General Score - how to create

• Aug 29, 2012 - 02:54

I want to create a general score with no time signaure and no instrument, just stave lines, etc. This would be useful to demonstrate things to others. How do I do that, or am I able to in MuseScore?

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• Aug 29, 2012 - 03:22

You can delete or hide elements you don't want to see. Just click and hit Delete to delete them, or - for elements that MuseScore doesn't like you to delete, like an initial time signature - right click and hit Set Invisible. To hide all elements of a given type at once (eg, barlines), right click one, select->all similar elements, then right click and Set Invisible.

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• Aug 29, 2012 - 17:12

Thanks Marc. I'll try that.

That seems a backward way to do it. Perhaps the programmers forgot to include the general type.

Is there any way to create a user-defined template, such as the one above, which can then be saved.? Then when I need it, it's in the template list. That would be a good work-around.

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• Aug 29, 2012 - 21:33

Yes, templates are indeed easy to create; you don't need anything like I described. I wasn't understanding what you wanted - I thought maybe you wanted to actually print some blank staff paper, or paper with only clefs, or with brackets and instrument names and nothing else, on which you could then write in notes by hand with a pencil.

Perhaps if you explained more clearly what you are actually after here, we could advise further.

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• Sep 1, 2012 - 16:01

I was wanting to create short examples of things, such as the inversions on a C7 chord, on a staff(s) which I could then insert into a Word document. So I don't need an instrument or time signature with measure bars. Just a short staff, with a clef and some notes. It seems mandatory that I use a time signature.

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• Sep 1, 2012 - 18:18

Not mandatory, no. The mew score wizard asks for one, so you start off with one by default, but you can then hide it. Since MuseScore needs to know how many beats to put in a measure, it doesn't like you to actually delete the time signature, but you can trick it into doing so. Just insert a measure (or several) before the first measure of the piece, and it will show up with no time signature, then you can delete the time signature and/or the measures containing it.

Since I would assume this is something you'd be doing multiple times - any document that needs one example is as likely to need a whole bunch - I'd bypass the template feature, which assumes you are creating actual music and not short examples. Instead, create one example the way you like it, then just keep doing Save As to clone it for more examples. That's what I am doing for the book I am writing right now.

You might also be interested in the LibreOffice / OpenOffice extension I developed to help in the process of inserting and managing examples if you use either of those word processors:

http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/musescore-example-ma…

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• Sep 2, 2012 - 18:16

I tried to insert a measure before the first one, but I only succeeded with the whole process once. I couldn't duplicate that though and I dumbly didn't save it. The program is new to me, so I'm in the learning process. Is it possible to list the steps that I need to use, as detailed as possible? The documentation is a little vague ever about how to select the first measure. I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, I notice that the program still calculates for the length of the measure, even with the time signature gone, and shows rests. Thanks,

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• Sep 2, 2012 - 19:45

Yes, as I said,. MuseScore needs to know the length of the measure, for spacing and for playback purposes. So the suggestions I am giving are simply to suppress the *display* of the time signature. As I said, hiding it is the easiest (right click, set invisible), but if for some reason that isn't good enough (like the space it takes up bothers you), you need to take extra steps.

However, I mislead you about inserting an empty measure automatically creating a measure with no visible time signature. It's actually *deleting* the first measure (select then ctrl-del) that does this. I think there was some sort of corner case where inserting could do this, but clearly, it doesn't normally.

So, the steps are:

1) create score normally, with a time signature corresponding to the actual number of beats you want per measure (or in the first measure if it's going to change), and one more measure than you actually need

2) select first measure (click any empty area within it, or shift-drag-select)

3) Delete it (ctrl-del on PC, not sure about Mac)

Now you have no time signature at all. If you want several measures, no visible time signatures, but a different numbers of beats in each, then for each measure where you want a different number of beats than that indicated by the time signature you just deleted), right click the measure, click Properties, and change Actual Duration to reflect the number of beats you want.

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• Sep 3, 2012 - 18:32

Which comment are you asking for elaboration on? I'm guessing maybe you mean my comment about not wanting them to fix the bug that allows you delete time signatures? That was kind of a joke. But anyhow, it *may* have not have been an intended feature that deleting the first measure of a piece would have the side effect of deleting the time signature. So it's possible this particular solution won't work in some future release. But that is of no real concern, because the next release (2.0, for which you can already download experimental nightly builds) already allows you to simply click the initial time signature and hit delete to make it go away. As opposed to 1.2, in which trying that earns you a dialog telling you the first time signature cannot be removed. I have no idea if the 2.0 behavior is deliberate or if they plan to add that error message back, or creating any other way for time signatures to be completely suppressed.

FWIW, I'd also observe that my LibreOffice extension allows you to create examples as ABC source if you wish, although I'm probably one of the few interested in that. But if you create an example that has no time signature, it dutifully gets imported into MuseScore with no time signature as well. Again, there *is* a meter in terms of MuseScore knowing how many beats go in the measure, but the time signature doesn't display at all - not even as as "invisible". So the following creates a D major scale using all whole notes in a single measure with no time or key signature:

X:1
M:none
L:1/1
K:none
D E ^F G A B ^c d ||

I find this easier than having to calculate the effective length of the measure. For "real" music, it's easier to enter it directly into MuseScore of course, but for exercises like this, I find ABC entry works really well. You can also use the ABC Import plugin to enter this directly into MuseScore without the aid of my LibreOffice extension. Try copying and pasting the above into the ABC Import plugin dialog and see how quick it can be to create these sort of examples, if you venture into the land of ABC!

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• Sep 4, 2012 - 05:34

Marc,
I was actually asking Jojo-Schmitz the following as to his comment:
I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what this comment means. Would you elaborate on it please? Thanks.

and Marc, as to the removal of the time signature, thanks again. Also, the LibreOffice extension is beyond my knowledge so far, so maybe in the future.

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• Sep 4, 2012 - 14:17

I think you misunderstood - the libreoffice extension doesn't require use of ABC at all; it just *allows* it. You can still create examples the way you always have. The primariy purpose of the extension is to automate the process of turning your scores into little graphic files and inserting them into your text document, and also to establish a link between the graphics within the text document and the oriinal score. So ctrl-click on an example within your ext document automatically fires up MuseScore to let you edit it.

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