Enhance Staff Copying: Reassign Voices and Remove Rests

• Jan 14, 2025 - 09:52

When copying staff contents from one voice to another, it would be beneficial to have an option to reassign voices and remove rests. This is useful when working with complex scores that involve multiple instruments or parts.

For instance, in a SATB + Organ template for traditional hymns, I often separate the organ part into individual choral lines (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). When copying over an organ voice to one of these choral sections, it can cause two voices to merge with different notes and rhythms. Currently, this requires manual editing to delete rests, and one has to re-enter the notes for the first voice.

A feature that allows for automatic voice reassignment (e.g., "voice 2" becoming "voice 1") when copying staff contents would streamline this process. This functionality would save time and reduce errors in score preparation.

To implement this, add a simple button or option for the copy operation to toggle / configure voice assignment, effectively allowing users to:
* Remove rests from copied notes
* Reassign secondary voices (e.g., "voice 2") to primary voices (e.g., "voice 1")

An option would be to have this as a general button to click on to re-assign voices (i.e., perhaps near the voice buttons). This enhancement would improve workflow efficiency and accuracy when working with complex scores in MuseScore.

Update:
I just found out through experimentation that one can paste a note onto a rest and that re-assigns the voice 2 to voice 1. However, it does not carry over the note rhythms.


Comments

If I understand you, try this:
In the organ part, range select the treble clef (soprano and alto) and copy into the soprano part. Then go to Tools>Explode. This puts the second voice into the alto part.
The opposite can be done to copy vocal parts into the organ. A few more steps. And involves implode and explode.

In reply to by bobjp

Watching the following video helped explain that differently, but with a visual approach:

Sketch to Score- Exploding Chord Voicings in MuseScore 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72e-lbQQddw

However, there is a slight bit of detail involved in this. It would be nice / have an easier workflow if I could simply copy the original measures and explode them into 2, I can select and bam (i.e., it copies the 2 staves where needed)!

I appreciate your reply. It helped!

Update:
One thing I noticed it won't copy is if you have slurs in the notes, it does not copy over. So, when I copy to the Tenor voice section, then select Tenor and Bass and select Tools -> Explode it copies over if I get rid of the slurs on the Tenor section that I just copied from that had one slur in it.

In reply to by bobjp

Certainly! I'm experimenting with an interesting hymn, Abide With Me, by William H. Monk. The problem starts at measure 5 that has the slur. The first soprano and alto measures were fine. However, at measure 5, is where the slur starts in the organ. The slur is unnecessary for choral purposes. However, because of it, it won't copy it.

Also, I noticed certain voices won't copy. Experiment with the rest of the music, and you find this out!

Attachment Size
Abide With Me.mscz 45.33 KB

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