Clef has a mind of it's own.
Hello, I have a weird problem. I wrote a piece of piano music. I saved it, but when I opened it back up, the upper stave starts with a treble clef but has switched to bass clef here and there for a few bars and back to treble clef all through the piece and visa versa for the bass clef. I then replace the bass clefs in the upper stave with treble clefs and visa versa in the lower stave and save it, but when I open it back up, the clefs are all crazy again. I wish the upper stave to stay treble clef and the lower stave to stay bass clef all through the piece because the treble clef notes are played with the right hand and the bass clef notes are played with the left hand. As it is now, it is not playable.
Thank you for insight as to how to correct this problem.
Comments
Please share the score file so it may be inspected.
My best guess is that you are actually opening a MIDI file, not the score itself, and the clef changes are the ones inserted automatically. But as mentioned, if you attach your score, we can say with more certainty.
BTW, note that based on your description, you shouldn't have replaced the bass clefs with treble, but simply deleted them. Replacing them still leaves unnecessary clef 'changes" that you don't want.
In reply to My best guess is that you… by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
Thank you for your feedback. Hmm, well that's very interesting. I recently bought a DAW and I have converted a number of my pieces to midi (which I not very familiar with). However, I've had to go back and forth between Cuibase and Musescore, as I find Musescore more user friendly and intuitive and thus better for composing than a key editor. Both have their advantages of course. You have hit the nail on the head, for some reason the transfer to midi and back must be the problem. I realize this might be outside the scope of Musescore but would you happen to know why Cubase/midi would mess up the clefs, and if so, what might I do to prevent this problem? Also, while I have your attention (and thank you for that), you no doubt can tell from my composition that I am an untrained amateur and thus, as an example, I'm not sure what key I'm in. But more importantly, problems have arisen due to the fact that I find it much easier to write at high BPMs, 280 to 360 is my range. Is there any way to automatically half the BPM and have the piece remain at the same speed, 1/2 notes become 1/4 notes and so forth. I realize that, assuming there is a way to do this, there would still be a lot of manual cleaning up to do.
In reply to Hi Marc, Thank you for your… by staples77
Sorry, here is the .mscz file
In reply to Sorry, here is the .mscz file by staples77
I think I've found a solution. I can copy the treble clef part to a separate new file and create a midi file from that, do the same with the bass, and line them up in the DAW. There is also a 'part export' in Musescore but it doesn't appear that I can split the piano staffs into parts, which is interesting because when I drag and drop the Musescore created midi piano piece into the DAW, the DAW splits it into a separate treble and bass midi tracks, which is fine, and desirable, except that the part is messed up because the midi has automatically switch the clefs here and there and back again. Perhaps by dragging and dropping the treble and bass parts independently I can avoid this problem. I'll try it now and report back.
In reply to Hi Marc, Thank you for your… by staples77
Select All > Cut > Paste Half Duration > Change tempo markings
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/copy-and-paste#paste-half-double-dura…
During MIDI import, you have the option to uncheck "Cleff Changes" for the imported tracks
In reply to Select All > Cut > Paste… by jeetee
Wow, thank you JT, 'Paste Half Duration' worked perfectly! Musescore has become so sophisticated, it really is extraordinary! It really can do just about everything. You would think, given the number of times I've cut and paste etc, I might of noticed Paste Half Duration and Paste Double Duration staring right at me, hundreds if not thousands of times. Go figure!
In reply to Wow, thank you JT, 'Paste… by staples77
Not surprising, you don't see the menu when you press ctrl+v and paste half/double aren't in the context menu.
In reply to Wow, thank you JT, 'Paste… by staples77
Not sure how long you'd used MuseScore, but we only added that command around a year ago.
In reply to Hi Marc, Thank you for your… by staples77
MIDI has no concept of musical notation, it only knows pitch. So, no concept of clefs, not even the difference between C# and Db. Exporting to MIDI means you throw away that information, as well as tons more (eg, the difference between a staccato quarter and an eighth note followed by an eighth rest, and on and on and one). You shouldn't be using MIDI to represent notation. It's a way of getting info from a DAW into a notation program, but you should then leave it in the notation rpgram from then on, not exporting to MIDI again unless you need to play it in the DAW again, but also kee the MSCZ file which has the notation - the notation is thrown away creating the MIDI because MIDI has no concept of notation. Meaning re-importing that MIDI you will lose all the notation work you did.
So, it's not that Cubase "messed up" the clefs - it simply said nothing about them because MIDI has no way of doing so. MuseScore made its best guess, and you corrected it, but if you then exported to MIDI, you asked MuseScore to throw away that work.
BTW, the clefs MuseScore chose here are actually quite logical. There might be a couple of places here and there I'd have made different choices as a professional editor, but doing the whole thing with treble on top and bass on the bottom would probably not be my choice.
In reply to MIDI has no concept of… by Marc Sabatella
When you import a MIDI file, BTW< you can uncheck the "clef changes" box and that will force MuseScore to stick to one clef.
Thank you gentlemen for all your help! Two significant issues I was having are resolved.