Stave spacing and multiple tune sets for trad musicians (eejit questions)
I am a trad musician, Irish, Breton, Appalachian- play accordion, whistle, 5-string clawhammer banjo.
I write lots of "simple" tunes in these genres, usually 32 or 48 bar, common time or 6/8. I am not very tech-savvy!.....
Two simple questions for which I would really appreciate some help:-
1. despite trying all the options for staff spacing, layout, etc, I cannot create a simple stave for single voice in treble-clef (eg. for fiddle) which has minimal spacing between multiple staves. This type of music requires usually only two lines of treble clef stave- and, especially Irish, is often arranged in "sets" of 2 or 3 tunes, to be played consecutively- and having a huge gap between the staves is frustrating and means I often cannot get 3 tunes on an A4 page for printing. How do I close them up and create a basic template for future use, instead of the deep spacing that appears to be the default when clicking on "new score"?
2. related problem- how can I easily insert a text box at the head of each tune?
Thanks
Comments
You wrote:
I cannot create a simple stave for single voice in treble-clef (eg. for fiddle) which has minimal spacing between multiple staves.
Try using menu item: Format > Style > Page and select 'Disable vertical justification of staved'. Then those "simple staves" won't spread out (to fill the page) and you can fine tune the distances as you like.
...how can I easily insert a text box at the head of each tune?
You ever notice that title frame at the top of a new score?
Well, you can insert a vertical frame at the head of each tune by selecting the first measure and then use menu item: Add > Frames > Insert vertical frame, into which you can enter text like title, composer, etc. for each tune. See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/using-frames-additional-content#vf
You will find that MuseScore automatically adjusts spacing as needed. So by the time you have three or four songs entered onto a page, the spacing will have automatically decreased. You normally don't need to mess with anything at all to make it happen, and in the cases where you do need to, definitely don't try before entering the music or you'll just mess up the automatic spacing.
If you have a score you are having trouble with - where the spacing isn't as you'd want it after you've entered the music - just attach the score here so we can understand and assist better.