musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Ability to change between "pitched" and "unpitched" clefs for the same instrument

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feature request
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Your idea

Ability to change between "pitched" and "unpitched" clefs for the same instrument - i.e. it should be possible to add a percussion clef to a pitched instrument staff in order to indicate that a particular passage doesn't require pitches (e.g. body percussion or instrument tapping).

Problem to be solved

In music written for a normally-pitched instrument (including voice) you may wish the performer to change to performing unpitched sounds for some period that would be best notated using percussion clef. Currently there's no straightforward way of adding a percussion clef to a staff that's for a normally pitched instrument, even using Staff Type changes or the master palette.

Also, if you simply want to use a percussion clef but don't care about playback and don't want to deal with drumsets, this would allow simpler note entry for percussion parts (i.e. just treating the pitches as though it were a treble clef).

Prior art

No response

Additional context

Can be worked around by using change instrument to a percussion instrument, but then you're forced to deal with the oddities of drumsets etc.
It does seem it's possible in principle for a staff to change from an initial percussion clef to a pitched (treble/bass etc.) clef via editing the mscx file, but not back again, not sure why. Even using the master palette I don't seem to be able to add a "visual only" percussion clef to a staff for a pitched instrument, unless I do it as a symbol, in which case everything has to be manually positioned.

Checklist
  • This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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  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 files or tests. Start by reproducing the current staff type, master palette, and change-instrument workarounds, then trace how clef changes are represented for pitched and percussion instruments. Done means a pitched instrument staff can switch to a percussion clef for a passage and back again without requiring a percussion instrument or manual symbol positioning.

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
35/100

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