Ledger lines go invisible when top note is set invisible

• May 5, 2024 - 18:35

I noticed that if I have two notes with ledger lines and I set the top note as invisible, the ledger lines fully go away, leaving the bottom note without a ledge line, meaning it would be impossible to figure out what note it is supposed to be on printed music.

I am trying to write violin harmonics with the lower note being shown but not played (on the playback) and the upper (sounding) note being played but not shown, but I can't figure out how to show the ledger line for the bottom note. I wish I knew about an easier way to write harmonics with the playback working as it would sound on the instrument, but I don't. Doing it by setting the sounding notes to invisible (how I am currently doing it), means I also have to adjust the note beam, which is annoying but at least doable. Any help would be appreciated.


Comments

First of all: I don't know anything about violins, so I don't understand this necessity. But that doesn't matter, I hope I've recognized your problem anyway ...

My idea: you could write the notes that you want to hear but not see in the score on a second violin line and then make this instrument invisible. At least in MuS 3 this is very easy to do.
Hidden+SoundingNotes.png
First staff: Your problem
Second staff: notes you want to hear and see
Third staff: Notes that you want to hear but not see. Make this violin line invisible.

(I already know that these notes in the very low pitch cannot be played by a violin).

In reply to by HildeK

Thanks for the reply, you understood my problem completely. Unfortunately, another staff messes up the spacing since it's a piece for solo violin, but that would certainly be an ok solution. It seems like I will have to sacrifice something (either the accuracy of the playback, the spacing/formatting, or the readability). Hopefully, in future updates, the Musescore team will code it so the ledger lines for visible notes don't go away.

(btw: the necessity is that harmonics on a violin often sound different than they are played. When you notate a harmonic, you use a hollow diamond notehead, which indicates the player lightly touches the string at that note. The note that is produced is generally a different note than what is fingered on the instrument.)

In reply to by Jams99

I was sure that I had seen instructions to let you hide a staff (so you could hide that harmonics staff), but still hear it play. However, I can't get it to work the way I thought it did and I can't find the instructions in the Handbook. (Must've been elsewhere ... or I'm remembering something incorrectly.) I still think it's possible and I hope someone can provide the instructions for this.

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