Inserting a note

• Sep 11, 2017 - 18:00

I read the handbook's guide to note input (https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input), but I haven't found (there or via Google) how to insert a note. "Add note" adds a second pitch to the same stem, i.e. another note at the same time. I'm not asking about an additional voice. If my score has notes C,D,F,G how can I insert E? One forum post () says there is a command to not only Add a note, but also to Insert a note. I can't find any such command to Insert a note - can you?

Comments

• Sep 11, 2017 - 18:11

If by insert you that you want to end up with 5 notes in succession, C, D, E, F, G, then this doesn't work in MuseScore, there is no insert mode like in a text editor, you'd need to use cut and paste

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• Sep 11, 2017 - 18:23

See the replies to your other question on increasing duration. Exactly the same issue here: mUseScore has no way of reading your mind to guess how many subsequent notes you might want to shift later to make room for an inserted note. So if you have some notes you know you want to move later, use cut & paste to make this explicit.

Some day there may indeed be an insert command added that will make some sort of guess as to how many notes you want to move and what you want to do about the odd man out at the end of the moved region. From experience with other programs that provide such a "insert mode with guessing as to what to move" I can say it will guess right some small percentage of the time, and the rest of the time you will spend more time repairing the damage than had you simply used cut and paste in the first place :-)

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• Oct 26, 2017 - 00:44

Welcome aboard...

You wrote: How does one - in effect - insert a note after a rest at the end of a bar?

In 4/4, if it's a quarter rest that falls on the fourth beat of the measure - at the end of the bar - you won't be able to insert notes into that bar after the fourth beat and still honor the time signature.

So...
Please be more specific as to the time signature (i.e. how many beats in the measure) and on what beat the rest falls.
Better still is to attach the score or a sample file, showing your dilemma.

Regards.

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• Oct 26, 2017 - 06:43

Also, if by insert a note after a rest at the end of a bar, you mean you want to skip over the rest (i.e. the one MuseScore adds to complete the bar) and you want to add a note to the next existing bar, then press the right arrow key once or twice to move the note entry cursor into the next bar.

Rests are usually entered using the default 0 (zero).
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#basic-note-entry
and:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#enter-pitch

Regards.

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• Oct 26, 2017 - 14:40

As long as we're guessing:

Maybe he really just wants to add to add a note at the end of the measure, not actually after the existing rest but replacing the last portion of it. For instance, in 4/4 time in a measure containing the default full measure rest, maybe the goal is to place a quarter nkte on beat 4.

If so, then answer is don't, enter what you want left to right just as you'd read it. you need three bears of rest - a half rest followed by a quarter rest - and then the e. So enter it in exactly that order. First a half rest, then a quarter rest, then the quarter note. These will replace the existing full measure rest.

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• Oct 26, 2017 - 20:50

I think what I was trying to do was Paste a sequence of notes to after the last rest of a bar. From what I read above, that's impossible, because the last rest is generated after such operations are complete.

(I know some about music, but not even to the level of playing an instrument.)

(I've been working to figure out the motif(?) in the music for the TV show, Homeland. With the help of ... the sonogram application ..., I've gotten pretty close. See attachnebt - which is really a .mscz file.)

Attachment Size
..Homeland Motif 4.gif 8.36 KB

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• Oct 26, 2017 - 23:41

After the last rest of a bar is the start of the next bar, so that's where you should be pasting. Maybe you mean, you don't want to overwrite what's already in the next measure, but instead you want to insert new measures? For that, see Add / Measures.

If that's not what you mean, please attach the actual score you are having trouble with - not just a picture - and describe more precisely what exactly you want to do. Not sure what the file you attached was, but I couldn't access it.

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• Oct 27, 2017 - 18:54

Thank you.
As I tried to say, it's a .mscz file, not a .gif as it says it is. Just change the extension to .mscz, and it'll play in MuseScore. Hope you like the tune as much as I do.
(That score doesn't have the problem; I finally managed to do what I wanted to do - somehow. Next time, I'll use your method.)
Hard to get a feel for MuseScore's mindset / worldview.

I'd appreciate any comments you might have on the weirdness of my score. There's bound to be some, because all I wanted to do was to get it to sound right (to my ears).

Thanks again.

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• Oct 27, 2017 - 19:04

FWIW, the problem was that I could not download it in the first place. I was expecting to have to change the extension. But FWIW, MSCZ is allowed. my guess is you accidentally tried to upload the backup file, which ends "MSCZ," (note the comma).

Without knowing more about what you were actually trying to do, I can possibly help with "mindset". To MuseScore, music consists of a series of notes and rests each of which happens at a specific point in time. When you speak of "inserting" a note, what you probably really mean is that you wish to replace whatever was going to happen at that point in time with this new thing, and to take whatever was happening at that point in time and move it to some other (later) point in time. That's fine, you just need to be explicit about what you want to move and how far you want to move it. Cut and paste is the way to tell MuseScore "here and the notes I want you to move, and here is where I want you to move them". After moving the original contents of that time position to the later position, then you can put your new note into the original time position.

It's not unlike how it would work if these notes were physical objects laid out in a row on a table with no gaps between them. If you want to insert something into the row, you first need to physical pick up the objects that are already there move them somewhere else.

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• Oct 27, 2017 - 19:08

I can't access this either. not sure, but it could be that you again attempted to uplaod a backup copy of the score. I think that is true because it starts with a period. Looks like you took the backup copy and removed the trailing comma, but left the leading period. You could remove the period, but that's not going to really help - now you'll just have successfully uploaded the wrong file. Look for the version that doesn't begin with a period and end with a comma.

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• Oct 27, 2017 - 20:03

yes, this won't open .xxx.mscz files. I don't see any reason for that, since MuseScore likes them fine, but...

here's another try

What I've been trying to do - at the top level - is transcribe(?) part of a theme from the Homeland TV series. I found it haunting, but just could not do a good transcription myself - it always turned out sounding like children's music.

I very much appreciate your resposiveness and help!

Attachment Size
Homeland Motif 4.mscz 8.31 KB

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