Rest disposition in compound meters.

• Oct 25, 2018 - 07:23

Is there a way to group the rests in a 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 meters logically (dotted quarter note rests instead of simple quarter or half note rests)? Even changing grouping configuration they are not set in a natural way and it takes a long time to modify them.
Thank you very much to everybody!


Comments

While I agree that having these rests handled automatically might be nice, I think you are probably going about things wrong if it is taking a long time to modify them. You shouldn't really be thinking about modifying them at - you should simply enter the rests you want, left to right, exactly as you enter rests at the beginning of a measure, or how you enter notes, or how you'd enter these rests if there weren't already rests placed automatically. That is, it takes precisely the same amount of time to enter dotted quarter note followed by dotted quarter rest as it does to enter the rest followed by the note, or just two notes.

In reply to by zabalza.asier

True, but to be clear: my point is, it's exactly the same number of operations as it would be if the rests came before the note, or if those rests were notes instead.

BTW, MuseScore can automate this for you, although it's still a few extra steps. Try entering just the eighth, then select the measure and click Layout / Regroup Rhythms. You could enter a whole passage this way, with the wrong default rests, then correct them all in one go.

Anyhow, it's kind of weird to me that we've come to expect not having to enter certain rests even though we totally expect to have to enter other rests, and obviously we totally expect to have to enter notes. It's not unlike being given a free lunch on weekdays then complaining we don't also get it on weekends :-).

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for the tip on "Regroup Rhythms"! I've added a keyboard shortcut which enables this to be solved without too much workflow interruption.

But I have to disagree on the principle. In 4/4 time, if I enter a quarter note on beat one, the rest of the measure is automatically filled with rests that look good. I don't have to go through and enter the rests manually to make it look right. MuseScore does what I would expect. But in 12/8 time, if I enter a dotted quarter on beat 1, now the rest of the measure looks like poop until I clean it up. That's not a feature, that's an opportunity for MuseScore to work even better.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Ahh I think I slightly misunderstood the original issue. I am indeed seeing quarter, eighth as you say. My issue is that I would expect to see dotted quarter rests and dotted half rests fill the rest of the measure [see attached example]. The reason I would expect that as normal behavior is that when you select the measure and Regroup Rhythms, this is what the result is. Therefore it seems like MuseScore considers that to be the most appropriate way to fill the measure.

Attachment Size
musescore 12_8 example.png 98.76 KB

In reply to by chrismcqueenmusic

Really, there isn't a ton of agreement on the best way to represent rests in triple or compound meter, but just about anything is better than what we used to do. And yes, it seems the two different algorithms produce different results. I'd look at that as a feature - you choose the appropriate methdo based on the results you prefer :-)/

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