Okay, here’s something that happens not infrequently when I’m writing (or editing). Say I’m in 4/4 (90% of the time, that’s true). I’ve written lots of measures, then go back and realize that what I
really needed at one point was a measure of 2/4, and I need to chop out out a half measure. That’s the most common situation, although adding a 1/4 (or making something 5/4) also happens.
Out of ignorance, and constrained to the buttons and commands I’ve grown accustomed to, I have approached this in a couple of ways, all unsatisfactory.
- Change the measure before the cut to 2/4, cut what needs’ cutting, then put it back to 4/4 and clean up the resulting mess
- Insert a 4/4 marker just after the offending measure (to act as a wall against changing the rest of the score after), then change the measure before to 2/4, then cut the bad measure I want to cut, then put it back to 4/4, delete the (now) extraneous 4/4 marker, and (again) clean up the mess.
Surely there is a more elegant way to accomplish this. I suppose number one on THAT hit parade would be to recognize as I’m writing that I need a 2/4 or a 6/4 or a 5/4 or whatever at. the point I actually needed it. But, as my old dad used to say, hindsight is 20/20.
I welcome all useful procedural tips. Thanks!