Working with Repeats and Jumps
I have been working to write sheet music for the song catalog of an artist I enjoy. Most of his songs have a pretty similar pattern. For example: Intro - Verse1 - Chorus - Intro - Verse 2 - Verse 3 - Chorus - Instrumental version with same chord pattern as Verse - Instrumental with same chord pattern as Chorus - Verse 4 - Chorus - Coda (which repeats a part of the chorus). I'm trying to avoid stretching out the score by separating all the verses. Ideally, I'd have the intro once, the verse once (with four lines of lyrics), the chorus once and the coda once. The question is - how to organize the Repeats and Jumps most efficiently, and also so it plays back properly? I'm sure there are others out there who are doing songs like this - a step by step video tutorial would be exceptionally useful: "Add a repeat bar here" "add a segno" "add a D.S.", etc... I have attached a sample - (not for distribution!) which has the pattern cited above. I feel as though this example has most of the situations that might arise, and once I have a grasp of it, I should be able to carry it through to his other songs.
Thanks...
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Al-Stewart-Bear-Farmers-of-Birnham.mscz | 36 KB |
Comments
I have a question on the following:
D.C. al Coda : Repeat from the beginning up to To Code, then continue at Coda.
D.S. al Coda : Repeat from Segno marker up to To Code, then continue at Coda.
Does it make a difference when entering on the score the sequence you use to put in the codes?
Do you put in the D.C. al Coda the To Code then the Coda?
Do you put in the D.S. al Coda the To Code then the Coda?
I am wondering what the underlying code that is used for these functions.
How does the program know how to resolve the input?
Sorry this is from my many years of mainframe computer programming.
I also cut my teeth on Finale and learned how the repeats are mapped.
In reply to I have a question on the… by dannsh13
You can add them in any order. The important thing is that they have the same "label". The "To Coda" and "Coda" should have the same label, and the D.S. al Coda should have the same label as the Segno.
Here is the MS4 handbook page on the subject: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/jumps-and-markers
In reply to I have a question on the… by dannsh13
Select these different labels and take a look at their properties. There are labels with different names and they indicate where MuseScore should jump to.
@cchenige
Take a piece of paper and write down an example. Mark the sections Intro, Verse 1...Verse 4, Chorus and the instrumental part with a pencil, completely without notes.
How would you write it by hand so that a musician understands the sequence correctly?
In reply to @cchenige Take a piece of… by HildeK
Thanks for the information.
I got the D.S. al Capo working with the Segno marker. I stopped using Voltas. The combination seem to be confusing the playback.
In reply to Thanks for the information… by dannsh13
It's hard to say what the reason is if the score is not available. All these things work very well in MuseScore, also in combination with Voltas.
For detailed help on your specific problem, you should attach a sample score. Then we can tell what is wrong.
In reply to Thanks for the information… by dannsh13
The combination generally does not confuse the playback. But, after a D.S. or D.C. only the second volta is played by default (this is the traditional way in which human players would do this.). It is possible to change this behavior in the properties of the D.C./D.S. element by checking the "play repeats" box.
In reply to The combination generally… by AndreasKågedal
I appreciate all of the replies.
I am still in the learning stage with Musescore "Studio". I have spent many years with Finale. Long learning curve. I have been able to do so much more with Musescore in a short time. I need to lean more about short cuts.
Since I am new to the program I am not sure if I encounter a bug. For instance using a glissando to slide down it does not play on the first pass but does play on the second pass. Curious if I am missing something.
In reply to @cchenige Take a piece of… by HildeK
I did provide a sequence in my original question. I've attached here a modified copy of the score with section headings. The sequence would be: A-B-C-A-B-B-C-B-C-B-C-D. Maybe there is no sensible way to notate this sequence, and perhaps it has to be split up some (The first 5 sections and then the next three in a repeat and finally to coda? (A-B-C-A-B) then (B-C) repeated three times, then (D).
In reply to I did provide a sequence in… by cchenige
> (A-B-C-A-B) then (B-C) repeated three times, then (D)
![SEQ.png]( "SEQ.png")
Yes, this should work.
Or this structure that I have attached. But it also requires sections B and C twice, but has sections A and B once less each:
quick question wrt to this topic - does exported MIDI represent all the repeating sections? meaning if the score is 12 measures long w/ 2 repeating bars, is the exported MIDI now 14 bars long?
-- never mind - the expand repeats on MIDI export works as expected. i had some rests in the end measures which were not expanded (which is how it should be for MIDI when "blank" measures on the end...)
In reply to quick question wrt to this… by glennmstanton
If I understand you correctly, I'm pretty sure it is 24 bars long.
In reply to If I understand you… by AndreasKågedal
thanks, i re-ran it myself and forgot that blank (rest) measures not expand into MIDI... so the 12 measures expanded into 18 measures with the 2 repeating bars when i added some notes into the blank measures... :-)