented some more:

If the score is full of notes, the parts do not have the double bar that appears in the score and if you add a system break to the part, a spurious key signature appears in the part. See the attached score Test Keychange Bug.mscz
Steps to reproduce
1. Create a score with three parts, with each measure full of quarter notes and with a score-wide key signature of Dmaj.
2. Add a system break to measure 5
3. CTRL drag a Fmaj key signature to measure 6
4. Create parts
5. Delete system break in score from measure 5.
6. Add system break in Flute 1 part to measure 2.

Also note that the spurious courtesy key signatures but not the double bars still show in the score after the system break is deleted.

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