musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Request to have the ability to add more lines to single-lined (percussion) instruments, but each line specifies to the number of that instruments that combine into one stave.

Open
#22,918 0 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

feature request
Dominant language
C++
Stars
15.1k
Forks
3.3k
Avg merge
2d 2h
Merged PRs (30d)
91

Description

Your idea

Add lines to single-lined (percussion) instruments (which will signify the number of how many there are of the same instrument(s)) that are only notated to one line. Meaning that a single-lined instruments can be added more lines with how many there are of the same instrument(s).

(The feature for adding more lines to (a) single-lined (percussion) instrument(s) already exist but they will only use one line of the added lines, meaning added lines will not be used.)

Ideas for how it will look:
The single-lined instrument notated if only meaning to one of that instrument:
image
The single-lined instrument notated if meaning to multiple of that instrument:
image

(The feature for adding more lines to (a) single-lined instrument(s) already exist but they will only use one line of the added lines, meaning added lines will not be used.)

If the line only (or also) uses the spaces of that instrument, it will be notated like this:
image
(The note on the spaces will mean the high note and the note on the lines will mean the lower note.)

For dynamics it should probably be aligned to each voice if it will be specific only to one of those single-lined instruments.
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/22175

Problem to be solved

The problem that my idea would solve is most importantly the tiring workaround that most composers composing for single-lined percussion would rather do.

The way that they would do it is that they would add the specified number of single-lined instrument(s) then they would make it invisible (after adding the parts), then the notation of those single-lined instrument(s) combined would then be copied to a different instrument which will not be played and is pitched, then they would remove some lines (or add) so that it would be notated accurately. This is maybe the only way that it would align with their desired playback. This is how it would look without making the specific instruments invisible:
image

(This here is also how I would notate it with dynamics, (probably not done by most though.)
image

This workaround is tiring and is very impractical, doing this especially maybe for symphonies and large percussion ensemble works may take hours if not more.

Prior art

No response

Additional context

The feature for adding more lines to (a) single-lined (mostly percussion) instrument(s) already exists but the note will only use the first line from the top, meaning added lines will not be used.
image

Have you noticed that I used "Chinese Gongs" in the problem to be solved section? No that is not literal, or a dumb way to suggest adding Chinese gongs (but that would be pretty nice), its just a way to basically summarize all of the single-lined instruments, all are percussion (if there are instruments that use single-lined staves that aren't percussion tell me), most only use the line alone, and most rare percussion aren't in musecore or muse sounds :(.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue names no source files, tests, or entry points. Start by reproducing the existing multi-line behavior for single-lined percussion instruments and review the related dynamics discussion in issue #22175. Done would require the requested instrument count to use the added lines while retaining the intended playback and notation behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.