Score Questions
Sorry to be a bit of a pest, but I couldn't find answers in the documentation.
1. Is it possible to create a score without selecting an instrument? I'm guessing that would be so astoundingly counter-productive to most cases that it wouldn't be. I'm also guessing that the only way to come up with a satisfactory default would be to create a custom template.
2. Is it possible to see what the instrument ranges are ahead of time? The only way I found to see that is to select one, then look at staff properties. Once there, the range is displayed as numbers, like a low of 42 and a high of 90. Is there a chart somewhere that translates those numbers to notes?
3. Is it possible to have more than one score open at a time? I would like to be able to copy from one and paste in the other. I had what I thought were two open, but the copy function didn't work. It wouldn't let me select the first note of the copy. Would opening the application twice work, and copy/pasting work across the applications?
I'm an old-fashioned pencil-on-paper kind of guy and trying to wrap my head around this digital stuff.
Thanks.
--Rich
Comments
In answer to your questions :)
1. Yes if you create a score from a template - some of the lead sheet templates don't define an instrument, adn I think neither does the "hymn" template.
2. The number in the staff properties refer to MIDI note numbers, where middle C is 60 - once you know that it is possible to work out the rest, or you could use one of the many online tables dotted around the net - a Google search for "MIDI note numbers" threw up 690k hits :)
3. Yes you can have more than one score open at a time, in fact it is sometimes essential when working on larger pieces of music. You can also have the full score and all its parts open at the same time if you so wish. I'm not sure why you had problems with copying between scores - maybe your unfamiliarity with the application was a factor here?
HTH
MIchael
PS Come back here if it doesn't ;)
In reply to In answer to your questions by ChurchOrganist
1. I guess I'll have to create some custom templates for myself. I'll check out some of the canned ones first to see if they'll be useable. It'll be a good learning experience.
2. I don't do MIDI. Perhaps a future release will have an option to speak to humans using letters in either scientific pitch notation or shorthand.
3. That's good to know. I've noticed a lot of glitches that happen in display, input, and editing. Usually closing the score and opening it again clears the problem, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes the whole program shuts down and sends an error report. I thought since it wasn't working the first time I tried it, that it may not be possible. Now that I know it is, I'll keep trying.
Thanks, Michael, for your quick response.
Cheers!
--Rich
In reply to Thank you by Cynewulf
This may be useful.
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory29.htm
In reply to Thank you by Cynewulf
There is no magic to creating templates - they are just ordinary scores, with no measures. So that's pretty easy. But there is really no such thing as a score with no instrument. Even the lead sheet templates have is tru,ents. They just done happen to have *names*. So I assume that's really all youa re after - a staff with no name. That's easy - just click the name and hit Delete.
The ranges used by MuseScore are not made up - they are the real life ranges of the instruments. So what you really want is a chart listing the ranfes of various instruments. And book on orchestration, or just Wikipedia, would contain this info. EDIT: or the link Xavierjazz psoted above :-)
In reply to Thank you by Cynewulf
"I don't do MIDI"
MIDI note numbers are now the usual way in which pitch is defined.
The Pitch notations you describe unfortunately have several variations which means that one can never be exactly sure what note is being referred to - you can be an octave out depending on which variation is being used.
There is no need to immerse yourself in the arcane inner secrets of MIDI - that is for techno nerds like me :)
All you need to know is how the numbers relate to pitch.
If we define middle C as C5, then we get the following table with the numbers between the Cs referring to the semitone degree of the scale
HTH
Michael