Making the stave (line spacing) bigger and letting notes increase size proportionately
Hi,
I'm realizing it might be a good idea to make the line spacing and notes bigger on my lead sheets. I've read what I can find in the handbook and had an attempt at different things. I first tried stave properties, and increased line distance, which seems to be what I want, but then the notes then were not displayed properly on the newly bigger spaced lines. Is there a way to correct this and increase note size proportionately to the increase in line spacing? I've tried increasing line distance by 50% from 1 to 1.5 and gone into general/notes/note size and increased that by 50% to 150%, but the note heads have remained the same size and are too small for the line distance.
I also tried stave space scaling and this has helped a bit, but I just wondered how I could solve the
small notes with more line spacing issue?
Many thanks again for any suggestions.
Comments
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/page-settings, there is the central setting that changes about any size
In reply to See by Jojo-Schmitz
Thank you, I have had a look, although increasing size by just 5% has shifted bars onto a new system and I'm still struggling to understand how I'd use the following
"Min. system distance: The minimum distance allowed between one system and the next.
Max. system distance: The maximum distance allowed between one system and the next."
and how to adapt it so I keep the same number of bars per line if possible.
I take it that increasing line spacing and then trying to adapt note head size proportionately is a no-no? The line spacing has not increased that much even when I add 50% to staff spacing.
In reply to Thank you, I have had a look, by [DELETED] 12906286
Increasing size can indeed shift bars to a new system. If you prefer crowding them onto the same system despite the larger size, just reduce the Spacing in Style / General / Measure, or select all then decrease stretch.
System distance has nothing to do with number of bars per system - it is, as the name implies, the distance between systems.
Not sure what you mean when you say "increasing line spacing and then trying to adapt note head size proportionately is a no-no". if you mean, using the "Staff space" setting mentioned previous, it is definitely not a no-no - it is the correct way to increase the size of your music. Assuming you want your music larger. Again, it is perfectly normal that larger music will mean fewer bars per line on average - that's just plain common sense. You can try to force more bars per line despite the larger music size, but the results will look crowded in comparison.
Keeping consistent bars per line is straightforward. First reduce spacing globally so you always have *at least* as many bars per lien as you want. Then add the line breaks, such as with Edit / Tools / Add/Remove Line Breaks.
In reply to Increasing size can indeed by Marc Sabatella
OK, thanks Marc. I'd better clarify. If I have for example four bars of intro with similar music, I generally prefer them to be on one line, rather than three on one line and one on the next, parallel with a first verse, that's why I may sometimes try to force bars on one line even if slightly more crowded.
When writing lead sheets by hand, I'd used blank treble clef staves from www.blanksheetmusic.net and increased line spacing before printing so I could write the note heads quite large. I'd initially started my Musescore lead sheeting with the template as it came, and then realized it may be preferable to have bigger line spacing, so I initially tried this with the increasing line distance option, which did indeed increase the line spacing, but it kept the notes the same size, meaning that they were not correctly placed on the stave, with lines being more widely spaced. I couldn't then find a way to make the notes bigger so they would fit normally on the more widely spaced lines of the stave..
I wasn't convinced that the staff space setting had increased line spacing as much as I did when I used the increasing line distance, however, I think that maybe idea of more widely spaced lines on the stave wouldn't look 'normal' to most readers, and the staff spacing option seems to be the way to go.
I hope this all makes sense, and I completely hear what you're saying and really appreciate you taking the time to reply as you have. I'm saving the links to these posts so I can access them easily again.
Many thanks :)
In reply to OK, thanks Marc. I'd better by [DELETED] 12906286
It is indeed common to want a certain number of bars per line in general, but more bars one one line in particular, whether for an intro, a coda, to accommodate voltas, or whatever. Again, the best way to do this is to start by decreasing spacing globally and then add line breaks, but it also works to just decrease it for the measures you want to squeeze onto one line. Just be sure to select all of the measures you want on a single line and decrease stretch for them *together*, again because otherwise you will end up with erratic spacing and then have to fix it later by eye. Easier and better to let MuseScore handle the spacing within the line.
The "Line distance" setting you tried is definitely *not* what you want, Basically, it's there for tablature staves or for experimental notation *only*, because as you see, it only increases the staff size but nothing else scales with it. The way to increase music size in general is the "Staff space" setting, because everything scales with it. And it *does* increase line distance by exactly the amount specified. So if you want it twice as big, you'd increase it from 1.764mm to 3.528mm.
In reply to It is indeed common to want a by Marc Sabatella
That's brilliant Marc, thank you so much for taking the time to reply in the detail you have. It's very much appreciated and very helpful. Thank you again.