Can't drag a clef to beginning measure

• Jun 14, 2013 - 04:25

I give up. Clef won't stay put. I drag it to the measure, but it pops right back to the template. How do I place a treble clef into a measure? Thank you.

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 04:59

It would be preferable to have more information (operating system, version of Musescore) and maybe the score attached.
The treble clef is valid (implicitly) for the whole staff;
Drag another from the palette, eg treble clef 8, release when the measure changes color, and it should work.
(sorry, just google translator)

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 05:12

The key is to release it when the measure changes color. It is the same wth most palette items when using drag and drop. Althoug note drag and drop is seldom necessary. For most items, simply clicking where you want the item to appear, then doubke clicking the palette item does the job. For a clef, that means clicking an empty spot n the measure to selectrhe whole measure, then double clicking the clef.

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 11:07

I'm still unable to make a clef, any clef from the palette, appear in the measure. Tried Shoichi's suggestion, too. I highlight the measure so that a blue line appears around its perimeter, click and drag a clef to the beginning of the measure, release the mouse button, but a clef never appears in the measure. See included screen to see what the page looks like before I try to drag a clef. I'm using a Mac running OS 10.7.5

Attachment Size
Screen Shot 2013-06-14 at 5.58.40 AM.png 33.38 KB

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 14:05

It seemt indeed difficult to drag a cled into an empty measure (containing nothing but a whole rest)...
If you drag it to the empty space right at the start of the measure, it does work though.

It may not show at that measure, if it is the first mearure in the line, but only as the last thing in the previous line, as you have turned off the 'show clef in every system'
And for the same reason it won't show at all if it is the same clef as in the previous line

I think generally you'd want clef and key sig in every system, not only in the first?

Attachment Size
Folsom_Prison_Blues.mscz 1.94 KB

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 15:23

Note if you want the clef change to appear at the beginning of a measure and want to use drag & drop rather than selecting the measure and double clicking the icon, you always have to drag it to the beginning of the measure. Otherwise the clef will appear mid measure - at the specific location where you dropped it. So in that sense, it does seem consistent that you need to drag to the beginning of the measure to get a start-of-measure clef change whether the measure is empty or not. But I agree it seems odd that isn't also possible to drop elsewhere. I guess it is assuming you are trying to do a mid-measure clef change but can't figure out where exactly to place it.

As for why someone would elect to turn off clefs and key signatures, I agree it's a very bad idea. But some college students made that mistake once when producing a fakebook back in the 70's, the fakebook caught on, and now lots of people seem to want to copy that style. It works OK for very simple lead sheets - ones that never have more than one staff, and never change key. I suppose it saves a bit of real estate and thus makes it slightly easier to fit four measures per line in some cases. But it's kind of disastrous for readability any time here are clef or key changes. I see this leading reading errors time and time again on the bandstand. So I always recommend keeping the clefs and key signatures and not emulating to copy this aspect of some fakebooks - the small amount of saved space is just not worth the increased potential for reading errors.

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• Jun 14, 2013 - 15:12

Not sure which specific bit of advice you are referring to when you ask where to find it documented. There were several things mentioned, all of which pitentially could have helped:

- the fact that drag and drop requires the target to be highlighted when you drop
- the fact that you can select target and double click icon instead of dragging icon to target
- the fact that you for some reason had turned off display of clefs, and therefore simply weren't seeing the clef changes you were inserting, because you explicitly asked not to see them

It kond of seems you are asking aout the the third tip here. I doubt the manual mentions that possibility, because a) most people would never turn that option off in the first place, and b) it would be assumed that anyone who explicitly turned it off would already know they had done so.

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• Jun 15, 2013 - 05:21

Drag and drop is never turned off. The option in question simply controls whether clefs appear at the beginning of a line or not. It has nothing to do with drag and drop. It only *seems* to be related because with the option turned off, the drag and drop creates a clef that you can't see. That is, the clef is changing but isn't displayed. You can tell the clef changed by adding notes, plus you'll see the courtesy clef at the end of the previous line.

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• Jun 15, 2013 - 15:05

I had nothng to do with that template - only the jazz ones - but assume it was intentional. As I mentioned, in some circles, leaving off clefs and key signatures for simple lead sheets is considered OK. In fact, I suspect this use case is probably the main reason MuseScore even provides the option, particularly for key signatures.

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• Dec 4, 2013 - 01:35

the way I add clef signs, etc. to each system is 1. STYLE 2. PAGE 3. LOOK AT OPTIONS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MENU (AFTER PAGE FILLED THRESHOLD) 4. CHECK THE OPTIONS YOU WANT.

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