Bug or a feature
Is this a bug or a feature that i just dont know how to use it.
When copy/paste chords from another session, which is the same song and same key, the chords change when the top instrument is so called "transoposing instrument". Here's a video where i try to copy paste a chord Cm and it changes to Dm. In the video i also try to change the order of the instruments, and then do it again, which kind of fixes it but i want the instruments to be in this certain order, and the chords on top of the instruments so ....
If this is a feature, why would anyone want to use it? I mean the chords dont change to a different chord if the key is different. Doesnt make sense to me.
Comments
Are you familiar with how transposing instruments work? You ight wish to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposing_instrument for starters. But basically, yes, it is absolutely correct and vitally necessary that music for transposing instruments be transposed - hence the name. If you want a trumept player to play a C, you need to write a D for him. MuseScore handles all of this automatically, which is why when you copy and paste notes or chord symbols onto a staff for a transposing instrument, it does the transposition for you, automatically and correctly. Which is to say, the "Dm" shown in the trumpet part after the paste is exactly what the trumept player needs to see.
If you are saying you don't intend for the trumept player to read that chord - maybe you are really intending it to be read by the pianist - then don't add the chord symbol to the trumept staff. The chord symbol needs to appear directly above the staff for the instrument that is going to read it. That way it looks correct in the score (that is how actual scores are published) and it also will allow it to be correct in the individual parts (the chord symbols need to appear in the piano part, not the trumpet part).
In reply to Are you familiar with how by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Mark :) Maybe i just needed the chords to be on top of the full score for me when putting all this down, but now when you explained all that, i will put the chords on top of the piano.
Yes i have read about the Transposing instruments and kind of got what was going on... as a drummer/guitar player. :D
For your consideration.
You wrote:
...but i want the instruments to be in this certain order, and the chords on top of the instruments...
also:
Maybe i just needed the chords to be on top of the full score for me when putting all this down...
To achieve this, try toggling the 'Concert Pitch' button.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/concert-pitch
So... you can enter/paste the chords on the top line (the trumpet staff) with the non-transposed names.
Just be sure to turn 'Concert Pitch' off before printing or exporting the score.
Regards.
In reply to For your consideration. You by Jm6stringer
Thanks Jm6stringer, i tried to now and it works :)
So ... next thing for me is to learn what really IS the concert pitch :D So you never use concert pitch when printing sheets for transposing instruments, right?
In reply to Thanks Jm6stringer, i tried by SkyLind
For that question, this discussion may help explain things: https://musescore.org/en/node/75466
In reply to For that question, this by Isaac Weiss
Thanks Isaac, i will read that :)
In reply to Thanks Isaac, i will read by SkyLind
I have now read all this and understand the concert pitch and the transposing instrument thing, but it still doesnt makes sense why the chords change in full score. It would make a bit sense if i would have only the trumpet in that score, and then paste the chords, and they would change to what ever key the trumpet plays, but when dealing with full score , where trumpet is only one of the instruments, it doesnt make sense. Why would anyone want the full score to have chords displayed as trumpet player needs them, when it is full score?
Just a simple example: guitar player, who doesnt read music, asks what chord it is in this and this part, and i would say its Dm, even though the correct chord is Cm, so i would add "but remember this full score that i am reading has trumpet on top so it really is Cm.
In reply to I have now read all this and by SkyLind
It's quite simple - chords written above the trumpet staff are assumed to be there for the benefit of the trumpet player, so of course they need to be transposed appropriately. If you intend them to be read by the guitar player, they should new address above the guitar staff. That's just how music is notated - you don't put instructions for one player above a staff for a different player. It wouldn't make sense and no one would understand how to play it. No guitar player wants to have to read notes from one staff but chords from a different one.
In reply to It's quite simple - chords by Marc Sabatella
@Marc: not even if the guy who gets the full score is kind of a conductor, and not a trumpet player? and the trumpet player gets his own sheet?
Maybe i just put the chords on the bottom.
In reply to That's just how music is by SkyLind
All the more reason to be clear about which staff the chords apply to. How would a conductor looking at such a score possibly know which staff you intended those chords to apply to if they are above sone unrelated staff? .that makes no sense at all. Conductors aren't mind reader's any more than guitar players are. The full score is supposed to reflect the parts presumably the guitar player's part contains a staff with chords directly above it. The score should show exactly the same - wherever you guitar staff is, the chords should appear directly above it. Just like lyrics appear directly above/below the vocal staves - you don't arbitrarily to put them under the viola staff instead. I don't understand why would try to make things more complicated than that.
In reply to I have now read all this and by SkyLind
To notate chords for a guitar player who doesn't read music, you can add a (top) staff with slash notation - so that you won't have to enter the chord names on the (transposing) trumpet staff. Instead, you will have a staff dedicated for chord names for the (e.g. rhythm) guitarist.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tools#fill-with-slashes
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tools#toggle-rhythmic-slash-notation
With regards to transposing instruments, also consider this:
As a guitar player, I'm sure you are familiar with the basic (first position) chord fingerings that we all learn, using open strings.
Well, imagine another guitar player with a capo on the second fret. What he fingers as his basic C (major) chord - i.e the first chord that everyone learns - actually sounds like a D chord.
So... since a player without a capo would have to form a D chord on his guitar, which chord name would you put above whose staff?
Of course, toggling 'Concert Pitch' on is like taking the capo off, so all chord names become the same.
For other instruments...
While we may not think of a single (monophonic) trumpet sounding a chord, an experienced player can utilize chord names for things like improvisation - which is why having the correct chord name written above the staff is helpful.
Regards.