Spoken/ad-libbed lyrics
So in my verses, there are two bars of singing (with melody and lyrics) followed by two bars of a more conversation spoken park. almost a call and return if you will. But it doesn't have a set rhythm or melody. How would I insert lyrics and/or denote that it is an ad-libbed sort of thing in the staff? Thanks for the help in advance
Comments
Insert enough notes where they belong to be able to add your lyrics.
Add the lyrics.
Select those notes and/or rest and "set invisible".
Add a staff or system text reflecting that you want the word to be ad lib.
In reply to Insert enough notes where by xavierjazz
that sounds simple enough. I over-think things too much. Do i put the ad lib. text above the bar by the chord name? or below by the lyrics?
In reply to wow okay by ryleestrange
I generally put this instruction above the staff.
In reply to I generally put this by xavierjazz
And thank you. You've been a real help. One last question. I know when i print my score it won't show the invisible notes, but what will it show, instead? Also is that the case if i export to PDF?
In reply to Ok cool. by ryleestrange
Nothing (an empty space), in either case
In reply to Nothing (an empty space), in by Jojo-Schmitz
Is that...good/appropriate? Shouldn't ever bar in a lead sheet contain...something? Sure it'll have the chord markings above the bar, but...should there not be something in the bar itself?
In reply to Hmm okay. by ryleestrange
don't hide the notes if you want something in the measure?
Maybe you want a full measure rest?
Use voices then, like voice 2 with the lyrics attached to invisible notes, but voice 1 'empty, which means a full measure rest?
In reply to don't hide the notes if you by Jojo-Schmitz
I'll try a couple different ways, see which ones i like best. Thanks again for your help =]
In reply to Ok thanks. by ryleestrange
You can use the 2nd voice and slash notation.
In reply to You can use the 2nd voice and by xavierjazz
Yeah i think that's the way i'm going to do it. I figured an "Ad. lib" note would get my point across, but i could just notate it with slash notation the way i did it in the recording. A bit more ditch digging, but it'll get my point across better.
I just want to explore this issue - highlighting the pros and cons of potential solutions.
There are two methods:
Rhythmic:
![Rhythmic.png]( "Rhythmic.png")
Unrhythmic:
![Unrhythmic.png]( "Unrhythmic.png")
I don't know how other programs handle the unrhythmic type, but in MuseScore, I'm not really convinced staff text is the right way to go (looks bad in parts, doesn't appear when hiding empty staves), and I also have reservations regarding the 'second voice' method (may create unevenness).
In reply to I just want to explore this by chen lung
The problems you point out with staff text are not unique to this particular use case. I assume when you say "looks bad in parts", you mean, the measures may be narrower and hence one text collides with another. This is a problem for all texts - staff texts, tempo texts, etc - that should be solved at some point. Similarly for staves containing text disappearing when using hide empty staves. Elsewhere, I've proposed adding a "don't consider this measure empty" property you could set in measure properties. Or even consider changing the behavior of hide empty staves to not treat measures containing text as empty if we think that's generally desirable.
Anyhow, as I mentioned on IRC, using lyrics as a way of putting entire chunks of spoken text in an empty measure is really not a good use of that facility. You'd need to hit Ctrl+Space between each word. Plain text, but using the lyric text style, is better. Unfortunately, there is that pesky "lyrics upper margin" you'd have to factor in as well. I had half a mind to get rid of that - or at least make it default to 0 - when updating some styles for 2.0. Kind of wish I had. But that's another discussion. It will come up again when we eventually discuss the idea of lyrics above staves.
In reply to The problems you point out by Marc Sabatella
" Similarly for staves containing text disappearing when using hide empty staves. "
as a workaround for that, add a rehearsal mark in each of the 'empty' bars containing text, then make each of the rehearsal marks invisible. That way the programme will not hide the empty bars?