Adding a tempo mark always imposes a value of 80?
I find that when adding a tempo mark (via the palette) Musescore always sets the tempo to 80.
Is it possible to add a tempo mark (via the Tempo Palette) and have the newly added mark assume the tempo of the measure to which it's added?
For instance, if I have a score that's at a tempo other than 80, and I add a tempo mark to the beginning of the score, I've lost the original tempo I may have wanted to preserve. To avert this outcome I have to act proactively, first looking up the tempo in the Play Panel (I don't see it advertised anywhere else), then add the tempo mark and change the value (of the just-added tempo mark) back to the original tempo.
Am I missing something?
scorster
Comments
So if I have a score that's at a tempo other than 80...
Are you seeing a tempo marking like Moderato, Allegro, or do you mean something else?
In reply to So if I have a score that's… by Jm6stringer
Sorry I was unclear.
I was referring to the upper choices of the Tempo palette:
scorster
In reply to Sorry I was unclear. I was… by scorster
Forgot to mention, I think palette items like this are perfectly clear
... and such a presentation would be apt if the palette item's default function behaved according to my request (acquiring the numeric tempo from the current measure.)
scorster
I see no harm in adding this as a feature request.
Although I do think most people add a tempo marking because they want to change the actual tempo, not remind them (but then again, 80 is wrong as often as the current tempo will be).
You could consider copy-and-pasting the start tempo marking instead for the time being?
In reply to I see no harm in adding this… by jeetee
Jeetee wrote >> most people add a tempo marking because they want to change the actual tempo (but then again, 80 is wrong as often as the current tempo will be).
Right. I wanted to address that in the original post, but was short on time, and figured it would come up.
Say I'm pages into a score that it currently at tempo 100. I want a new temp and can tell it should go about 10% faster. When I click "Quarter = 80" Musescore enter a tempo of 80. (That has always struck me as odd, because I saw the "80" as a symbol and not as any literal tempo.) If Musescore bestowed the new tempo mark with the tempo of the current measure, it would enter 100 and I could easily calculate 110 as 10% faster.
Jeetee wrote >> You could consider copy-and-pasting the start tempo marking instead for the time being?
Sure. That's a reasonable workaround, but I'd still need to navigate the to start of the score ... or worse, in a score with several tempo changes I'd need to scan through the score to find the previous tempo change.
scorster
In reply to Jeetee wrote >> most people… by scorster
Then you don't want to get an empty tempo when you add the symbol, you want that MuseScore computes the number to display according to the current tempo and the symbol you are adding (which potentially gives us fractional tempo such as 66.6666)
Because what would be the added value of an empty tempo vs "80" anyway ? In both cases you would need to enter the desired speed without any clue about what was the "current" one
Apology: In rereading my initial post I see it was not my clearest writing. I’ve concluded that I should not post immediately after waking from only 4 hours of sleep.
I’ll now attempt to recap. Here goes:
Observation: When I add a tempo mark, by clicking a numeric tempo item in the Tempo palette, Musescore always sets the tempo numeric value to 80
Question/Request: Does Musescore have a feature that populates the “just added” tempo mark with the current tempo of the measure to which it was added? If not, please consider this to be a request.
Discussion:
jeetee wrote>> 80 is wrong as often as the current tempo will be).
Agreed.
80 is a static, brain-dead value which is nearly always different that the desired tempo. So it's value is truly minimal.
Whereas for me the current tempo (and thus a new tempo mark so populated) is:
a) often exactly what I want
b) a good reference for setting a desired tempo when I want to enter a tempo change. (80 provides no such reference.)
That said, regarding a), my request may surprise many, since a tempo mark is quite often added to show a tempo change. But as stated, the current tempo is very often what I’m after.
Reason 1 in support of a):
In pursuit of fully embracing Musescore I’m actively exporting decades of scores to MusicXML or MIDI (from other notation applications) and importing to Musescore. Most of those scores do not have a tempo mark of any sort. When I add a tempo mark using
… Musescore changes the tempo to 80, thereby overwriting the existing tempo of the score, so preemptively I need to check the score’s tempo, then enter the tempo mark, then change it back to the origianl tempo value. Granted, not a huge deal. But each time I perform this task I think, “There ought to be a way to enter a tempo mark that acquires the tempo of the existing measure.”
Reason 2 in support of b):
Say I'm several pages into a score and the tempo is currently 100 and I know I want the tempo to increase roughly 10% .
If Musescore populated the new tempo mark with the tempo of the current measure, in this example, it would show a value of 100. And with that reference I can easily calculate 110 as 10% faster. 80 provides no such reference.
These are two reasons why I'm requesting a feature to populate a newly added tempo with the tempo of the measure where is was added.
Official request and further discussion posted here: (#322325)
scorster
In reply to In rereading my initial post… by scorster
As per my comment in the suggestion you file to the issue tracker, I could see every once in in a while - probably about as often for most people as 80 happens to be the desired tempo - having the current tempo instead be the default could be useful But it still seems an incredibly rare corner case. In general most people add tempo marks to change the tempo. So while 80 might be correct only 1% of the time, defaulting to the current value is going to be correct even less often.
Also, overall, to me this is not different than the fact that palette icon for staff text reads "Staff Text". For those people who choose to add these symbols using the palette instead of simply using the documented shortcuts, it's got to say something, and having the palette icon be descriptive is good. even if it means you have to edit. Those who care about efficiency won't be using the palette anyhow, but it helps beginners find the elements while learning their way around.
So again, I'm not opposed to seeing an additional palette element to cover this rare corner case, but I'm having trouble seeing how it helps the average person at all, who will still need to change the tempo more often than not.
If the actual problem you are trying to solve is, "what's the current tempo", there is surely a better way to do that than add a dummy tempo marking. Like ideally, checking the play panel with something selected would tell you this.
In reply to As per my comment in the… by Marc Sabatella
Marc wrote >> In general most people add tempo marks to change the tempo.
Agreed, and I have stated this point
Marc wrote >>80 might be correct only 1% of the time
Yes, probably at most.
Marc wrote >>defaulting to the current value is going to be correct even less often.
I'll retract my request that it be the default behavior, unless someone else is able to pursuade.
Marc wrote >>Those who care about efficiency won't be using the palette anyhow, but it helps beginners find the elements while learning their way around.
There's a keystroke for all six flavors of numeric tempo marks?
So again, I'm not opposed to seeing an additional palette element to cover this rare corner case, but I'm having trouble seeing how it helps the average person at all, who will still need to change the tempo more often than not.
Marc wrote >>If the actual problem you are trying to solve is, "what's the current tempo", there is surely a better way to do that than add a dummy tempo marking.
?
I've never requested a dummy tempo marking. Only that Musescore offer a way of adding a new (fully fledged) tempo mark prepopulated with the current tempo mark value. Perhaps when I suggested this modification to the Tempo palette you thought I was looking for a way to insert a dummy tempo mark:
That was not my intent at all.
Marc wrote >>Like ideally, checking the play panel with something selected would tell you [the current temp].
I've posted that I use the Play Panel to determine the current tempo. And thanks to Steve Blower I'll also try using the Timeline.
Thanks for your interest and consideration on this matter.
scorster
In reply to Marc wrote >> In general… by scorster
Ctrl+Alt+T automatically chooses the correct note value - you don't need separate shortcuts. But since 80 is almost never what one wants, I'd actually be fine with simply changing the logic of the existing shortcut to default to filling in the current tempo. I just don't like the idea of changing the palette behavior here.