Rests in different voices have different spacing in treble and bass clef
I tend to use two voices for per clef pretty frequently—this is one of the standard ways of notating hymns—and there's something that was a small issue in MS3 that I'd love to see fixed in MS4.
When there's the same rest at the same place in voices 1 and 2 in treble clef, the rests are centered on the staff. No need to hide or adjust anything; it looks exactly as it should. But this isn't what happens in bass clef; instead, the rests are at different places on the staff, which means that the rests in one voice need to be hidden so that the other voice's rests are centered.
(See the attached file for an example of what I mean.)
To be clear, I'm not asking for a workaround or a way to hide the rests quickly—I know how to do that. I'm suggesting that the rests in bass clef behave the same way the rests in treble clef do: centering on the staff so nothing needs to be hidden.
I'm running MS 4.0.1 on Mac 13.1.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| While I Keep Silence.mscz | 31.55 KB |
Comments
I cannot explain why the bass clef applies different rules to the treble clef. You don't need the obvious workaround, but for the benefit of others it's pretty easy to deal with the problem:
Right-click a Voice-2 rest >Select > More... > Same Stave + Same Voice > set Invisible
However I am conflicted about which is the more useful rule:
- Always hide Voice-2 rests
- Never hide Voice-2 rests
There are definitely circumstances in which you want to see the rests for both voices on a stave.
In reply to I cannot explain why the… by DanielR
"Never hide" is more useful as it is easier to select and hide something you can see than to find, select and unhide something that is hidden.
In reply to I cannot explain why the… by DanielR
I agree that "never hide" is more useful, but I don't think what's happening here is that the rests in the treble clef are being hidden; it's that they are all centered on the staff, so since they're both at the same place, it has the effect of making one invisible. If there are different rests in each voice, then the rests are spaced in line with that voice, so all rests are visible. This is, I think, as it should be.
Incidentally, I did an experiment to demonstrate this (see attached file), but now the rests in the bass clef are working the same way they do in the treble clef. (What you see in the file is what it looked like with no editing or tweaking on my part.) Why it does this now when it didn't earlier is beyond me.
In reply to I agree that "never hide" is… by chrismassa1
If you right click on a stave and look in Stave/Part properties in the score attached to your original post you will see that in the upper staff you have "Merge matching rests" enabled and in the lower staff you have it disabled.
In reply to If you right click on a… by SteveBlower
Indeed I do. Great catch. I have no idea why (or how) that happened. Thanks.
In reply to If you right click on a… by SteveBlower
Ah! This is one of those esoteric items easily overlooked or forgotten.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/staff-part-properties#common-staff-…
Look for:
"Merge matching rests (as of version 3.5)"
That's why merely browsing the MS forum can sharpen one's knowledge with respect to real life issues, rather than simply reading (and trying to recall every detail in) the handbook.
Good call!
EDIT: For MuseScore 4 handbook see: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/staffpart-properties#staff-properti…