Deleting Rests

• Mar 31, 2017 - 00:22

I'm a complete noob to both this program, and musical notation. With that being said, is there a way to delete rests? Because they just won't go away after you place them down. I tried to cut, delete, and undo them away, but nothing has worked. Am I missing something musically? or am I just using this program wrong? Thanks in advance.

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• Mar 31, 2017 - 00:50

Please read the HandBook, you find how to input notes and rests ,I just put a picture for showing the differents stapes for entering , on the first ligne, an eight note on the last 1/2 time of a 4/4 measure : you click on the whole rest , click 6 (6 for an Half note) , you got 2 half rest, click the second, click 5 (5 for a quarter note) you got 1 Half rest, and 2 quarter rests, click the last quarter rest, click 4 (4 for eight rest) you got the same with 2 eight rests in the end, you can input your note, for me a C, click on the last eight rest and click C.
On second ligne to input a quarter note in first time , more simple, click the whole rest, click 5 (5 for quarter note or quarter rest, you got 2 quarter rests and 1 half rest, click on the first quarter rest and click your note , for me C.
You will find all this in the book, it is the first you must do in Muse Score 1.png

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• Mar 31, 2017 - 17:41

This question comes up periodically, so we get a fair amount of practice answering it :-). Here is my best version of an answer:

Literally deleting a rest (or a note, for that matter) and doing nothing else does not really make sense when you think about it - this would leave you with too few beats in the measure. That's almost certainly not what you want. What you really want is for some unspecified number of subsequent notes to be moved earlier in time to take the place of the rest, and then presumably a new rest created at the end of that passage so that the end of passage is not also missing a beat. So, assuming that is what you want to do, just do that directly - select the passage you wish to move earlier in time, cut, click the new location (ie, the rest you are thinking of deleting), and paste. That way you are in control of exactly which notes get moved.

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• Mar 31, 2017 - 06:57

Welcome aboard...
But what I really wanted to know was if I could completely delete a rest. I guess the answer is no.
You are mostly correct - see 'Voices' in the handbook for (rare) exceptions.

Here's a pedagogic perspective:
A rest can be changed into a note (and vice versa). See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#change-note-rest

However, concerning complete deletion, consider these two scenarios:

1. You have a quarter note on the second beat of a measure. You select it (by clicking on it) and then press 'delete'. What do you expect to occur?
Well, the absence of a note on that second beat means that there is no sound, right?
Since the absence of sound is designated by silence, MuseScore will place a quarter rest on that second beat. (So, when the metronome, for instance, ticks off that beat, silence gets 'played'. Silence, after all, has no discrete 'pitch'.)

2. You have a quarter rest on the second beat of a measure. You select it (by clicking on it) and then press 'delete'. What do you expect to occur?
Well, the absence of silence on that second beat presumes sound, right?
Since the absence of silence is designated by a musical sound, MuseScore needs to place a quarter note on that second beat - so... what pitch?
This is not so simple as a (non-pitched) rest, which is why one needs to overwrite a rest with a (pitched) note. After all, only you know what distinct pitch should get played on that second beat. MuseScore does not guess.

The whole reason for placing the correct pitches (and rests) into their correct beat locations is so that the playback engine can play the score properly.

BTW: the traditional use of pencil and blank manuscript paper does allow for deletion (i.e. erasure) of rests - but, regretfully, does not have playback capability :-)

Regards.

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• Mar 31, 2017 - 23:37

Thanks for the insight. I can now see how playback could be an issue for Musescore regarding rests.
I'm more used to writing by hand, where (like you mentioned) the erasure of rests is plausible. So I found it a bit odd how I couldn't get rid of them. I think I'll be able to find my way, since I now have my answer.

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• Apr 1, 2017 - 02:32

0. Maybe you can tell us what you hope to achieve by deleting the rests.

1. If you are erasing a rest in the handwriting score, then you are going to write a note instead. Because, you wrote that rest into that (handwritten) score.

2. If you want to print a blank sheet of paper then press "select all" (Ctrl + A) and Hide it (your "v" key on your keyboard) all rests and notes. And If you do not want Measure-Bars also, right-click on it, select "select> all similar elements" and make it invisible again (again with the "v" key).

3. In this software, if you open an empty measure(s), the software puts rest(s) in advance to set how many beat(s) it has in that measure.

4. If you think there is an extra measure in your score, you can completely erase that measure. Select that measure and press "Ctrl + delete" keys.

5. "to delete a rest, within a measure" (in terms of the inner workings of the software) is to put a note (or slash) in its place.

6. In terms of wiping the Rest, My mind is nothing more than these. (Logically)

7. Maybe you can tell us what you hope to achieve by deleting the rests.

for example:
"There are extra measures in the music I wrote. And I want to delete them. Because at the end of the piece they take up extra space." //And you get a good, right, exact answer(s).

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