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Topic: Differing configurations/spacings in a single piece of music (Read 6224 times) previous topic - next topic

Differing configurations/spacings in a single piece of music

Possibly asked before but I can't find it! I have a 5 verse song with the verses under the staff - no problem, but I also have a long intro which ends up widely spaced since the Lyric configuration applies to everything. For years I've been putting numerous spaces before the start of the lyrics to get them in the right place but, of course, the staves in the intro remain very widely spaced.
So: is there a better way of doing this? Is it possible to only apply the Lyrics and Lyric configuration to the piece of music they apply to and thus have the long intro print without huge spaces?

Re: Differing configurations/spacings in a single piece of music

Reply #1 –
You can try the following:

First: Select the entire intro, press <Alt><Enter> to get the Notation Properties pop-up, go to the 'Notes' tab and select 'Never' under 'Lyric Syllable'. Then you can remove the extra spaces before the lyrics.

Second: At the start of the staff: 'Insert/Boundary Change...' and select 'Set new boundary offset' and lower the 'Lower' value.

Third: at the end of the intro: 'Insert/Boundary Change...', 'Reset Default'.

Finally: Go to 'Print Preview' to see the result and adjust until a good enough result.
Always look on the bright side of life!

Re: Differing configurations/spacings in a single piece of music

Reply #2 –
Thank you, Opagust.
The boundary offset option is also very useful for songs with a refrain and several verses.

In the past I always moved the lyrics of the verses and of the refrain into separate staves with hidden rests (but with option to always show lyrics), and layering on a staff with music. With the collapse options, I could then to achieve the same result, but by playing with the boundary offset it is even easier.

Your solution for score that starts with a refrain and four verses goes as follows:
Put the lyrics for the refrain in the lowest lyric line and reduce the boundary (which defaults to 26) to 12.
In this case you cannot set the lyrics off for the refrain, since it is needed for at least one line, so the underscore trick is needed where for the lines where you don't want to pop up the refrain. If the refrain were at the end, no underscores would be needed.

Bart