Measure spacing

• Feb 21, 2016 - 15:42

Hi team,
In the attached score, all systems contain 6 bars. I only need the chords, hence the design. Is there a way to make all the measures the same width, just like regular notation paper? I want the bar lines to line up vertically.

As a side note, I create these charts with the chords on top, select them all, and then use the offset arrows to move them into the measures. I'm never sure how many measures per system I want. I aim toward an uncluttered look. This is the only program on the planet that lets me produce chord charts in this fashion!!

Thanks.

Attachment Size
Ten Feet Off The Ground.mscz 8.14 KB

Comments

In reply to by Lee Batchelor

To be clear: Reset Stretch is not a magic "align barlines command". It simply removes the stretch you had already manually applied, returning measures t their default state. That is, the only reaosn they weren't aligning before is that you had previously forced them not to by increasing or decreasing stretrch in some measures. Perhaps this was inadvertent, but anyhow, that's all Reset Stretch does - return things to the default state.

Anyhow, the default width of a measure does indeed depend on the content. Measures with notes in them are wider than those without, as per standard rules of music notation. really, standard notation would ask you to *not* align barlines, because this can make it harder to keep your place, but I do understand that chord charts are a special case and that many people like to break this rule for these.

So, I'd start by adding slashes everywhere to get closer to equal measure widths. You can hide them where you want them, but why not keep them visible everywhere? That's more standard anyhow.

You;ll see see some measures with slashes are wider than others, because they also have chord symbols that are taking up additional space. By default, MuseScore adds space for chord symbols to keep them from overlapping, and this causes measure 10 (for example) to be wider than it would be without the chord symbols. You can defeat that automatic spacing by going to Style / General / Chord Symbols and setting the minimum spacing to some large negative number.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Great advice, Marc.

I think I'll continue to let Musescore do its thing with the automatic spacing. It works very well. And you're correct about barlines not always lining up.

I really like the idea of adding slash marks ahead of time. It maintains consistent chord to barline distances.

Many thanks!

Instead of moving the chords around, you will get much more consistent results much more efficiently by simply changing their default position. First select all (Ctrl+A) and press Ctrl+R to reset the positions of the chord symbols. Then, in Style / General / Chord Symbols, set the vertical position to 0.0sp, then in Style / Text / Chord Symbol, set the horizontal and vertical offset as desired. For example, 6sp horizontal and 5sp vertical will produce a more consistent version of what you started with, with no manual adjustments required except in "unusual" measures. Save this as a template, create scores from that template, and chords will always position themselves this way. Although the specific value of 6sp for the horizontal offset is specific to this measure width; with wider measures, you'd need a larger offset. But the principle would be the same.

In reply to by Lee Batchelor

I can't think of a great way to literally center the chords. You could play with tricks like entering two half rests and attaching the chord symbols to the second of them, but this is too far to the right, so youd need a negative horizontal offset and the specific amount would might still be dependent on the width of the measure. But, much less so. In fact, if you enter two half rests, attach the chord symbols to the second one, and have a horizontal offset of -2sp, it looks pretty decent with 3-6 measures on the system. but then if you *do* need two chords per measure, the first will be 2sp too far to the left. When really, you'd want it further to the right.

Personally, I'd give up on centering and let the chords be left aligned - maybe a horizontal offset ot 1-2sp. Less fuss, and I think it's actually clearer too - it's more obvious the chord change happens at the beginning of the measure, not some arbitrary place in the middle of it. Again, this is most apparent when mixing measures of a single chord with measures that have two chords. The centered chord would be indistintinguishable form a chord that changed mid-measure and would likely confuse the reader.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

That makes perfect sense, Marc. The only reason (and a lame one at that) I center single chords in measures is because a fellow musician hand wrote them that way and it stuck with me after he shared 200 charts. Musically, it is wrong! It wouldn't take me long to revamp all my charts.

Once again, thanks!

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