How to start a decrescendo in the middle of a full tune ?

• Sep 17, 2022 - 12:27

dear all,
for a full note I need to specify that a decrescendo should start at 3 and be completed at 4&.
How can i achieve that, in such a way that is not relying on my "eye approximation" to have it precisely in the same position across all instruments of the partiture ?
Thankyou

Comments

• Sep 17, 2022 - 12:41

To achieve that specificity of start and finish times you need to have the same specificity in the notation. So you would anchor the start of the decrescendo to a note that starts on beat 3 and anchor the end to a note that starts on beat 4& like this.

Dim3to4and.png

This is not just a quirk of MuseScore but the way you would attempt to get precise control of start and finish of the diminuendo in a score that you present to real live players. Often composers/arrangers are not so picky.

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• Sep 17, 2022 - 22:39

I agree that if precision in playback / performance is important to you, you'll need to use something like this because human musicians won't be able to guess perfectly based on approximate position in the measure.

But for situations where you don't mind there being human variation and you just want simpler but consistent notation, you can get the effect using invisible rests in voice 2, and attach the hairpins to those. Engraving will be good, computer playback will be good, but human playback will potentially be less consistent than with the tie solution here.

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