Adding Symbols as Noteheads

• Oct 15, 2024 - 14:58

Hello everyone!

I'm posting in this forum for the third time now, in search for a solution to this issue.
I need to add a symbol from the master palette as a custom notehead for an A3 (with two ledger-lines in the treble-clef). In Musescore 3 this would be easy to do, since you could just add the symbol, change its position and make the original notehead invisible, which wouldn't hide the note's ledger lines. In Musescore 4, it doesn't seem to exist any way to make the original noteheads invisible without hiding the respective ledger lines.

Considering I haven't had yet any answers to my previous posts, I'm assuming there isn't any viable solution to this problem in the context of this new version. However, since this is a rather important work I need to finish, I can't help but to ask: if there's no obvious solution, does anyone remember any possible workarounds?

Thanks in advance for your time!


Comments

What symbol are you trying to use to replace the notehead? Is it in the Noteheads section of the Master Palette?

This information is needed in order to help.

In the meantime, if the symbol is in the Noteheads section, just drag it to the note.

In reply to by bobjp

Hi! Thank you for your answer.
I'm aware that the Notehead section is the same as the Notehead Palette (I mean the one which is by default on the right side of the Musescore interface). The problem is in fact that the symbol I'm trying to use doesn't take part in that section of the Master Palette, but indeed in the symbol section. The symbol is however called "Round Black Notehead" (highlighted in the image attached), so it is specifically made for this purpose.

Attachment Size
Round Black Notehead.png 98.29 KB

In reply to by Tiago Simas

Do you need this for every note? Or just some notes?

One way might be this:
Drag that round note to your score. Resize it to about 150%. (Try some different settings if that size doesn't work for you) Ctrl-shift and drag the resized notehead to a blank spot in the notehead palette on the left. At this point you might consider changing the original notehead in the score to something like diamond so it is not oblong. Make sure the original note is still selected. Then in the notehead palette, select the notehead you created. Placement may not be perfect. But at least this gives you something to try.

In reply to by bobjp

Just some notes! The idea is to use that which was generally considered in the second half of the 20th century as the standard notation of pure breath sound for woodwinds (also attached, as an example, a section from Kurt Stone's "Music Notation in the Twentieth Century" regarding this topic).

With this being said, the positioning is not an issue I'm really worried about, since what I want to achieve will always imply changes regarding the stems. Therefore, what you suggested would work if it weren't for the scaling of the notehead symbol, which ends up being disproportionate in relation to the stem. If I tweak its scale to an ideal or acceptable value, the symbol ends up not covering the original notehead (independently of its shape). Is there perhaps a way to change the original notehead's scaling without affecting the scaling of its respective stem?

Attachment Size
Air:Breath Sound – Kurt Stone.png 35.93 KB

In reply to by Tiago Simas

So this really isn't a note and has no pitch. What I suggested won't do at all. Do you really need ledger lines? Sibelius doesn't seem to have a symbol for blow through the instrument, either. You might consider creating them. It is not as hard as you might think.

In reply to by bobjp

Yes. I actually think that what you suggested wouldn't work, if it weren't for the scaling o the symbol! The playback is not important, since I'm only re-editing this score.

I was in fact creating the symbol already. The only problem I stumbled upon was the ledger lines, when I needed at certain point to apply this symbol to lower notes of the clarinet. This wouldn't be a problem if I placed it in the medium range of stave, but I want the clarinet player to blow the air with a specific fingering, as this changes the pitch of the resulting sound (although it ends up not being precise).

In reply to by bobjp

Yes, that was what I was doing. This doesn't solve the problem of the ledger lines, though... Anyway, I found a workaround! I changed the color of the noteheads to a transparent one – this way, the ledger lines stay visible, but the original notehead disappears.

I had already found a suggestion of this as a possible solution somewhere in the Musescore forum, but I couldn't find a way to achieve it, since MuseScore does not present opacity as an option of the Color Palette in its version for Mac. After thinking again of this possible workaround, I found out that if you pre-save a transparent color in Mac's color palette while navigating other app, this color will appear as saved in Musescore too. This way, I ended up being able to make the noteheads transparent, which works perfectly well!

Thank you so much, bobjp, for your time and help! All the best!

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