Balalaika's 2 'e's strummed (open strings) results in 2 noteheads on staff - not conventional notation

• Aug 15, 2014 - 05:53

The prima balalaika has 2 'e' strings and an 'a' string. When the two (open) 'e' strings are strummed, musescore notates this with 2 noteheads on on stem, which is correct. Thing is, this particular combination of notes is so common that it results in a score very cluttered with double noteheaded and one stemmed 'e's.

In the attachment 'balalaika-E-and-A-musescore' illustrates the above:
1st Bar - EEA strummed open strings - E has two noteheads.
2nd Bar - 5th fret of both 'e' strings (gives 'a') plus an 'a' open string strummed. Conventional balalaika notation seems to notate this the same way as musecore is, in this case.

To show how the the double 'e' situation is handled, please see attachment 'p23_excerpt-Dorozhkin' (Elementary Balalaika...). It shows when TWO open 'e' notes are strummed on the two neighbouring strings, it is only notated with ONE notehead.

When the a string open + e string fret 5 (a) and the 2nd e string fret 5 (a) is sounded, THIS, however, notates as a single stem with two noteheads.

This seems hold true as the fretboard progresses eg 3rd fret, the 2 'e' strings would sound 2 'g's but would not result in a double noteheaded 'g'.

Is there a way Musescore's preferences settings can be setup in such a way so that the user can choose to enable/disable this method of notation?

The version of Musesore I have using is the Nightly for V2.0.0 Revision: 25f25dd.... things may have changed since then.

I am still a beginner - maybe someone with more balalaika experience may be back me up / contradict my view.

I may not be able to respond to your replies immediately, but will do so as soon as I am able.

Attachment Size
balalaika-E-and-A-musescore.gif 17.72 KB
p25_excerpt-Dorozhkin.gif 105.23 KB

Comments

Thanks for reporting this.

Unfortunately I don't see how we can make this happen without affecting the other instruments.

All I can suggest is that you use X to flip one of the noteheads to the other side of the stem so that both occupy the same space.

HTH

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Hello,
I thought about different solutions. I offer you two:

The first:

I took the first measure of your file 2.
first measure .jpg

So, with MuseScore:

- Enter notes of the first E string in Voice 2.
1Voice2.jpg

- Then fill the other two strings in Voice 1

3Voice1.jpg
- After removing the notes values in the Tab staff, you get this. A pretty good result, is not it? I tried to change the direction of stems (each one, or by similar elements, but it does not work because the note heads reappear)

5Voice1.jpg

The second:

- Enter all notes in Voice1
- Then, select Double Notes (Ctlr + click on each note)

Inspector.jpg

- Use Inspector (F8), and enter the specified value (-1,20sp).
- The result is excellent. The stems are in the same direction. But that's probably longer to implement if your score is important.

2Inspector.jpg

- I also thought about the solution of the invisibility of one of the two notes. But I came across a big surprise! Or, a very specific little bug? I don't know very well. I will tell later :)

Attachment Size
first measure .jpg 12.67 KB
1Voice2.jpg 8.15 KB
3Voice1.jpg 8.67 KB
5Voice1.jpg 6.24 KB
Inspector.jpg 9.52 KB
2Inspector.jpg 25.29 KB

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.