Pedal lines: hairpin-like adjacent snap for continuous change pattern; custom hook angles; independent note-anchored hooks

Your idea

Summary

Please improve pedal lines and note-anchored lines so that practical editorial pedal notation (notably used in Takahiro Sonoda’s piano editions) can be engraved cleanly, without awkward workarounds.

This is not a request for “every publisher’s house style.” Sonoda’s pedal notation is somewhat unique, but it is practical, elegant, and (I believe) not hard to implement on top of MuseScore’s existing line/hairpin behaviour. Worth doing.

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1. Pedal adjacent snap (like hairpins) — main missing piece

What already works: adjacent pedal segments with slanted (e.g. 45°) start/end hooks can already meet as a clean V at a pedal change. That part is fine.

What does not work well: the continuous “repeated push & release” pattern used in Sonoda’s legend — one continuous base line with multiple upward change ticks:

In MuseScore today, pedals feel editable mainly as separate spans (base line + fixed hook presets). There is no clear hairpin-like control to say: when another pedal is adjacent, snap / adsorb forward and/or backward so consecutive changes join into one continuous change chain (the pattern above), instead of looking like disconnected brackets.

Request:

• For pedal lines, add options analogous to crescendo/diminuendo (hairpins), e.g. snap to previous / snap to next when adjacent.
• When snapped, consecutive pedals should share a continuous visual join suitable for “continued repetition of push & release,” not only isolated brackets; it should also be possible to turn snap off so that unwanted joins (e.g. a vertical tick forced in the middle of what should be a single span) can be avoided.
• Prefer keeping this as an explicit property (on/off per end), same mental model as hairpins.

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2. Pedal start/end hook: custom angle (beyond presets)

Pedal Properties already offer Start/End hook presets (none / 90° / 45° / T-hook / arrows) and hook height. Gradual depress / gradual release in Sonoda’s legend use slanted hooks; 45° covers many cases, but free control would be better.

Request (nice-to-have, same family of UI):

• Allow a custom hook angle for Start and End independently.
• Ideally expose hook tips as editable nodes: drag the tip to set slant/length (base line remains editable as now), so you can intuitively control where a gradual release ends or where a gradual depress begins.

MVP can be a numeric angle next to hook height; node dragging can come later.

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3. Note-anchored lines: independent hooks on both ends

For Note Anchors, Start/End hook styling is too limited (commonly both forced downward). Some piano/analysis brackets need opposite hook directions (one up, one down) or custom angles. Without that, the only practical fake is a slur, which is the wrong object.

Request:

• Independent Start/End hook style, height, and direction (up/down); ideally angle too.
• Same optional node-drag model as pedal hooks if implemented.

For reference, below is a screenshot of Sonoda’s full revision policy / notation legend and some musical examples (forgive the lower image quality — this comes from a copy borrowed from a library).

Problem to be solved

1. Continuous pedal-change chains are hard to engrave
   Sonoda-style “continued repetition of push & release” needs consecutive pedal changes to join like a chain. MuseScore can already form a V with slanted hooks at a single change, but lacks hairpin-like adjacent snap to build the continuous multi-change line cleanly.

2. Hook geometry is still preset-bound
   Gradual push/release is only approximate with fixed 45°/90° presets + height. Free angle (or tip nodes) would make editorial pedal graphics match the intended look with less fighting.

3. Note-anchored lines force slur workarounds
   When a straight bracket needs mixed hook directions, users fall back to slurs. That hurts semantics and fine visual control.

Again: this style is especially associated with Sonoda’s editions, but the resulting notation is clear for performers and would strengthen MuseScore for annotated piano scores. Implementation looks close to behaviour MuseScore already has for hairpins + existing pedal hook presets.

Prior art

Related MuseScore issues (searched; related but not the same)

• #13653 / #14209 — custom hooks / separate start & end hook heights on lines
• #26148 / #26166 — hook up/down UX
• #21279 — note-anchored line discoverability / defaults
• #24504 — allow any line to become note-anchored

I did not find an existing request for:

• pedal hairpin-like adjacent snap to form continuous repeated pedal-change chains;
• arbitrary pedal hook angles / tip-node editing beyond presets;
• independent note-anchored hook directions as a first-class need.

Current MuseScore

• Pedal Start/End hook presets (incl. 45°) + hook height: already useful; adjacent slanted hooks can form a V.
• Missing: explicit adjacent snap for pedals; free hook angle; richer note-anchored hooks.

Other practice

• Source of the continuous-change glyph: Takahiro Sonoda / Shunjusha piano editions (legend + score usage).
• Hairpins in MuseScore already demonstrate the “snap when adjacent” interaction model this request wants to mirror for pedals.

Additional context

Source

Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 No. 1, ed. Takahiro Sonoda (Shunjusha).
Legend item “The reviser’s pedal signs” includes basic brackets, continued repetition of push & release, and gradual push/release slanted hooks.

Language note

My native language is Chinese, and I am less familiar with Japanese and English. This issue was drafted with help from AI translation; please forgive any unclear wording.

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