How to format the length of multi-measure rests
I was able to use the multi-measure rest function to have multiple measures with only rests in one measure. However, the length of the measure becomes too long for the 6 rests (and 20 rests before the end of the section), nothing resembling the length in the handbook. Therefore, I am wondering how I can reformat the size of the multi-measure rest?
Thanks,
vg
Comments
Select the multimeasure rest measure, then decrease stretch.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#layout-stretch
In reply to Select the multimeasure rest… by Jm6stringer
Thanks. It does narrow the width a bit, but still not much. I was hoping that it would like more like standard sheet music.
In reply to Thanks. It does narrow the… by littlecowsmom
It's important to understand there is no single standard for length. MuseScore does something that matches how some publishers do it; others are more conservative. Probably we should provide some sort of style setting that controls how we do this. Meanwhile, if you continue to have trouble with reducing stretch after making sure you have removed line breaks, then if you attach your score here we can advise further.
In reply to It's important to understand… by Marc Sabatella
Hello! Following up the thread of 6 ago, I have been having a similar problem and the only way I found so far to fix that is daunting... would you be able to advise on HOW I can keep the same length of my measures?? Every time I enter new notes to the new bars (measures) it stretches my score and the next bar can take up the whole length of the stave! Decreasing it every time manually takes so much time! As well as lessening the number in the properties of the bar... no matter how I tried I could not find a way to fixate the length of measures...
In reply to Hello! Following up the… by Coobligan
Get rid of all the system breaks, enter your notation, then format the score.
Please attach your score if you need more specific help.
Regards.
In reply to Hello! Following up the… by Coobligan
This thread is about multimeasure rests, sounds like you are talking about ordinary measures? Normally it is considered bad engraving practice to have measures the same length unless they have the second rhythmic contents, so you really shouldn't be messing with this at all - the default sizes should be correct as is. But there are few very special exceptions, such as music intended for small children, where it can be desirable to force measures to have the same width. So if that applies to you, then indeed, wait until you are done entering the music, then do what you need to.
In the menu Style->General there is an option on the score page that allow you to set the minimum width of a multi-measure rest. I suspect that it has more to do with the number of measures on the line with the rest and MuseScore is trying to even out the measure widths. Reducing the stretch for all of the measures you want on the line might allow more measures on the line with the rest. You may need to put a line break on the line before to prevent measures at the beginning of the line from moving up a line.
In reply to In the menu Style->General… by mike320
Thanks. It works a little bit, but the horizontal spacing still seems to be very long. It might have to be addressed by the development. It would be great if there is standard width and the number of the measures will simply be indicated by the number above it.
In reply to Thanks. It works a little… by littlecowsmom
Upload a sample so we can look at it. Maybe there's something else we can do.
In reply to Upload a sample so we can… by mike320
Thank you so much for the follow-up. After posting the report, I monkeyed around with both methods (i.e. the style>score>multi-measure rest margin and the layout>stretch>decrease). I found out that using the combination of both methods works the way I wanted it to be. In addition, my earlier problem was due to line break format. If I don't arbitrarily forcing the number of measures in each line using line breaker, I was able to resize the multi-measure rest to my liking.
Again, thank you very much for the help. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and bargain-gained Black Friday!