Entering new notes
To me the entering of new notes by mouse could be dramatically improved.
If I want to enter a new note by mouse, I'd like to have the following behaviour.
1. first click into the score --> hear the note, draw a note-symbol but don't place it yet.
2. Now holding down the mouse button and dragging up or down --> increases or decreases the note pitch. (even in half note steps and with accustic feedback) The mouse way for increasing or decreasing the pitch should not be 1:1 to the width of the score lines but something like 1:5. So if I move the mouse about 5 spatium to the top, this would increase the notes pitch for 1/2 note and so on. This is because I typically try to place the note almost correctly to the right pitch but sometimes this fails and so I could easily correct it while I'm holding down the mouse button.)
3. Now holding down the mouse button and dragging right --> increases the notes length i.e. from quarter to pointed quarter to half ... The same way the note length could be decreased by dragging left. The mouse way to change note lengths could be almost like the distance of the keys. These note-length keys might even follow the mouse-entry. So when my note length is set to a quater, and I enter a new note and drag it to the right to change it to a half note, even the default length for new notes is now set to a half note.
4. Releasing mouse button finally places the new note into the score.
The advantage would be that I could enter new notes of various length way more easily. Now I always have to decide first which length I want to enter. Typically I i.e. want to enter 4 quarter notes then in the next bar a half note and ... ups ... forgot to change the notes length ... change it now and overwrite it. This is a little bit unconvenient.
So to express it in more technical terms. Place new notes not on mouse-click but on mouse-release and use the mouse-pressed phase on mouse-moved events for changing properties of new note. But play a note on each pitch changing event. The mouse-way for changing values could be defined and changed in the settings what could improve the usability for tablets and touch devices.
(Especially on touch devices you don't easily meet the correct pitch on the first tap. Depending on the screen resolution you might wanna set the value there to 10 spatium while mouse-operation you might want to set it to 2 spatium.)
Finally: All this could be visually supported, by an overlay that I describe in an other Feature Request called "An Overlay for the recent measure"
Comments
That's not a bad idea, although entering notes by mouse click is never likely to approach the efficiency of keyboard entry, or use of the Piano Keyboard toolbar, or MIDI input. So if your goal is to maximize efficiency, I think you would be better off looking elsehwere. Something like what you describe could help some, though, I agree.
BTW, there are the "Q" and "W" commands for halving and doubling the lengthg of the most-recently-entered note, but here again, that's going to be more efficient for keyboard entry than mouse entry.
Realistically, once you get used to the program, you will be less likely to make mistakes of the sort where you forget to change duration before entering a note. But it does still happen, whether using mosue or keyboard. So a solutin that only helped mouse users wouldn't be as valuable, I think, as one that helped everyone. I'd personally like to see keybaord shortcuts to change duration of selected note in note input mode, like if Ctrl+Shift+6 would change the current note to a half note. That plus something like what you describe could be interesting some day.
In reply to That's not a bad idea, by Marc Sabatella
I agree with you that entering notes with a MIDI keyboard is way more convenient. But to me it appears that I not always have a keyboard available when writing scores. I sometimes record a MIDI track, import it to Muse Score but then use this just as a guideline to write additional parts somewhere else where I don't have a keyboard like in the train. In my case I almost write choir scores out of piano tracks. Writing the tenor or alto lines is somehow different to simply "explode" the piano track. There are plugins for that and I've tried them already. But sometimes to me it's more appealing to do this by hand.
I'm an occasionally MuseScore user and for that I really prefer mouse interaction sometimes as I simply do not know about all these shortcuts or I forget about them from one time to the next.
Currently I'm also experimenting with a windows tablet and it turns out that MuseScore is not far away from a touch-device able score editor. At least for some of my tasks. BUT on a touch device you don't have all these hotkeys. Ctrl+Shift+6 is definitively no option on a touch-device.
You might not find a Ctrl key, and even Shift and 6 are not on the same keyboard. But most of all, there is no screenspace left if you show the keyboard.
Would be nice to have a configurable toolbar for all shortcuts that can be shown or not. On a touch-device this would be really appreciated.
I also agree with you, that functionalities like I have proposed for mouse-interaction should also have corresponding interactions in other entering modes.
In reply to I agree with you that by Palmstroem_
Actually, I wasn't primarily talking about MIDI input - most users of MuseScore probably don't own one. I was just talking about the ordinary keyboard input - type "A" to get an "A", etc - that is the msot efficient way of entering notes normally. If it's important to have a way of correcting errors in note entry for mouse users, it seems to me it is equally improtant to have a way of correcting errors in note entry for keybaord users. But again, realistically, people generally stop making these sorts of errors as they gain a little experience.
In reply to Actually, I wasn't primarily by Marc Sabatella
Would perhaps be an interesting theme for a survey. How many people use MuseScore in a certain way? Do they really use the keyboard like you suggest, or do they prefer MIDI-input or mouse.
To me it really sounds wired to enter notes by the computer keyboard. But I'll give it a try. I do not translate notes into letters in my mind. I definitively prefer MIDI-input, and the 'letter-names' of notes resonate a little bit in my mind but not intense. I strongly think in harmonic 'letters' like Am, Em, D#dim, ... but what is the quint of D? ... Oh man! ... I have to visualize a piano keyboard, follow the D minor accord upwards. D, F, A. Ok it's the A.
Just to give you an idea of how I think. So to me entering notes by letters sounds really painful. But nevertheless, I'll give it a try.
Currently I'm also experimenting with touch devices. I have a touchscreen in front of my keyboard and a perfect interaction to me would be close to writing with a pencil on a sheet of paper. So I play on the keyboard, my playing is automatically translated into scores. - Ups there was a mistake, so touch there where it happened and change it easily there.
Instead of: find the mouse, find the mouse pointer on the screen, set the cursor to the false position, find the keyboard, use a 3-key shortcut on the computer-keyboard in combination with the mouse. I can do that in a DAW and then export to MuseScore, but I'd love to do it in MuseScore directly. I think, you got the idea.
Finally: Thank You for this wonderful program.
In reply to Would perhaps be an by Palmstroem_
I prefer mouse. But only because I'm not on a first names basis with notes ;-) i.e. I don't know their names. If I would, I'd use the computer keyboard (and yes, learning them is on my ToDo list, since long ;-))
Would I be able to play the piano, I probably would prefer midi entry.
In reply to Would perhaps be an by Palmstroem_
Yes, I do understand the desire to use MuseScore as a "compositional tool" rather than a "notation program" per se. I think there are a whole set of other issues that would need to be dealt with to make this really viable, though - see any number of threads on the subject of a "scratch pad" or other simialr terms. I would definitely like to see strides made in this direction, but ideally, as part of a coherent whole. And not one that is centered primarily on not wanting to deal with notation at all, but also one that simply allows notation to be shuffled around more easily (eg, deleting a note and having other notes automatically move earlier in time rather than stay fixed as they currently do).
Anyhow, if you read the documentation on MuseScore, you will see that entering notes by keyboard is the recommend / preferred way indeed, and is how many if not most people do it. Probably the main groups people who do *not* use keyboard entry are beginners to MuseScore, but also, people who don't actually read music, and also people in countries that do not use letter names (eg, France, Italy, Spain, Russia). Or people like Jojo, who read music and live in countries where letter names are used but for whatever reason but don't associate notes with letter names :-)
That sounds like a long list, I guess, but still, I would wager that the vast majority of people who use MuseScore do read music well and are very accustomed to thinking in terms of letter names. And thus, they either already use the keyboard to enter music, or would if they knew they could, and would find it easily 10 times (no exaggeration whatsoever) than using the mouse.
So I have nothing against finding ways of making note entry more efficient, but I think it important not to focus too much on a note entry method - mouse - that is inherently much less efficient than others. If there exists a fundamental need to be able to enter pitches without choosing duration first - Finale, for example, provides such a mode - then it is equally important to meet that need for keyboard and MIDI users as it is for mouse users. Probably *more* important, since it is keyboard and MIDI users who tend to be more concerned with efficiency.
Touch is another matter indeed. Some day, I am sure we will need to find a way of optimizing note entry (and other aspects of the interface) for touch devices.
In reply to Yes, I do understand the by Marc Sabatella
Just an observation: I'm in a country where notes do not have letters but names (Italy, "do re mi fa sol la si"!), still I always and only use keyboard for note entry (computer keyboard, not MIDI).
The first thing I do on any new version / release of MuseScore (or after any ominous "-F "restart) is to remap note short cuts to something less abstruse (less abstruse for me, of course) and then I always use the keyboard.
But, it's true, I probably do not qualify as an average MuseScore user...
________________________
<rambling-mode>
For all I hate mice (which I contemptuously call "mouses"!), I think that exploring MuseScore usability on touch devices is well worth the effort: we all use our fingers to play and we usually have surprisingly well-trained fingers.
Writing scores by 'playing' directly in MuseScore as an instrument (not via an external device mimicking an existing instrument) is probably an analogy appealing to many instrument players out there.
It would be a different instrument probably, not a piano or anything existing, but it could be devised to be relatively easy to learn and remember, like the OP proposal suggests.
</rambling-mode>
M.
In reply to Yes, I do understand the by Marc Sabatella
Well, it all depends on how efficient you end up. I prefer mouse simply because I'm dealing with a large volume of accidentals on the notes; easier to click, then adjust with arrow keys. Mind you, I don't exclusively use the mouse- I throw in keyboard commands for all but the actual placement of notes. Even bound alt+r for switching to rest placement to help with triplets (I prefer to do them in bulk). There's a lot of fine-tuning going on, and I'd rather have one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard to make that easier.
As for the suggestion, I just find it easier to ctrl+z, go to the correct note length, and place it. Seems easier to me.
Palmstroem_'s idea for entering notes sounds good to me.
I agree with you Marc that keyboard entry is inherently better for a power (I dislike that word but I can't think of a better one) user. I started out on Unix and prefer the command line, vi and Emacs editors, and Tex/LaTex for word processing, and will happily give up Windows, Mac, Word, etc., when I can leave the corporate world...
Trouble is, it's hard to remember new stuff like that when you get to your late 50s... I use MuseScore in bursts, and after an intense bout for 1 month, I come back 2 months later and I've forgotten the lot. So GUI is better for me. Powerish users who post here seem to use the kb, but I suspect that the majority of the thousands of people out there who use MS, use the mouse, and that for whatever reason, rightly or wrongly, they will never make the transition to kb. I may be wrong.
Another reason for the mouse is that I tend to make transcriptions. With one finger on my place on a sheet of paper, or on the screen (!) I enter notes while comparing back and forth. If I have to use the kb I'll lose my place.
Palmstroem_'s idea was clever. The non 1-1 ratio of vertical mouse movement to note position was good. And the obvervation that since horizontal position was fixed by MS, you could use that dimension for note value, was good too. Nice idea.
I'm not suggesting that it should on balance be implemented. Just explaining another point of view and giving a vote. I'm so thankful for all the work you guys do on MS.
I think the mouse input idea would work great, especially on touch devices. I put the wrong notes in a lot of the time because the lines are so little and I put the note a step or half step in the wrong place. It would be nice to be able to click and drag to "nudge" the notes back into the right place.
As it is, I never use the keyboard for note input, only for rhythm (4=eight note 4=quarter, etc.) because having to hunt around for the letters (which are all spread out along QWERTY) and then finding that the b I wrote is an octave low is annoying. Another program (Famitracker) has a keyboard input that I like a lot better; the whole bottom row of keys (z,x,c,v all the way to ?) is a keyboard starting on C with "black keys" on the second row (s,d,g,h, etc.) and the third row of keys is a keyboard an octave above that, with black keys along the number row. I think that if this kind of feature were included as a special mode (like note entry mode) then it could be implemented without destroying all the other hotkeys (which, for the most part, are very convenient) and that would even free up the a, b,c, d, etc. keys for hotkeys. You'd just need to add an "enter piano mode" key and an "octave up/down" key (But you'd have to move the rhythm hotkeys somewhere else, because octave 2's "black keys" are on the number line now). So that way, you could have one hand on the keyboard all the time, and the other hand on the mouse. Convenient. When not in note entry mode, you could even just play around with it like an actual instrument. Like a virtual MIDI device, almost.
For clarity: I use Musescore as a compositional tool most of the time, although sometimes I just use it for transposing or transcribing. It does a great job, helping me compose music and giving me control over things I need control over. Even without a lot of options for mixing and dynamics, it helps me lay out ideas, plan songs, and write parts. It's got all of the essential tools, so I don't get bogged down in superfluous stuff like adjusting synths and filters.
In reply to I think the mouse input idea by joseph.branden…
More clarification: I read music well, bass and treble. And I can sight read, too. I don't use the keyboard because the mouse is easier. The notes are scattered around all over the keyboard because of QWERTY, and there are no keys for writing accidentals. It's just not as good as keeping on hand on the number keys to select rhythms, placing the notes with the mouse, and then fixing their chromatic inflection with the arrow keys. (I can keep one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard and not slow down unless I have to write a tuplet or something). Hotkeys are great when they are clearly organized, and for notes I prefer a system where they keep their serial order instead of their (arbitrary) letter names. An A440 is not a letter used to spell "cat" after all, so I think it makes it harder using the a key to write it instead of putting it next to G and B (the notes), even if it means putting them on the wrong letter-keys.
In reply to I think the mouse input idea by joseph.branden…
In case you didn't know, you can zoom in to make mouse entry more accurate. Ctrl+mouse wheel, or the drop down in the toolbar. As for notes entered in wrong octave, Ctrl+Up/Down changes octave very quickly. Accidentals are easily entered by keybaord: Up raises pitch (thus entering a sharp when appropriate), Down lowers (thus entering flat when appropriate). I *guarantee* it is faster than clicking if you read music (and are accustomed to the letter names), just might take a little practice! You can also redefine the shortcuts if you like. MuseScore 2.0 also provides a "Piano Keyboard" toolbar that I think many will find more useful still. And BTW, you can nudge the notes back into place with either the arrow keys or with drag, except drag won't work well in note entry mode, because the lick that starts the drag will be interpreted as a command to add a note.
In reply to In case you didn't know, you by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, I might try to use the keyboard. I use ctrl-up and ctrl-mouse wheel from time to time, but I still use the mouse. Maybe the keyboard will be quicker for me. I still think that Pianokeys mode is a good idea, though.
In reply to Thanks, I might try to use by joseph.branden…
And I am good at reading music, but i prefer t uses solfege to number names. I guess that's a bad habit, isn't it? But it makes sight singing easier.
In reply to Thanks, I might try to use by joseph.branden…
I woudn't necessarily say reading by number is better than note names; whatever works. But it definitely is ther case that comfort with letter names helps with the current entry system. You *can* redefine the shortcuts (Edit / Preferences / Shortcuts), but given hwo the octave prediction works, it won't be quite the same as using an actual keyboard. Do give the Piano Keybaord toolbar a shot. No one talks about this when discussing the new features in 2.0 buiklds, but it seems to me it would be quite useful for a lot of people. Still, it has the same disadvantage as MIDI entry in that accidental spelling has to be guessed, requiring possibly frequent correction (via the "J" key).
I should also qualify my "guarantee" that keyboard entry is more efficient than mouse if you are comfortable with reading music & note names: there is no doubt in my mind that actual amount of physical motion is less for keyboard entry - both the lack of a need to advance to the next position horizontally and the lack of a need to fine tune the cursor position vertically mae this so. So the maximum speed possible with keybaord entry is going to beat that of mouse entry. Whether any given user actually approaches that potential is another matter; that's the "matter of practice" I referred to.
Anyhow, yes, I agree a piano keyboard mode could be a good addition some day.
I would like to second this feature request, if there is any way of implementing it. Having switched to MS from Finale, this feature would be greatly appreciated.
In reply to I would like to second this by Fredrik Häthén
There are a lot of ideas discussed in this thread. Which one specifically are you supporting?
In reply to There are a lot of ideas by Marc Sabatella
And of course I had my comment removal plugin turned on so I couldn't see the entire thread. :P I was responding to the original feature request, i.e. being able to click and hold the mouse button and then drag it up and down to preview where the note will "land" and then releasing it to place it. :)
In reply to And of course I had my by Fredrik Häthén
OK.
Meanwhile. you might want to read the comments in the thread. While of course this would not be impossible to implement, there really are a lot of existing ways of entering notes and chances are you are just scratching the surface of what is possible. See the section on note input in the Handbook, also the tutorial videos on the main page. Mouse input, computer keyboard input, the new Piano Keyboard window, MIDI input. Spend a little time with these and I suspect you'll get used to one or more of them quickly enough.
In reply to OK. Meanwhile. you might want by Marc Sabatella
I really don't have problems with the "standard" mouse way to input notes on MuseScore.
But, even I know it isn't logic to compare today software with prehistoric tools, I remember there was a program to and from Atari (the 8 bits computer series), where the visual part was absolutely far away of any real music paper score, of course. But, however, that program had a very interesting way to input notes (and it is almost on this thread, now): we could input notes only with the computer keyboard. A number (to indicate the octave), a letter (to indicate the note), and another number which indicated the rhythm figure. Accidentals could be input too, but after we entered the note itself (I guess it was that way to avoid the internal computer gnome confusion, because the same letter "b" was used to the pitched B note and the flat accidental sign).
Could it be another way to input notes into MuseScore? Maybe? ???
Whatever, even I recognize and thanks a lot to MuseScore team, because it is an outstanding software; I think the "flat" issue about the input note process, is about the imperative system MuseScore has about the beats inside the measures. I mean: I can't input a note on the 3rd beat, of a 4/4 measure, without to input something on the first and second beats, first. Why not? Why the MuseScore gnome is too much "perfection rhythmical inspector"? ???
It is the same thing when MS Word didn't have the "direct cursor" capability: we had to use the tab, or the space, keys to reach the exact point we wanted to put some character. Since the day Word had the "direct cursor" capability, we just put the cursor, with the mouse, where we want to put the letter, and... period!!!
Well, just my humble idea.
Greetings & Blessings!!!!!!!
Juan
In reply to I really don't have problems by jotape1960
The reason you cannot enter something onto the third beat without entering something on the first two beats is simple: MuseScore is a music notation program, and music notation doesn't have any way of representing that. The only way music notation has of saying, "this note is on the third beat" is to have two beats worth of something else preceding it. So, you need to enter those two beats of something else first.
In reply to The reason you cannot enter by Marc Sabatella
But, Marc, music is a basic arithmetic thing (I'm talking about the rhythm, only).
A 4/4 measure has 4 quarter note beats (I discovered the wheel!!!).
If I input a note into the beat number three, it is obviously and mathematically logic to guess that the beats number one and two are just rests (empty rhythmic places). Simple and basic.
The very old MIDI software I used (two decades ago) could understand this simple thing.
What I want to say (and ask) is to change the behaviour of the MuseScore gnome in a way that it always has seen a measure as a place full of rests and where the user can replace any of those rests by notes (always thinking in the most shortly rhythmic figure we could to put inside the measure), without the today full measure (whole note) default rest behaviour.
In simple words: today MuseScore shows us an empty 4/4 measure, with just one rest, a whole note rest. If we want to put a quarter note into the second beat of the measure, we have to change (manually) the value of the shown rest (from a whole to a quarter note) and then, only then, we can put our note on the original place we wanted to put it (maybe I'm wrong and there is another way to input the notes, way that I don't know; but it is the only way I know, today, to do this).
Isn't it the "long road" way? ???
It would be nice if MuseScore show us a measure with 4 rests (at least, the 4 beats, not only a whole note), and lets us to input a note whatever we want to put it!!!
I insist, Just my idea (but I guess more than one has thought about it).
Greetings & Blessings!!!!!!!
Juan
In reply to But, Marc, music is a basic by jotape1960
Again, keep in mind MuseScore is a *notation* program. It deals first and foremost in *symbols* that will appear on a *written page*. A note on beat three must be preceded by one or more symbols - actual black marks on the paper that you would normally write yourself if you were doing it by hand as well. And rests are just as important as notes when it comes to notation. Notation is read left to right - rests as well as notes - and thus it is *written* left to right too. You enter notes and rests into MuseScore left to right the same way you read them.
Sure, it would be *possible* for MuseScore to create some new special mode that would allow you to skip leading rests in certain cases. But to me, it's a very strange thing for a notation program to do. You don't *hear* rests, but you definitely *see* them, and thus I expect to *write* them, whether using pencil and paper or a computer. Again, direct control over what you *see* is the main purpose of MsueScore. If you want a program that deals first and foremost in entering *sounds*, you a sequencer, not a notation program.
This feature would be really helpful when using voice 2-4 (green, yellow, and violet). But it would be hard to do. 4/4 isn't the only time signature you know... I personally almost never use it. The program would either have to use the numerator for the number of beats (so, 9 in 9/8 time, for instance) or learn to count the beats intelligently (so, 3 beats in 9/8 time). But I guess the first would be easier and more useful.
In reply to This feature would be really by joseph.branden…
Well, not just that, but even in 4/4, what if you want to start on the fourth sixteenth note of beat two? Or the seventh thirty-second note? Sure, it would be possible to come up with a system for dealing with this, but the more work that goes into making a feature like that flexible enough to actually be useful, the less time there is available for implementing features that are actually important for a notation program, and the more complex and harder to maintain the program becomes, leading to more bugs.
And even in voices 2-4, in "most" cases you are still supposed to show rests to make each voice complete, although indeed there are certain well-defined exceptions to that rule.
The bottom line remains: the way music notation works, if you want a note on the fourth sixteenth note of beat two, the way you do that is, precede it by something else for the first one and three quarters beats. That's how music is read, and that is how it is entered into MuseScore.
In reply to Well, not just that, but even by Marc Sabatella
Marc, I don't want to "fight" with you or the whole MuseScore development team, no!!!
I just wanted to point that the music has two aesthetic aspects (and I'm not sure which is more important): a) Rhythmical calligraphy, and b) Melodic calligraphy.
MuseScore is absolutely outstanding about both... WHEN WE FINISH THE PIECE. That's the final target (I think).
BUT... as with the standard characters of our languages, you have to remember there still are the typical "Calligraphy" exercise books to learn how to write our words.
And, those calligraphy pages have the typical regular and precise separation boxes to write one character on each box.
It is a graphical, visual, rule.
Yes, I know nobody respects this when we are "adults" and write our typical hieroglyphs.
But, in music we can not to write hieroglyphs because the musician won't understand us.
But, even with our hieroglyphs, we can to start to write not necessarily at the edges of each line, and we can leave some on purpose spaces, any sizes.
Why not to "teach" the MuseScore gnome to recognize a graphical invisible rule? ???
And I come back to my original example (BTW, I don't want to input a note into the 64th beat of some measure, even the fact that there should be a lot of pieces with that kind of entries): The third beat (quarter note) of some 4/4 measure should be done directly, without to change the whole note rest of the shown measure.
How? Simple: teach the internal gnome that a 4/4 measure has up to 64 possible rhythmical "boxes" (like the calligraphy exercise books) inside the measures, so the user's notes could be enter on any of those 64 possible positions. Automatically, the MuseScore gnome could calculate how many free spaces there are before and after the entered note and it has to fill it with... rests!!! Unless the user enter another note at any other possible place, of course.
An invisible "calligraphy" rule. A regular separation on the rhythm domain. Simple and direct.
Of course, when the piece is finished, there is no reason to maintain the precise regular spacing. MuseScore can back to the standard way to re-ordering the note spacing (to save space).
That's all, folks!!!
Did I write my idea, right? ???
In reply to Marc, I don't want to "fight" by jotape1960
Marc - MuseScore 2 is amazing, and we all think so. We're not trying to fight with you here, and yet I feel this very confrontational attitude from you. All we're doing is suggesting things that would make MuseScore easier to use for us! That said, as a dev, you are free to incorporate and ignore at your discretion.
I'll leave this whole discussion now since it's clear it isn't going anywhere. Just wanted to throw that in there - please don't take it the wrong way.
In reply to Marc, I don't want to "fight" by jotape1960
I apologize for sounding confrontational. These are good suggestions, and could save a few keystrokes in some cases.
I guess my response is more about the idea that there is something "wrong" with having to enter rests. To me, in a nutshell, that is one of the essential differences between a sequencer and a notation program. The first deals in sounds only and thus does not have a concept of a rest, so of course it would feel unnatural to have to enter them. The second deals with the symbols used to communicate those sounds, and rests are just as important as notes. And I think many times when people have problems adjusting to MuseScore, it is because they haven't grasped this (or some other) essential idea, and that doing so would help them feel more comfortable with the software. That is why I continually point this out - to help me "get inside" how MuseScore works and thus work with more effectively.
But that doesn't mean there is no room in MuseScore for certain sequencer-style features. I'm just one of many developers, so perhaps someone else will be inspired to find a way to implement this.
In reply to I apologize for sounding by Marc Sabatella
Marc, maybe I didn't express with the right words my simple idea.
It isn't about sounds or MIDI sequencers.
Simple, think about the entering notes process, just this.
Today, when we start a piece (from scratch), or when we edit an already done piece, in MuseScore we have (I come back to the original example) the 4/4 measure (where we want to put a new note) and a whole note rest (if the measure is full empty). Then we have to change that rest, before to click on the "N" button, from a whole note to quarter note, to reach up our 3rd beat.
What I'm asking is a way to get the internal gnome recognize, automatically, the rhythmic figure I'm choosing from the rhythm notes menu and changes the whole rest to the rhythm figure rest more appropriate. In this case, after I click on the "N" button, if I choose a quarter note, then the whole note rest should be change into 4 quarter note rests, automatically, in the time I click on the quarter note from the rhythm note menu!!!
That's all!!!!!!!
Am I asking too much? ???
In reply to Marc, maybe I didn't express by jotape1960
I am afraid I don't understand. If you want a note to start on beat 3, you are not supposed to put two quarter rests before the note - you are suposed to a single half rest before the note. So what you describe would produce the wrong result, unless I am missing something.
Also, you don't "change" the existing measure rest into a different rest - you enter the half rest as if the measure rest never existed. You want the end result to be half rest followed by quarter note, so that is exactly what you enter, in that order. "6 0 5 C" is what you tyope to get that result.
Again, I'm not saying there aren't other possible input methods. But really, if you want to *see* a half rest folowed by a quarter note, I don't see why you resist the idea of having to *enter* a half rest followed by a quarter note.
In reply to I am afraid I don't by Marc Sabatella
If I choose a quarter note, I'd expected to have just quarter notes locations per measure (I'm not sure if the rests are strictly necessary, here).
The fact is, more important than the note I choose is the possible "location" inside the measure.
Today, I see only a whole note rest (which I have to change before I choose the note I want to put on the score).
But, if MuseScore shows you all the possible "locations" inmediately, when you choose the note (without to have to change the rests values)...
In other words, it would be nice and practical the "invisible rule" behind the staff.
I'm really sorry because I don't have any way to show you how the old notation software I used (1996-2010) worked on this point (that software doesn't run on Windows Vista, 7, or 8, and doesn't run with Wine in my Lubuntu installations). But, the basic idea is about the program showed you all the possible "locations" inside the measure. You didn't have to change, or erase, any. You just had to choose the place and put the note there.
Something like the LibreOffice Write "invisible" rule (the screen dots network).
Can you "catch" my idea? ???
In reply to If I choose a quarter note, by jotape1960
Yes, I understand, and as I have said, it's not a bad idea for some day.
One thing that maybe hasn't been clear - I guess you are using the mouse to input notes? That's generally not very efficient. One thing that will help right away is to get more comfortable with the other methods of note entry - especially the computer keyboard.