How can I change the beam type? (E.g. make something beamed as 16th notes to look like 8th note beaming)
Right now I'm writing a piece and want to use a non-standard time signature (9/20 in this instance), but I want the first beat, which is eighth notes in a quarter-note pulse, represented as a 2:5 tuplet, to appear as 8th notes. However, the tuplet automatically represents this as sixteenth note beaming, which I feel looks more confusing and makes less sense than if it were eighth-note beaming. How can I change the beam to look appropriate for the note length here, or otherwise how can I get rid of extra horizontal beams at will?
Below is a screenshot of the measures I'm working with (Bottom two staves are piano, top staff resting is flute). The phrase on the right in 4/4 is exactly what I want the 9/20 into 4/4 phrase on the left to sound like (the F# in the right hand being the beginning of a new measure). On the right you can see the first quarter-note beat is just two eighth notes -- I want that visually to be how the 2:5 in the 9/20 measure to look. I don't want to use a measure of 1/4 and I feel that a measure of 4/20 doesn't properly convey the metrical phrasing.
| Attachment | Size |
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| musescore tuplet issue.png | 44.5 KB |
Comments
I can probably make it happen but I'd need to use your actual score since a true 9/20 time signature is not possible in MuseScore but rather you are changing the display of a legal time signature.
Beamtype change from 16th to eighth: decrease Grow left and right to zero.
The right rhythmic distribution - vertical alignment - obviously needs some calculating to get the X- and Y-offsets right. Experiment also with the leading space.
Ok, not to divert attention from the topic, because I’d like to know how to do this, but... and I say this as a percussionist who has played, Cage, Xenakis, Crumb, etc... what the heck is 9/20 supposed to mean? Whatever you’re trying to accomplish can be done with a 16 or a 32 on the bottom. You can still have odd groupings of notes (5+4 or 3+2+2+2) and not have to explain the the performer that an 8th note isn’t really an 8th note.
Without understanding more about what you are trying to do or why, I can't guarantee this is what you want, but in "normal" situations you can control whether notes are displayed as eighths or sixteenth or whatever using Add / Tuplets / Other and choosing the most appropriate ratio. For example, in 4/4 with quarter note as the full duration, 3:2 would display eighths, 3:4 would display sixteenths.
When I use tuplets of 10 or more, the display is very crude and without beams. I can't find anything in the properties to correct this. Is it a font setting?
In reply to When I use tuplets of 10 or… by smith2735
It’s hard to say much from just a picture,
But if you attach the score itself and say where the problem occurs, we can understand and assist better.
In reply to It’s hard to say much from… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc, it's measure 184 in the attached, but the problem is common to any time I use large number tuplets.
In reply to Thanks Marc, it's measure… by smith2735
These are without beams because the ratio is set to make these quarter notes. You selected a half note total duration and entered a ratio of 14:2. That ratio says "14 notes in the space of 2", and the note value for which 2 equals a half note is the quarter note. If you wanted them to appear like eighths, you should enter a ratio of 14:4, because there are 4 eighths in a half note. Or for sixteenth, enter 14:8, because there are 8 sixteenths in a half note. Showing this as quarters is not really good, but would be possibly acceptable if you showed the bracket - however, it appears you disabled that. You don't need the bracket if you use note values that are beamed, but you do when not using a beam.
In reply to These are without beams… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc, I hadn't gathered the significance of the second number in the tuplet set-up screen. Sorry I didn't reply earlier but I lost the thread.