Barbershop Music

• Dec 11, 2008 - 05:23

Hello,

I am in the need to create Barbershop Music.

In which there are several requirements:
1) Voices: Tenor = Alto (an octave higher, above Lead); Lead = Soprano, Baritone = Baritone; Bass = Bass

2) Stems: Tenor - up, Lead - down, Baritone up, Bass down

3) Clefs: (already) Treble (Tenor and Lead) and Bass (Baritone and Bass)

4) Notes: (a) We have a lot of, what we call, Chinese notes, in the same clef; ex. C and D, so we need to notes offset a little to see the exact note. The note shifts are based on the stem placement. (b) We can also have voice crossings with possible slurs, so the slurs need to follow the part.

5) Lyrics: We need to have the ability to have "part" lyrics: Tenor above the staff treble clef; Lead existing placement in treble clef; Baritone above the staff bass clef, Bass below bass clef.

6) Labels: (a) At least the ability to label the voices (although most modern music don't have them) (b) For the lack of a better term, Section labels - Verse, Chorus, Tag, etc, above the staff treble clef

Nice to have:
1) To apply the Key Sig, Time Sig, ending Bars, etc to both staffs at the same time

This is all I can think of for now. I can also send you some examples in PDF form.

Thank you, Duaine Hechler
Member of the Men Of Harmony Chorus, Florissant, MO - www.fvbbs.org


Comments

Almost all of these are already possible in the current version of MuseScore. I'll go through the points one at a time:

1) I'm not sure what you are requesting here. You can change the text in front of any staff. Right click on an empty part of a measure and select "Staff Properties".Change the long name and abbreviated name to say what ever you need.

2) See voices . If you are working with voices frequently I would try the 0.9.4 prerelease where the stems automatically flip for you.

3) Treble and bass clefs are of course supported. See handbook: clef

4) Seconds offset automatically in 0.9.4 prerelease. For custom adjustments double click the note head and use the arrow keys.

5) MuseScore can have lyrics below each staff but it does not support lyrics above a staff. As a work-around you can use four staves when necessary.

6) For "labels" go to CreateTextStaff Text and type in what ever you need. Look at the other choices in the Text submenu you may want several of them. See also text editing .

Nice to have
1) Already implemented in 0.9.4 prereleases.

Please note that 0.9.4 prerelease contains many improvements but is still "beta" and contains bugs.

Take a look through the [[nodetitle:handbook]] if you haven't already. It describes how many of the features work in more detail that I can describe here.

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