More Consistent Default Shortcuts and Solfeggio Option
I suggest the following as default keybindings, quite possibly somewhat more intuitive for a new learner, and faster and more intuitive for a regular user.
Navigation and Pitch Alteration:
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1) Use Plain Up/Dn to move CURSOR Up/Dn a note in a given chord, but ALT-Up/Dn to ALTer the PITCH of the selected note Up/Dn by a semitone. [This is more intuitive, since plain Left/Right move the CURSOR to Previous/Next note.]
2) Use CTRL-Up/Dn to move CURSOR to Top/Bottom notes of a chord, but CTRL-ALT-Up/Dn to ALTer the PITCH of the selected note Up/Dn by an octave. [This is more intuitive, since CTRL-Left/Right move the CURSOR to Previous/Next measure.]
Rationale: In both cases, the ALT- modifier is associated with ALTering PITCH, not moving CURSOR; and the CTRL-modifier with a "larger" sweep of movement than the ALT key itself. [Cfr EDIT Mode shortcuts.] Additionally, a Beginner intuitively thinks of plain Arrow keys universally as CURSOR movement keys at the lowest level (character/line). The Ubuntu user could change the Ubuntu system settings, perhaps, for Ctrl-Alt-Up/Dn?
3) Use the MINUS key to TOGGLE the selected note among the following options: Unmarked, to Sharp, to Flat, to Natural, to Unmarked. [This is like word processor toggles that swap selected text from As Is, to Initial Caps, to All Uppercase, to All Lowercase, to As Was. This would overcome the limitation of having AddSharp undefined.]
Adding Notes at Intervals Up/Dn:
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Use ALT-Number to add an interval Up, but SHIFT-ALT-Number to an an interval Down.
Rationale: Other shortcut combinations of two-directional action use the Key and Shift-Key pairings.
Adding Solfeggio Input:
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Let Unshifted J,K,L and U,I,O,P = Do, Re, Mi and Fa, Sol, La, Si -- entering notes at pitches according to the selected key signature. (Shifted- input would add these to the present chord.)
Rationale: Easier and faster. more keyboard-like note entry than thinking absolutely in terms of letter names, and jumping around the Qwerty A~G letter keys. Note: Leave A-G assigned as absolute pitch keys.
Comments
Note you can redefine most shortcuts yourself via Edit / Preferences / Shortcuts.
I personally don't think I'd like the defaults changed as you suggest. Especially #1. Surely changing pitch of a note - to create accidentals - is much, much more common than needing to move between notes within an already-entered chord. So I prefer having the more common operation be simpler to achieve. Similarly, regarding #2, changing needing to change octave of a just-added note is extremely common, but needing to jump to the top or bottom note of an already-added chord is much less so. For #3, it is much easier to simply define your own shortcut to add courtesy accidentals directly rather than having to laboriously hit one key over and over to cycle between them. But do note, these shortcuts are indeed only for courtesy accidentals (ones that are informative only and don't change the pitch). Normal accidentals are entered via up/down.
Regarding #4 - which keys do you mean that work with shift to reverse directly? Chord entry is the only one that comes to mind.
I do like the solfeggio input idea, although it seems pretty specialized - doubt many people would actually think to use it.
In reply to Note you can redefine most by Marc Sabatella
Interestingly, the first thing I do on any new MuseScore installation is to remap note enter keys to U, I, O, P, J, K, L as the default A, B, C, D, E, F, G keys make little sense to me and are in random places.
Clearly the U, I, O, P, J, K, L cluster must have some musical appeal if different users arrived at the same keys but, also clearly, huneger and I, we got it upside-down each other, as for me U - I - O - P is Do - Re - Mi - Fa and J - K - L is Sol - La - Si.
More seriously, about the proposed remapping, my instictive reaction is that huneger proposal is sensible and reasonable on paper, but Marc comment about frequency of use is rather compelling.
I myself use MuseScore primarily for Renaissance or Baroque music where chords are rare, so my judgement might be biased, but I assume Marc does a lot of piano music.
M.
In reply to Just a side note... by Miwarre
Just to make it clear, I believe remapping ABCDEFG to UIOPJKL is different than the proposal made by huneger. I believe he proposed to map Do to the first degree of the scale for the current key signature and not to the "C" note. So in C major, J would enter a C but in D major it would not.