Tie Note Across Staves? (& Good Practice Notation Question)
Question 1: I'm transcribing a piece which requires that I tie a note across staves, from the bass staff to the treble staff. As far as I can tell, there is no way to do this with MuseScore. Am I missing something?
I am just curious to see whether there is an existing feature to do this. If it is not possible to tie notes across staves, that's okay; I've found a work-around which functions both for playback and the notation.
For others trying to tie notes across staves:
1. Use a slur for the tie, since it is possible to cross staves with a slur.
Then, for playback:
2. Disable playback for the note the slur is connected to (the note you are tying to, in the other staff).
3. In the same staff as the note you are tying from, create a copy of the note you are tying to.
4. Tie the two together; since they are on the same staff, this works.
5. Set the second note and the tie invisible.
See attached score and/or the following image for example:
Red arrows indicate the two notes which need to be tied and the slur which I used as a tie, while blue arrows indicate the invisible note and invisible tie used for playback.
Question 2: What is the best way to notate the music in the following examples?
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 1 uses many voices and many rests, but fewer notes. Example 2 uses one voice and fewer/no rests, but more notes. Which is most understandable? Or is there a third, better way?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Tied Note Example 2.mscz | 8.41 KB |
Comments
I don't think either one of them is very clear, mostly even because of the octave shifting going on. The major reason for wanting to write it this way imo is to hint at which hand should play which note, something that can be done by other means anyhow (and is subject to the performer in the end anyway).
![240856_chord_buildup.png]()
A minimal of extra notes, no other voices, clearer buildup.
In case that you ever do need a tie across staves (within the same instrument). This can be done when using cross-staff notation. Enter all notes in staff with their ties. Then move one of those notes into the other staff according to the methods of https://musescore.org/en/handbook/cross-staff-notation
In reply to I don't think either one of by jeetee
Thank you! The cross-staff tying works as you said, and the notation for chord build-up is also very clear and useful.
I've come across the same issue as described above,and also with a stave-crossing set of grace notes, as shown below. I tried creating replacing the treble chord with a bass chord in another voice, but then got caught by Musescore not-allowing ties across voices, so I gave up and used the tie+play disable workaround.