An option to choose how you want to group notes in a measure

• Oct 12, 2010 - 17:39
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
closed
Project
MuseScore

Hi,
I want to post here a request I have. When you create a new score, you can choose the time signature, but you can't choose how the notes will be grouped into the measure. For example, I create a new score with a 7/8 time signature. It seems by default mscore groups notes by time. But if I want to have three group by quarter note and my last group by eight note, it's not possible.
to illustrate, in Sibelius, you have this feature. Here are some screenshot from sibelius 6 :
//img543.imageshack.us/img543/9805/sibeliuswindows01.png
As you can see just under the time signature option, you have a button named : "beam and rest groups..." When you click on this, another window appears. See this screenshot to watch the new window :
//img229.imageshack.us/img229/5831/sibeliuswindows02.png
In this window, you can manage several options on note group. For example, by default, in a 4/4 score, sibelius group eight note by 4. I have modify the line (which was 4,4) by 2,2,2,2 to have my eight notes grouped by 2

It could really be a nice thing to have this in musescore. And why not, a improved version of this, which let the user to change this option for a selected measure, or when he introduces another time signature in the score !
I hope my feature request is clear enough, otherwise, don't hesitate to post here and I will try to explain better.

Comments

• Mar 25, 2011 - 17:19

I posted a related query today (my first) and Lasconic suggested I post here too, so here goes.

Notating 6 quavers in a 3/4 measure with Musescore v1.0 r3996, the automatic setting beams quavers in pairs i.e. 3 separate pairs of beamed quavers per measure, instead of all 6 quavers being beamed together as per The Royal Schools of Music Rudiments of Theory book which states:
"The rule is: group together as many notes as make one beat EXCEPT .... if a bar of 3/4 ... consists entirely of quavers, then all the notes should be grouped together".

Whilst Musescore does allow each measure to be corrected individually by selecting the first 5 quavers in the "blue box" and then double clicking the "Middle of beam" icon within "Beam Properties" in the Pallette, this has to be done individually for each measure and is time consuming.

Proposal:
As well as allowing users to choose the grouping of beams, Musescore's default "automatic beaming rule" should be brought in line with standard music notation convention i.e. in 3/4, 6/8 etc where the measure consists entirely of quavers or semiquavers then the notes should all be grouped together under a single beam.

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• Jun 16, 2012 - 15:57

I'd like to vote for this. I use irregular time signatures (5/8, 7/8 etc.) all the time and the ability to set beaming options would be very helpful. The alternative is manually rebeaming every measure.

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• Jun 19, 2014 - 15:48

I see you have classified this issue as fixed. Is there a downloadable patch for this for 1.3, or is this something that will appear in 2.0 when that it released?

Sorry to re-open an old thread, but I thought that better than starting a new one on a fixed issue. Trying to do my bit to avoid duplication. ;)

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• Jun 19, 2014 - 16:40

Thanks for the information. I will wait until 2.0 is released, I think. I'm not knowledgeable enough about software to play around with unstable builds, especially in the same computer I'm using for production.

Thanks again.

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• Jun 22, 2014 - 06:41

Recorder485: Unstable builds run separately from the stable builds, so it is fine to experiment with them on the same computer. Just avoid using unstable builds on scores you care about, unless you have a backup.

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