Changing note duration AND moving them
I've entered a long serie of notes by keyboard, copied from a hand written score.
I was not looking at the musescore score, only the score to copy.
The notes are correct (I heard them while typing), but ... instead of being all 8th notes they are all 4th notes (not from the beginning but from a change of duration that I've certainly incorrectly entered).
I'm afraid there is no way to select the long list of 4th notes, changing them to 8th notes? (Or yes?)
If no easy way exists to just select the list of notes and change them to 8th (and moving them, I don't want all 4th "space" be filled by one 8th note and one 8th rest of course), then ... this my request ;-)
Fred
Comments
There is not a way currently (well, there was a plugin but it seems it doesn't actually work correctly), but it is a common request. Some day we do hope to implement something that could help.
In reply to There is not a way currently by Marc Sabatella
'Some day we do hope to implement something that could help'
Ok, thanks.
In reply to There is not a way currently by Marc Sabatella
One would think that a group of notes could be selected, and then a specific note value pressed (selected), and all the notes in the selected group would change to that value. As far as I know, not even a single note can be changed from say from an 1/8 note to a 1/4 note. This goes to the problem of entering "tuplets" as well. Every time you try something different, the entire series must be entered again.
In reply to One would think that a group by gBouchard
a single note's duration can get changed and easily. But it leaves a rest if shortened and 'eats' the next note if lengthend
In reply to One would think that a group by gBouchard
Changing all notes in a selection to a fixed duration seems a pretty rare use case to me; can you elaborate?
Changing the duration of a single note is working almost exactly as how you've described it. Select the notehead, press the new duration, done.
How any of this has anything to do with entering tuplets is a mystery though.
Fixing up the DoubleTime/HalfTime plugins is somewhere on my list though not quite that high at the moment.
In reply to Changing all notes in a by jeetee
You're correct, it is easy to edit a single note, however it's impossible to change two 1/8th notes into to 1/4 notes. It relates to tuplets because more often than not they get entered wrong, and it would be nice to be able to select the group and change it's value. I think it goes to the issue of the program being intuitive to an ordinary musician. I learned long ago that programmers seem to enjoy puzzles, and the more complex they are, the better they like them. Their view of ease of use is entirely different from that of an "average" person.
In reply to You're correct, it is easy to by gBouchard
To me, it seems like you're the one proposing a tremendously complex puzzle. With a 4/4 measure consisting of an eighth note followed by an eighth rest repeated four times, if you click on the measure, click the quarter note, and click the dot, tell me what you want to happen? And what if you clicked the sixteenth note? Forgive me, but I think you haven't thought this through.
In reply to You're correct, it is easy to by gBouchard
I believe we both have a different use case for MuseScore as well; I'm mostly transcribing existing stuff, so entering wrong durations is rather out of the question; as is adjusting them.
If I'm working on new material, I mostly play that on a piano first, then even often transcribe the ideas on paper (as my laptop simply isn't in the same room) and only then enter them into MuseScore.
I think what you're after (1/8ths to 1/4ths or even double-dotted 1/4ths for example) is more along of the lines of a free-form fluid input mode. The idea has passed on this forums before (have a search if you can, I don't know the threads by heart), and I believe some time-shift entry-mode feature request exists. Its just that this 'intuitive' mode for some musicians is actually a very complex puzzle for a programmer.
If you have to shift notes, you have to have a way to say which notes (only this staff/the current instrument/the whole system), how far (within the current measure/the whole score/...) find ways to deal with incomplete measures, changing time signatures, …
MuseScore currently uses a far simpler (but seemingly less intuitive to some musicians, as testify the other posts about this subject) entry method based on the principle too change as little as possible.
Changing one note duration in one voice of one staff at one location of a given instrument will never influence anything else. That way I won't have to back-shift my chorus for example, if I changed a note duration in one of the verses melody.
In reply to I believe we both have a by jeetee
'I'm mostly transcribing existing stuff, so entering wrong durations is rather out of the question'
This is perfectly in the question!
Unless you double check after EVERY duration change, if you enter by the keyboard a long score any key press for duration that would not be "strong" enough to let the keyboard sends the signal you will get long list of 8th notes instead of 4th or the opposite.
It is also highly possible to miss one note to enter another one in double.
Exactly as when enter a long text in MS-Word, coyping a book, your eyes on the page to copy.
After that you need to correct these errors, which would be very easy with the mode I ask 'Changing notes duration AND moving them'.
In this mode you must also be able to "insert" notes moving the end of the score (to add missed entries) and deleting notes (to correct double entries), also moving the end of the score.
And to avoid any ambiguity, I don't ask that the default behavior of Musecore becomes this.
In reply to You're correct, it is easy to by gBouchard
Yes, changing two eighths to two quarters would be useful, and that's what is being suggested here. But what oeople are also pointing out is that in real life, this would almost *never* be a case of literally wanting to change all notes in a selection *to the same value* - it's far more common you'd want to change them *by the same ratio. So for example, if you start with a two eighths followed by four sixteenths, you would virtually *never* want to change that into two quarters followed by four more quarters. Instead, you'd almost certainly want two quarters followed by four eighths. That is, doubling the length of all notes in the selection, not turning them all into quarters regardless of the current length. So that is why the proposals are focusing on the halving and doubling the lengths of notes - this is what usewrs generally need. Changing everything to the same note value regardless of what you started with almost never happens in real life.
I'm also not sure what you mean in saying tuplets get entered wrong more often than not. I guess that is true if you make a mistake somehow, but you'd normally discover the mistake right away and correct it before you even enter the notes. And of course, with experience, you don't tend to make nearly as many mistakes. but sure, if you somehow fail to notice you have enetered your tuplets incorrectly soon enough, the half/double facility would be the best way to fix that as well.
In reply to Yes, changing two eighths to by Marc Sabatella
' the proposals are focusing on the halving and doubling the lengths of notes'
Agree! Because that would cover the case of changing a long list of 8th notes in 4th notes (and vice versa) but other scenarios as well.