breaking beams

• Mar 9, 2015 - 03:15

MuseScore 1.3 Windows 7 SP1

I hope this is the right forum for this question - I'm starting a new project and am going to have questions but I don't want to post them in the wrong area...

Anyway, it's a choral work and, to match the text underlay (and for increased legibility), where I have 4 eighth notes, I want to break them in pairs. I've tried selecting the 3rd - 8th note and, under "Beam Properties", clicking the "Start Beam" icon. Nothing.

I tried the same process with the stem - again, nothing.

I'm perplexed. I'm sure that I'm doing something wrong but I can't figure out what. I don't really want to delete and re-enter - it would surprise me if it were necessary. Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

Roger Priddle

• Mar 9, 2015 - 03:33

Ok - 2 comments now.
1) figured out that to get a new beam I need to Double-click the "Start Beam" icon. Not particularly intuitive, but OK.
2) Having posted the question (and resolved the issue myself) I couldn't find where to delete the question. (If I had, you would never have known I was dumb enough to post before I tried everything... )

Jm6stringer

• Mar 9, 2015 - 04:01

Good work on finding your own solution - and this is the correct (support) forum.

Once you use the Beam Properties Palette a few times, you'll get the hang of it.
For more, see the relevant Handbook page:
http://musescore.org/en/handbook/beam

As far as deleting your original post, it's not necessary. Others may have the same question.

Regards.

Marc Sabatella

• Mar 9, 2015 - 13:14

FWIW, double clicking is how just about everything on the palette works. Some require dragging, some allow either drag or double click, but nothing on the palette works on single click.

underquark

• Mar 9, 2015 - 19:20

If you are doing a lot of beam altering I would recommend assigning Shortcut keys to common beam actions. I have ` (the upper, left key on my keyboard) assigned to Beam Start and \ (lower left) to Beam Middle. The former effectively splits the beam and the latter joins an already split beam. I find I can run through a piece quite quickly this way rather than mouse-clicking (and missing or moving notes unintentionally). The Shortcut keys are, of course, single-click.