Which Do You Like Best?

[LSL2026]

These were generated from Musescore using the defaults for line widths, etc.

One is Leland, and the other is Maestro - I’m sure you can tell which is which.

The text fonts are different too. Thoughts?

Some of the spacing got moved so I’m not worried about some of the details, just more about the overall look.

What do you think about mixing the text font from the Leland one, with the Maestro music font - too much of a blend of old and new???

I’m especially interested in any comments on line widths/weights - including slurs and ties. Maestro’s default in MuseScore has all lines thinner and thus lighter, but I can make them thicker.

I kind of love everything about Maestro except 8th rests and smaller, and the flat symbols. But I can’t do anything about them in MuseScore…yet.

2 questions about more specific things:

m.34 - how is the solution with the ties…swapping voices is not really any better, though they could both arc above the D in between without going through any staves - it’s a pretty high arc to get both of them to clear. (See image below)

Another thought is that this could be in 6/8 or even 12/8, in which case dotted half notes would be used. 6/8 could work for the whole piece…

And:

3 systems on the final page…Usually I’d put 3 on the first page since it has the title and all the other text. I COULD make the final 4 measures be a new system so there would be 4 systems on all pages.

I figured here, because of the 8va bracket and the tempo indications and lines, as well as the parenthetical metronome markings, as well as the note for the asterisk at the end, there was enough filling the page to make it dense enough that 3 systems is OK.

Thanks

Monotony on D V1.pdf

(98.18 KiB) Downloaded 77 times

Monotony on D V2.pdf

(89.46 KiB) Downloaded 78 times

[Shinianqi]

Others may have input on the other questions, but as for measure 34, I think that while keeping consistent stem directions for the voices, simply flipping the ties and making a few adjustments can produce a result that is clear and easy to read.

m.34_ties.png (56.25 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

[LSL2026]

I tried that and I think it looks better - I didn’t make the tie ends go past the staff line, and I started them after the dot, but there’s enough arc there that they clearly look like ties.

[Shinianqi]

I tried that and I think it looks better - I didn’t make the tie ends go past the staff line, and I started them after the dot, but there’s enough arc there that they clearly look like ties.

Of course, just go with the style you prefer. As long as the idea is correct, it shouldn't get in the way of readability. The actual implementation will naturally vary depending on personal preference. I'm glad you've found a solution that works for you.

[OCTO]

Others may have input on the other questions, but as for measure 34, I think that while keeping consistent stem directions for the voices, simply flipping the ties and making a few adjustments can produce a result that is clear and easy to read.
m.34_ties.png

That is much better.
I think on the left side, the ties could be shorter in order to avoid clutter with the augmentation dots.

ScreenShot 2026-06-14 at 14.31.45.png (53.02 KiB) Viewed 1589 times

Another alternative is to use 6/8 TS.

ScreenShot 2026-06-14 at 14.33.00.png (40.58 KiB) Viewed 1589 times

[Shinianqi]

That is much better.
I think on the left side, the ties could be shorter in order to avoid clutter with the augmentation dots.

collision.png (70.61 KiB) Viewed 1556 times

Thank you for your reply, OCTO.

This sounds like exactly what LSL is doing. Personally, I don't really mind it as long as the tie doesn't go straight through the augmentation dot. Considering the musical meaning of the tie, I tend to keep it as close to the notehead as possible.

As for the images you posted, I think they are also an option, but one would generally want to avoid having the center of the tie's curve coincide with or touch a staff line.

[LSL2026]

That is much better.
I think on the left side, the ties could be shorter in order to avoid clutter with the augmentation dots.
ScreenShot 2026-06-14 at 14.31.45.png

This is exactly what I did.

I may still consider 6/8...

[LSL2026]

This sounds like exactly what LSL is doing.

Yep. I’ll have to double check about them coinciding with the staff line but I think whatever I naturally did was the best I could get out of them - though it’s worth a re-think, or, the 6/8 solution still.

[frames]

These were generated from Musescore using the defaults for line widths, etc.

One is Leland, and the other is Maestro - I’m sure you can tell which is which.

The text fonts are different too. Thoughts?

Some of the spacing got moved so I’m not worried about some of the details, just more about the overall look.

What do you think about mixing the text font from the Leland one, with the Maestro music font - too much of a blend of old and new???

I’m especially interested in any comments on line widths/weights - including slurs and ties. Maestro’s default in MuseScore has all lines thinner and thus lighter, but I can make them thicker.

I kind of love everything about Maestro except 8th rests and smaller, and the flat symbols. But I can’t do anything about them in MuseScore…yet.

2 questions about more specific things:

m.34 - how is the solution with the ties…swapping voices is not really any better, though they could both arc above the D in between without going through any staves - it’s a pretty high arc to get both of them to clear. (See image below)

Another thought is that this could be in 6/8 or even 12/8, in which case dotted half notes would be used. 6/8 could work for the whole piece…

And:

3 systems on the final page…Usually I’d put 3 on the first page since it has the title and all the other text. I COULD make the final 4 measures be a new system so there would be 4 systems on all pages.

I figured here, because of the 8va bracket and the tempo indications and lines, as well as the parenthetical metronome markings, as well as the note for the asterisk at the end, there was enough filling the page to make it dense enough that 3 systems is OK.

Thanks




Monotony on D V1.pdf


Monotony on D V2.pdf

I don’t really have a preference as to the music font, although if you go with Maestro I’d bump the line thickness up to match Leland: the Finale fonts default to really thin staff lines, stems, hairpins, ledger lines, etc., which really hampers the legibility. I don’t know how to adjust line thicknesses in MuseScore, but the absolute thinnest I’d go would be 0.1 spaces for staff lines and stems, 0.15 for ledger lines and barlines, and somewhere in between for hairpins.

For text fonts the world is your oyster: the only fonts I’d really recommend against are Times New Roman (partially because of overuse) or any other fonts where the thin strokes are whisper-thin, like a lot of “Garamonds”. MuseScore and Dorico default to adaptations of Century Schoolbook created by Muse and Steinberg (Edwin and Academico, respectively), which is a very pleasant look IMO. Century Schoolbook isn’t the best font when it comes to lyrics though, so if you want something that looks similar to that but with more condensed letterforms I really like Nepomuk (although I also really like it in general). Sibelius used Plantin MT as its default for a long time and despite the official Monotype digitization of Plantin being kind of hot garbage I still think it looks really nice as a text font for sheet music, although there are certainly better digitizations available through other foundries. There are a number of free fonts like Crimson Pro, IBM Plex Serif, and Adobe Source Serif that I also think look really nice. Adobe Minion is another popular choice right now (and is my current go-to), although I’d go with Minion 3 as opposed to Minion Pro almost purely because Minion 3 doesn’t default to that god-awful (in my opinion) “Th” ligature.

Some people have very strong feelings against using sans serif fonts in sheet music (particularly as the primary text font, not just for titles and rehearsal marks), but I’m not opposed to them if everything is still legible to the performers. Just don’t use Arial.

[LSL2026]

I don’t really have a preference as to the music font, although if you go with Maestro I’d bump the line thickness up to match Leland: the Finale fonts default to really thin staff lines, stems, hairpins, ledger lines, etc., which really hampers the legibility. I don’t know how to adjust line thicknesses in MuseScore, but the absolute thinnest I’d go would be 0.1 spaces for staff lines and stems, 0.15 for ledger lines and barlines, and somewhere in between for hairpins.

I just posted an updated version in another thread ( viewtopic.php?t=1471 ) where I had done exactly those things. They’re not quite as thick as Leland, but much closer. I like a “lighter” (i.e. not Bravura level) look but yeah, FInale’s defaults are way too thin. Years ago I had created a style in Finale I was really happy with but can’t retrieve any of the settings so I’m kind of trying to re-do it in MS - it has good control over all the line settings.

the only fonts I’d really recommend against are Times New Roman (partially because of overuse)

Haha, well it’s TNR (the other one is Nepomuk).

I don’t have an issue with overuse. I feel like, it’s highly used for good reason And I did compare what I had and just couldn’t find anything that didn’t have something that irked me.

I’ve compared Edwin and it’s pretty darn close, so TNR floats my boat. Plus, I want things to “not look like they came out of MuseScore” essentially. Even though it has a “traditional look”, I want something a little contemporary and a little more “me” if that makes sense (even though TNR is what it is).

I really like Nepomuk (although I also really like it in general)

.

I really liked it. When I was comparing I was like, “this is the only one I like better than TNR” - and I didn’t realize it came from users here.

In the end though, I felt like it went well with Leland, for a more traditional look (and better than Edwin honestly) but for a more modern look, not as much. I’ve kept it for the page numbers right now - I really like Georgia’s page numbers, but it does that up/down thing which is cool for dates and whatnot, but for page numbers it makes page 2 look like it’s a smaller point size or different font!

Crimson Pro,

I have a Crimson and that was #2 until I found Neopmuk.

It’s nice, just a bit “squatty”.

Some people have very strong feelings against using sans serif fonts in sheet music

I’m in that camp.

Part of the issue for me is I’m old enough to have seen a lot of hand-written stuff in the pre-Finale days that used lettering kits that had sans serif stuff (so it looks very “mid-century” to me), and then when we get to the Finale etc. days, the amount of fonts people had available made Helvetica and things like that go crazy - because all anyone ever had before was Typewriters! There was a time when eveyrone was trying to make things look “futuristic”...

I may still dink around with Palatino or Crimson to see if they’re any more “contemporary” looking but I’m completely happy with TNR and always have been. I grabbed the Maestro text font and put it side by side with TNR and they’re the same. Identical if not so close it doesn’t matter.