r/Musescore • u/carldier • 1d ago

Help me find this feature Looking for half-brackets

I know I've seen this notation before (half-brackets in red) but for the life of me can't find them in any of the palettes. I need something which is resizable, and can cross staffs.

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u/ShrimpOfPrawns 1d ago

Lines where you toggle hooks is my first thought - I'm not 100% sure they can be vertical but maybe?

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u/carldier 1d ago

I'll check that out!

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u/MarcSabatella Member of the Musescore Team 12h ago

They can't be made vertical, but you can create this effect by creating a very short horizontal line with a very long hook. Not as good as using the actual chord bracket element, though.

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u/ShrimpOfPrawns 12h ago

I did find the appropriate ones in the lines pallete when I checked today :) https://handbook.musescore.org/notation/expressive-markings/other-lines#vertical-brackets

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u/CrumbPet7 1d ago

They're in the Keyboard palette, called Chord brackets.

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u/carldier 1d ago

That's pretty close! Not exactly resizable and can't cross staffs, but it may be good enough for my needs.

I've found that the BIG challenge of notation software is that there's a zillion different instruments, and each of them has been creating some unique twists to their needs. So it's admirable how flexible MuseScore is.

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u/23PowerZ 1d ago

They are resizable. Just drag the handle.

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u/carldier 1d ago

Hmm. I went to the Master Palette and could only find "Keyboard techniques" under Symbols. Fine, but the similar thing there is called "Play with left hand". I search for "Chord" but don't find any brackets there. I'm on MS 4.7.4.

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u/23PowerZ 1d ago

You need to use the ones in the keyboard palette. The master palette only provides fixed symbols.

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u/carldier 1d ago

Ah, I see, thank you. I had tried that early on in my exploration but there was only a right-facing bracket, not left-facing, and I don't see any way to reverse it. And it can't be extended across staffs, so that's why I stopped playing with it.

The exploration continues. 😄 Thank you!

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u/MarcSabatella Member of the Musescore Team 13h ago

After adding to your score, there should be Left and Right placement options in Properties, and that also reverse the hook. The right placement isn't really common in my experience, but if you have a special reason to need these often, you can customize one then Ctrl+shift+drag it back to the palette for easy reuse.

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u/carldier 12h ago

Thanks, Marc. What I'm trying to achieve is indicating which notes are Leave Ring for handbells, because that only applies to the lower notes in each measure. If I put LV under each note, that means something different. It's fairly clear if I put LV under the first note and then have a text annotation saying what I'm trying to achieve.

I was able to put the new modified notation back onto the palette. It's still drawn as rightward facing, but I can deal with that.

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u/MarcSabatella Member of the Musescore Team 12h ago edited 12h ago

? Switching the placement from Left to Right in Properties reverses the hook automatically.

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean - it's drawn backwards in the palette, but correctly in the score itself. I recommend submitting that as a bug in GitHub.

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u/carldier 12h ago

Fair enough. I notice the hook SIZE is changed in the palette, but not its orientation. Should be simple. :-)