Adding Submeasures
Not sure if that is the correct term I am looking for above.
I'm currently writing out an already existing marching percussion score for the upcoming season but wanted to make the drum break longer without altering the measure numbers. Is there a way to do that? I read a little bit about irregular measures but I don't think that is what I'm looking for. If it is, I'm confused about how to do it.
TIA!
Comments
It's not really clear to me what you mean. Can you attach your score and describe what you want in more detail? If it's just adding extra beats to a measure without changing the time signature, right-click the measure, Measure Properties, and change the actual duration. But I can't imagine that being a good idea for marching music, where it's more crucial than usual to maintain correct counts.
In reply to It's not really clear to me… by Marc Sabatella
I haven't finished writing out all the parts from the base material yet, but here it is so far.
The drum break is from measure 16 to the downbeat of measure 20. I want to add 8 more measures without changing where measure 20 is so like measure 19A, 19B, and so on. Does that make more sense?
In reply to I haven't finished writing… by Jenna N. Foley
It makes sense in that now I understand better what you are asking for now. I am still not sure why, seems this would just throw off anyone trying to calculate how many measures a given passage is. But maybe it's because you are trying to match the measure numbers to a different arrangement? Anyhow, just right-click a measure and go to Measure Properties, then say "exclude from measure count".
In reply to It makes sense in that I… by Marc Sabatella
This is needed because I am extending the already written drum break - it only affects the drumline and sets for drill. The winds still come in on measure 20, so rather than changing it for the whole group having sub-measures is much easier because it only really pertains to a small group. I'm not sure if you are familiar with marching percussion music - but this is common practice (or at least it has been in my marching percussion experience). It's similar to subsets.
Thank you though, much appreciated!
In reply to This is needed because I am… by Jenna N. Foley
I played in marching band in high school and in college, and sometimes helped chart out shows, and even started to design software to help with this, so I'm familiar indeed - and that's part of why I'm confused. I'd often look at measure numbers to tell me how many measures a given passage was, so I could determine how many steps I had to work with. Wouldn't matter how many people were actually playing during that passage - if I'm charting movements designed to cover measures 8-44, I want to be able to easily do the math to determine that this is exactly 36 measures and hence exactly 144 steps. Having unnumbered measures in there would really have thrown me off!
But, I also remember situations where we'd have two different versions of single chart, one for shorter shows and one for longer, with extended drum breaks, and in that case matching the measure numbers between them makes sense. I'm sure there are other reasons why it could make sense too. So I'm not saying it could never make sense - just that it wasn't obvious at first.
In reply to This is needed because I am… by Jenna N. Foley
Oh, something else that just occurred to me - maybe the reason you don't want to change the measure 20 for everyone is that it seems like it would be too much work? MuseScore is perfectly capable of numbering the measures for you, even though you've used rehearsal markings as measure numbers. After inserting measures, just hit Ctrl+A to select all then run Tools / Resequence Rehearsal Marks.
Again, if you'got something else special going on where it really does make sense to preserve the measure numbers as they are, that's fine. I'm just trying to offer the best hep I can here.
In reply to Oh, something else that just… by Marc Sabatella
I appreciate you trying to help!
I'm not sure if I made it clear but I am writing out a pre-existing marching show for just the battery (changing 4 basses to 5, making some parts easier, stuff like that). So having sub-measures for the part of the music where I am making the pre-existing drum break longer is easier so that when the director says we're starting at for example measure 39, it is still measure 39 for the percussionists and not a different number. My kids are all fairly new to percussion as well - so I'm writing it out so they have a better viewing experience than they would have with the tiny parts they were given, and so the new drum break isn't a separate paper that they need to try and keep track of.
The numbers of the measures - or lack thereof in this case - don't really pertain to anyone as when I'm (battery instructor) teaching the drum break or going over those parts, I'm just going to say the top of the drum break. This is all so that later in the song the measure numbers are not altered, and it stays consistent with the winds' parts.
Thank you again for your tips, I'll keep that in mind for when I eventually am writing my own shows with my own band!
In reply to I appreciate you trying to… by Jenna N. Foley
Yep, perfectly clear now - it is indeed about making sure your measure numbers match up with those in the original arrangement. Absolutely makes sense to do what you're doing, sorry for introducing confusion!