How to get correct polymeter playback and notation in MuseScore?
Currently I'm trying to write a duet, where one performer plays in 7/8 and the other in 5/8. Looking up how to do this in MuseScore, I found out that holding ctrl while dragging the meter you want to use applies this. However, what I learned shortly after trying this is that it applies it completely incorrectly. Instead of both instruments having the exact same note length value, what happens is that it makes the instruments play polyrhythmically instead of polymetrically. So, instead of having 7 eighth notes play against 5 eighth notes, I get 7 eighth notes playing against what would essentially be 5 eighth-note quintuplets.
How do I fix this? Does MuseScore have a way to actually correctly notate and play back polymeters?
Comments
Tuplets: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tuplets
(edited for more detail)
Select all of one staff and divide the whole measure rests into septuplets, then quintuplets on the other; right-click one tuplet bracket, Select > All Similar Elements, press [V] or uncheck "Visible" in the Inspector; right-click the time signatures and choose Time Signature Properties to change what numbers they display as.
In reply to Tuplets: by Isaac Weiss
This makes a polyrhythm which is what I specifically do not want.
This is what it looks like before doing the aforementioned steps in my original post
After ctrl drag to put 5/8 in the next line
As you can see here, the result becomes a polyrhythm, which is explicitly what I don't want. I want the eighth notes for both instruments to have the exact same length value, but to have barlines at different spots.
It's not a matter of this not working correctly; it's a matter of this simply not being the right feature for what you are trying to do. The local time signature feature you tried is intended for cases where you *do* want different note lengths, so as to keep the *measure* length the same (eg, to have a passage notated with some staves in 4/4 but another as 12/8, with the quarter in 4/4 corresponding to the dotted quarter in 12/8.
What you want is measures of different lengths. MuseScore doesn't support that directly, but you can create that effect by hiding barlines you don't want and adding others mid-measure from the palette.
In reply to It's not a matter of this not by Marc Sabatella
Ah, that's a shame then. Thank you for the answer though.