How do I delete this grey bar?
Hello, I am extremely new to music, and know little to next to nothing about musical theory. I am trying to compose a childhood tune which has been running in my head since I was a child.
In the process of experimenting and writing the notes, I accidentally added this odd grey bar which cannot be selected, modified, or (apparently) deleted. May I know the steps to remove this break in the tune? I have tried searching Google and help forums for the past hour, but have not come across a solution. I sincerely apologise if my query has been answered before.
Thank you for your time. MuseScore is the greatest free software for music that I have tried yet.
Comments
That grey bar is actually a minus sign, indicating that the measure has fewer beats than are indicated in the time signature. It is an unprintable symbol which will not appear on your printed output. If you actually want the measure to have the "correct" number of beats, right click in the measure and from measure properties make the actual duration agree with the nominal duration.
In reply to That grey bar is actually a… by SteveBlower
Right clicking simply adds more rests. May I know precisely how I can do this?
By inserting the missing beat...
In reply to By inserting the missing… by Jojo-Schmitz
Am I to understand there are four beats for each section? I am unable to click anything to add a new beat to the section with only three bars. It simply replaces an existing beat.
In reply to Am I to understand there are… by Sebreeze
Right click into the measure, measure properties, change actual duration to match nominal duration
In reply to Right click into the measure… by Jojo-Schmitz
"Am I to understand there are four beats for each section? "
The time signature at the start of the piece determines how many beats there are in a measure (called a bar in British usage) and the duration of those beats. The upper number specifies the number of beats, the lower number specifies the duration of the beats. For example if the time signature is 3/4 then there are 3 beats in each measure, each a quarter note (crotchet in GB usage) long. If the time signature is 9/8 then there would be 9 beats in each measure, each an eighth note (quaver in GB usage) long. For more information on that consult any basic music theory textbook.
It is quite normal (but not that common) to change time signature during a piece.
In reply to "Am I to understand there… by SteveBlower
Thank you both! I fixed the problem.
Thank you for the detailed explanation on time signatures too. I will consult a textbook as you stated.