Anyone for Coloured notation?
Hello,
Perhaps this isn't a feature that many people would use, but learning to play guitar through colored notation
has made my learning curve skyrocket! It is just as useful on other instruments as well. Yes, it is a crutch to be weaned off in time, but it has allowed me to quickly play songs by referencing the score, and is ending my frustration with learning to read sheet music. If more instructors used the Candida Tobin Colour Method in their lessons with beginner students, they would likely progress much quicker, have more fun, and be less likely to quit in the early months.
Although I have been playing the guitar for close to 2 years, I've had difficulty in quickly recognizing the note on the score and translating it to the proper fret position on the guitar. For this reason, I had been primarily referencing TAB, as do most other amateur guitarists. When my new instructor provided the sheet music with colored notation, I just had to recognize the color of the note (rather than having to quickly and accurately distinguish the actual name of the note) and play the fret with the corresponding colored sticker on the fretboard. This method essentially eliminates half of the mental process required to play the instrument. The mind quickly learns where the 7 colored positions are on the fretboard, and playing suddenly begins to become automatic.
Anyway, the obvious problem is that sheet music isn't provided with this colored feature, so anyone using the method has to get a set of colored markers to fill in the proper note colors on the paper score. It would sure be nice if there was a feature on MuseScore that would allow for the colorization of the notes (A=blue, B=green, C=yellow, G=red, D=purple, E=orange, F=brown)
I suppose this feature would be low on the priority list, but then again, it may set MuseScore apart from the other products available, and more instructors might start to use the Tobin Colored Method in their teachings. Unfortunately, she passed away before it really gained much widespread use. My instructor Steve Dell, has been using the method for 13 years, and he swears by it! In his words "The genius of the Colour Music Method makes my job as a guitar teacher not only so much easier, but much more enjoyable, as it accelerates the learning process immeasurably. Candida's system for teaching music is the best thing ever contributed to music education."
http://www.stevedell.co.uk/2012/02/candida-tobin.html
http://tobinmusic.co.uk/content/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g52N56per2A
Anyway, I hope you at least consider it for an added feature.
Thanks for listening!
Jeff
Comments
You know the 'color notes' plugin , don't you?
In reply to You know the 'color notes' by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks so much for showing me that! I had no idea! Just downloaded the program yesterday and am fumbling around with it. AWESOME!!
I have been interested in getting the Tobin Music System colours in MuseScore for a few years.
Managed to alter one of the plugins myself.
A simple issue is not being able to distinguish between enharmonic notes.
Yesterday I created two files one to colour notes when the key contains flat and one for the sharp keys.
I have attached these files. They must have the .txt changed to .js and then copied to
C:\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore\plugins\
or
C:\Program Files\MuseScore\plugins\
Restart MuseScore if it was running.
I would love to make the plugin colour only the selected bars, staves or notes but my JavaScript coding isn't up to it.
In reply to Tobin Music System colours by James Brigham
Check other plugins how they go about working on a selection, or just have a look at http://musescore.org/en/plugin-development/how-plugin-development
To distinguish between enharmonic notes, doN#t sue notes.pitch but notes.tpc, see http://musescore.org/en/plugin-development/tonal-pitch-class-enum, note though that these run from -1 to 33
In reply to Check other plugins how they by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks for your quick response.
The note.tpc was the answer.
I don't need to make a selection now as the whole piece can be coloured at once.
I may look at applying a function to a selection just to see if I can do it.
In reply to Thanks by James Brigham
I've managed to create a QML plugin for Musecore 2.0 (RC at the moment of writing) that also provides the colours of the Tobin Music system.
See the attached plugin.
In reply to I've managed to create a QML by James Brigham
Now that the colornotes.qml plugin has been fixed to colour in the grace notes. I've redone the candidacolours.qml.
This latest fix also colours in the accidental symbols.
candidascolours.qml
In reply to Check other plugins how they by Jojo-Schmitz
@Jojo-Schmitz
I don't know where to report this but I see that despite a bit of code for colouring in the gracenotes in the colornotes.qml plugin for Musecore 2.0 the grace notes remain black on applying the plugin.
I am running Musescore 2.0 RC in Wine in Linux Mint.
In reply to @Jojo-Schmitz I don't know by James Brigham
I'll have a look, but for it to not get forgotten, please file an issue against that plugin
In reply to I'll have a look, but for it by Jojo-Schmitz
And indeed the fix has just been merged...
For me the coloured notation, one colour per note name would be great. I teach percussion ensemble and want the triangles on the top "F" line =blue, Castanets on 4th "D" line= green, Tambourines on 3rd "B" line =red, Drums on 2nd "G" line = brown, cymbals on bottom "E" line = yellow.
In reply to For me the coloured notation, by andrewsclan
That is what that plugin does
In reply to For me the coloured notation, by andrewsclan
@andrewsclan You could choose the relevant hex codes from here http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm#color-table
and then add them to the plugin I converted from the default colornotes plugin so it would colour notes according to their names e.g. all Cs are yellow whether C# or flat or double flat etc.
candidascolours.qml
I'll alter it for you if you want me to.
In reply to @andrewsclan You could choose by James Brigham
This is great. I'd just like to know if there's a way to assign color to percussion instruments instead of musical notes. For example: snare = red, hi-hat = yellow, bass drum = brown, etc.
In reply to This is great. I'd just like by Localist
You could do this by right clicking a note, going to Select / More / Same pitch, and then coloring the notes however you like.
In reply to You could do this by right by Marc Sabatella
That works. Thanks!
In reply to @andrewsclan You could choose by James Brigham
@jamesbrigham,
do you know if there's any way to apply a certain colour to a selection of notes? I'd like to pick a selection and assign a colour, not necessarily always the same colour for the same notes.
I'm rewriting a colourstrings book so it's a very basic stave (2 lines or even 1 sometimes) as it's solfa based.
The notes look always the same as the melody are played on one srtring, if you change the colour, the string is different.
BLUE for A string notes
ORANGE for D string notes
GREEN for G string notes
RED for red string notes
in the photo is the version for violin, I'm doing a cello version.
In reply to Hi James,… by Anna Marcossi
Use Selection https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes#shift-selection
eg. All similar https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes#all-similar-selection
Then Inspector (F8)
In reply to Hi James,… by Anna Marcossi
Bonjour,
Avez-vous depuis trouvé une solution ?
Un plugin ? Une adaptation de plugin ?
Je suis intéressée pour mes élèves de violon avec lesquels j'utilise Colourstring.
Merci pour votre réponse
In reply to Bonjour, Avez-vous depuis… by Barbaraviolon
Do you mean something like this?
![violon.png]()
If so, the attached plugins (based on the colornotes plugin) may help: they color a selection of notes. I do not think a plugin can ‘know’ which string is used in a serious piece. These are MU3.6 plugins and may not run in MU4.
In reply to @andrewsclan You could choose by James Brigham
Hi James, I am coming back to this again. I really have absolutely no computer knowledge, and really need something handed to me as basically as possible. Is there anyway you could step my through how to get the percussion score colours into my plug-in.
I do use the colornotes plug-in already for glockenspiel and bells, but would really like the percussion colors as well.
Heck yeah! Most of my music is in rainbow colors! :P Tee hee
On another note (cheesy pun I know), I also created a system to learn note reading on piano with shapes and colors as well as on the violin to learn how to note read music for people to be able to easily learn how to read notes...feel free to check it out if you'd like since it is related to music education. :) Here's a link to a video for a demo : )
https://youtu.be/f_p7Dc15HH0
My plan was to use 6 colours, one relating to each guitar string,
anyone know how to do this ?
Jerome
In reply to My plan was to use 6 colours… by jeromesguitar
You can do it using the "Inspector" panel to change the colour of the notes.
BUT... It is a manual operation (note by note). I don't know any automatic way to this into MuseScore.
Whatever, I've never seen something like this before (but I'm not an expert guitarist, he he he).
In reply to My plan was to use 6 colours… by jeromesguitar
Something like this...
In reply to My plan was to use 6 colours… by jeromesguitar
In version 2 there is a plugin for this for the cello. It shouldn't be too difficult to adapt it for Guitar.
In reply to My plan was to use 6 colours… by jeromesguitar
@jeromesguitar : Use the "Select same string" option then choose your colour using the Inspector. Repeat for all strings. Done.
I actually created a system to learn how to noteread on piano using shapes and colors. I made my own sheet music for it as well for 5 difficulty levels to eventually be able to read standard music.
I also created a 2nd ssystem for violin with shapes and colors and made colored sheet music of Suzuki violin songs (lightly row, for example) because Suzuki is a popular method many students use.
So if you Google "note read with shapes and colors" or "noteread music with shapes and colors Adria sorensen", you will find videos on YouTube that I created for people who want to learn music online...
I attached a file as an example for you.
Very well said Jeff. This move to a universal color coding system for musical notes has been going on for a very long time. The issue has always been that these two seemingly identical proportional languages have a great deal of anecdotal correlation between them, and a universal has been elusive. I believe that is changing, as there are mathematic and scientific correlations which point to a color "starting point", and just as I have been teaching my music color system for visual learners, for almost three decades now.
Check it out, you might like using it. http://www.musicalcolors.com
I've modified the Color Notes plugin once again to apply the Tobin Music Scheme colours in MuseScore 4.
Simply unzip the file candidascolours_MS4.0.zip to the MuseScore4/Plugins folder
Open MuseScore 4 and click on Home and then Plugins to enable it.
It is called Candida's Colours and has a row of the 7 colours on a white background - chosen to avoid any possible copyright comeback.