Piano: Half-Pedal

Anonymous
• Jul 2, 2014 - 19:31

The only options for pedal markings I seem to be able to find are for fully sustained pedal. I'm looking in the drop down menu "Lines," and in the "Symbols" menu. The lines that are available end at the end of the system, and do not extend into the next system--nor can I "interrupt" them with half-pedal (^) marks. To my knowledge that's the standard way to write 1/2 pedal.

Is this feature available somewhere I am not looking? Is there another way of writing 1/2 pedal that is possible in MuseScore?


Comments

Anonymous
Jul 2, 2014 - 20:31

In reply to by Shoichi

Though this is a lot of work for a symbol that doesn't look very elegant on the page. To my knowledge the 1/2 pedal marking with an upside down V (^), and the slanted lines as well, are standardized enough that they should be, as someone else suggested in that thread, their own type of line that is available in the menu.

Looking through the comments it looks like there isn't really a solution until 2.0 comes out?

In reply to by Anonymous

Just the one mentioned above.

BTW, this isn't real "half-pedal"; that's when you press the pedal half way down and leave it down. It's a "pedal change"; some may refer to it by others names still. There is no standard marking for true half-pedal, but some editors simply use a standard marking but write those words in.

Anonymous
Jul 3, 2014 - 02:44

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I realize this isn't standardized 100% across the board, but I was trained to think of the horizontal line as legato pedal, and then within that, "1/2 pedal" or "partial release" (^) -- okay so if we're getting technical here, that's 1/4 pedal :) -- when you want to partially release to still keep it legato. In the piece I'm working on, to really be true to what I'm playing I need to have both options (line w/ ^ and Ped/*). True, the composer has to just notate it in the instructions no matter what.

Perhaps the line with malleable points along it (you click on the point on the line where you want to insert the ^) can be included in the next update? Thanks!

In reply to by Anonymous

Yes, and to be clear, the standard marking for "pedal change" / "partial release" or whatever you want to call it is already impoemented for 2.0 and works well. It's different than you suggest - you build the line out of segments, each looking like

\________/

So when they are placed next to each other you get the carat.

Anonymous
Jul 3, 2014 - 20:03

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Btw I'm just getting back into notating my piano parts after a long vacation from any notation system, so I appreciate your patience with my hazy use of the terms in my question--my approach is still in reformulation and this has helped me get more specific about how I want to notate my pedaling.

Is 2.0 already available?

In reply to by Anonymous

2.0 is not released, no. But you can download a nightly build via the Downloads link in the menu at right of this page to experiment with - just heed the warnings about not relying on them for "real" work as there is no guarantee scores created with them will still open when the real 2.0 comes out - and they definitely won't open in 1.3 either.

In reply to the impossibility of indicating the half-pedal mark, I have encountered the same problem and, whilst we can continue to discuss technicalities, it still isn't possible to find a way round this - apart from tediously marking every bar with the sustain-pedal mark.

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