Accents Above Notes
In regards to writing drum music, can accents/articulations be placed on top of the note a little bit above the note stem? Is there an easy way in MuseScore to do this? It is very easy to add accents/articulations underneath notes but I can't find an quick way to place them on top of note stems. (Even a ufermata will be placed on the note stem and above the note.)
Comments
Click and drag an existing accent to move it. You can also drag-and-drop accents onto the score at any distance in relation to the stem. See palette for details.
You can also set the default offsets for articulations and other objects in the Style settings. The offsets, I believe, are relative to the note-head.
I think one thing to work on for MuseScore would be a better default style.
In reply to You can also set the default by syastrov
Where are the default offsets located on the Style Page --> ??? --???. Thanks
In reply to Where by doctor_who_
My mistake, I was thinking of Text Styles, which you can set the offsets for.
Now that we're on the topic, though, do you think accents should be placed above the stem by default?
And are there any other articulations that should behave like that?
Or would you like something like a keyboard shortcut which would switch between close-to-note-head and above-stem positions?
Any other suggestions are welcomed.
In reply to My mistake, I was thinking of by syastrov
In a two-voice context the accents should be placed opposite the stems. In a single-voice context the close-to-the-note-head placement is correct.
When the accent or articulation is placed opposite the stem there should be space between the articulation and the stem. Overlap between elements reduces readability.
In reply to My mistake, I was thinking of by syastrov
I think using the same keyboard shortcut 'x,' as is used when changing the stem position, could allow the accents to be changed above the note stem or below the note head. If this is an option then the default position wouldn't matter so much. However, it would be nice to have the option to change the default distance above the note stem and below the note head that the articulations are placed independently in one of the setting menus just in case the default doesn't look right. The only comment that I have is that when articulations are placed above a note stem, they should actually be above the note stem and flag itself. If you were to add an ufermata to a note, the fermata gets placed on the note stem is a little hard to read.
Also, in relation to default settings is there an option to force all note stems to up so a user doesn't have to constantly use the 'x' key? Now that I think about it this option would also be nice for articulations.
In terms of staffs, is there any way to have the option of one line per staff? This would be very useful when writing percussion music. For example, a snare piece would only need one line as the other lines would be wasted if the snare part is a dedicated snare part.
When copying and pasting shouldn't crescendos, dynamics, etc. copy over as well?
In reply to No problem by doctor_who_
The keyboard shortcut you suggest sounds good to me. I agree about having a configurable default distance for articulations. I'll see if I can add this to the Style settings sometime soon. I'll check on the ufermata thing as well.
Also, in relation to default settings is there an option to force all note stems to up so a user doesn't have to constantly use the 'x' key? Now that I think about it this option would also be nice for articulations.
In a previous version, you could configure the stem directions in the Preferences dialog, but this doesn't take effect anymore; I don't know why it was disabled. I think a good behavior would be to use automatic stem direction for single-voice measures and then for polyphonic measures, follow the up/down/auto stem direction settings in Preferences. Although, some of those settings seem redundant. Why would anyone want automatic stem direction in a polyphonic texture? Perhaps, the auto option in that settings dialog could be removed, if you feel that's not hindering anything.
Regarding the articulations, would it not be sufficient to default them to follow the note stem direction, assuming the above is fixed?
In terms of staffs, is there any way to have the option of one line per staff? This would be very useful when writing percussion music. For example, a snare piece would only need one line as the other lines would be wasted if the snare part is a dedicated snare part.
You can change the number of lines per staff by right clicking on a measure and going to Staff Properties. I don't think the view refreshes itself, but you can see it is different if you append a new measure. I'm not sure how well supported this is though. Werner is working on better drum support right now, so I think we can expect some improvements. One of the instruments, the Triangle is one line by default. I'm not sure when this was added, but it is probably recent.
When copying and pasting shouldn't crescendos, dynamics, etc. copy over as well?
Copy and paste support for those things is not implemented. I made a list of all things that don't copy/paste correctly in case you're interested:
Lines, Dynamics, Grace notes, Breath marks, Clefs, Barlines, and Symbols anchored to the measure
Going through these and making them work is on my TODO list.
Hope that answered your questions.
In reply to Response by syastrov
Why would anyone want automatic stem direction in a polyphonic texture? Perhaps, the auto option in that settings dialog could be removed, if you feel that's not hindering anything.
I haven't used the polyphonic voices that much but I do agree that the automatic setting could be removed without losing any functionality, and more importantly ease of use of the program.
Regarding the articulations, would it not be sufficient to default them to follow the note stem direction, assuming the above is fixed?
Say for some reason a note was placed on A, B, or C below the staff, in treble cleff, and the note was facing up. If the articulation followed the direction of the stem then it would get covered up by the other lines on the staff. In this case, it doesn't make sense to place the articulation above the note but below it for clarity. Is there any way to make an algorithm to make sure that articulation don't hit the line, or minimize hitting the lines on the staff but still give the user the option to place the articulation above or below? I have seen some piano music where the articulations are placed above the note head while the note was facing down. Although in this case, the articulation, staccato dot, was in between the staff lines, which made it readable.
In reply to Follow Up Ideas by doctor_who_
Staccato and tenuto symbols are automatically adjusted to not collide with staff lines. The positioning of articulation signs depend on the sign itself. There are several variants possible which are selected from a mscore build in table. This table is not exposed to the user interface yet. It should be modifiable and part of the style. I also like the idea of implementing the "x" (exchange/flip) command for articulation signs to flip symbol position and the symbol itself.
In reply to No problem by doctor_who_
The one-line staff works but the half-note and whole-measure rests need adjustments (See the bug report for bar rests )
Do the following Style -> General -> Articulations, Ornaments -> Sforzato -> Above Staff. It seems this method does it automatically on the accents already placed, the ones you place after won't placed above the staff but a quick copy and paste will fix that.
Does anyone know how to do this in Musescore 3? The Style tab no longer has the option to put accents above notes.
In reply to Does anyone know how to do… by biancalaw
Select it (or all), use Inspector?
In reply to Does anyone know how to do… by biancalaw
You can create a custom palette and add a manually-flipped accent to it. See the Handbook under "Custom palette".