Key signatures and forcing changes
When I first started using MuseScore I thought that the key signatures would force notes into a key structure. Now I think that mostly they don't. For example, if I write a piece in C major - no sharps and flats, then change the key signature, all that happens is that the notation changes, but the notes remain the same. Some notes acquire accidentals.
So if I want to change a piece from C major to C minor I have to explicitly change each note, and then make the notes and the key signature match.
Or is there another way? I just don't know. Just putting a 3 flats key signature at the front of a piece in C major does not convert it to C minor. Maybe there is a way - but I haven't found it yet.
[I inadvertently put a copy of this into the Feature Request part of the Forum - so this is effectively a duplicate. Maybe later it will result in a feature request, but right now it's just an enquiry for discussion.]
Comments
Answered in https://musescore.org/en/node/336207#comment-1146270 (use the Transpose command to transpose)
Right, a key signature change does not change the note's pitch.
You should select the correct key signatur before you enter notes.
After that you can only change the pitch of B, E and A to Bb, Es and As manually. But quite easy for the whole score: select a B, right click, select / more... / same note name and use the down arrow key to move al Bs to Bb. Do the same with E and A.
Hello,
not automatically, but manually in three steps :
1. select all
2. drag C minor from the palette onto the staff
3. click twice on the natural sign in the toolbar at the top.
You may have to adjust the third of dominant chords (according to taste) afterwards.
The comments of jeetee and Pentatonus show the better way.
Indeed, changing a key signature doesn't change pitches- that would be pretty disastrous for the normal use case of simply adding a clarifying key signature to a passage you had already written in a given key.
If you want to transpose, use Notes / Transpose as mentioned. But, going from major to minor isn't just an matter of a transposition - it requires intelligent decision making about how to handle the different scale degrees, like 6 and 7, that depending on content should be raised or not. That sort of AI is probably better suited to a plugin.
But to simply coercing all notes to being diatonic, my usual method would be to select the passage then press Alt+Shift+Up followed by Alt+Shift+Down (transposes diatonically). I haven't tried toggling the natural as suggested here, but that seems like it should work too.
You can try this. It might come close to what you want.