Is it possible to change all 1/4 notes to 1/8 notes

• Apr 28, 2022 - 09:11

I entered about 30 measures, all the notes as 1/4 notes.

However, let's say I change my mind (actually I made a mistake), and they all should be 1/8 notes. Is there a way to change all notes to 1/8 notes?

The way I tried was to select all notes in the staff, and then click on the 1/8 note on the note bar. Now all the 1/4 notes changed to 1/8 notes, but with also a rest right next to each 1/8 note. So I tried to remove those rests, but selecting all rests, and then right click to "Remove Selected Range" which is like a "hard remove" instead of changing it to a rest. However, nothing happens.

Is there a way to change all 1/4 notes to 1/8 notes?

This is my first try on a song, so I used GarageBand (that was before I know MuseScore) and then Logic Pro to export as MIDI, and then use MuseScore to edit it further. So my plan right now is to make all the 1/4 notes to 1/8 notes, and then export it as MIDI, and then let GarageBand take this new MIDI file. Otherwise, I may have to go to GarageBand and change each 1/4 note to 1/8 by hand by changing its width -- one by one -- or maybe there is a better way to do that. Thanks so much.

Comments

• Apr 28, 2022 - 18:13

that is such a nice solution. Thank you.

Is it true that "Delete" always change it to a rest, while "Remove Selected Range" can "take the whole thing out without leaving a gap", but it has to be a consecutive range? Is there something that can do the same even if the selection is not a consecutive range?

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• Apr 28, 2022 - 19:03

Plain Delete erases notes and reveals silence (rests). Remove Selected Range (also accessible as CTRL+Delete) removes duration - making the whole score shorter - and takes notes and rests with it. If Remove is used on a range that includes only part measures you will end up with fewer beats in a measure than are indicated in the time signature. Remove Selected Range only operates on a range selection (as the name if the command indicates) and there can only be one (contiguous) range selection at any time.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/selection-modes

and

https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/tools#timewise-delete

and

https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/note-input#delete-notes

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• Apr 29, 2022 - 14:11

It's not clear what you mean by this, it would be impossible in general to remove beats from, say, the RH of a piano part but not the LH for the same measure, etc. The operation works on one range at a time, across all staves. Picking and choosing individual beats of individual measures across individual staves wouldn't make sense in this content.

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• Apr 29, 2022 - 23:10

If they are all rests on both staves, why not make it a range selection? I'm not picturing the real world use case here. If you attach a sample score and explain in more detail the special circumstances that are leading you to want to do this, that might help us understand.

If you're just trying to fix an error where you entered quarter notes than changed them all to quarters manually without using paste half duration, the solution is to simply undo that and then use paste half duration normally. or select the notes only and then correct the duration.

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• Apr 30, 2022 - 02:27

Yes, so exactly what I said - if you make that mistake, just undo then run half duration as you meant to do in the first place. Or if you’ve for some reason closed the file and thus lost the ability to undo, just change back to quarter notes same way you changed to eights, then run the correct command.

No need to design a whole new command just to provide an alternate fix for a rare and easily undone error. Especially since, as I said, while this particular corner case might be one where the behavior could at least seem to be possible, when you consider the more general cases like I mentioned, it would be completely impossible.

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