MuseScore Usage Guide: A Personal Collection of Miscellaneous Tips

(Click to this external link for a Finnish version of this tutorial.)

Getting Started

First and foremost: If you’ve never used MuseScore before, it’s advisable to watch a quick tutorial video that demonstrates how to:

• Enter notes
• Delete notes
• Modify notes

For that, I recommend this video in the Musician Startup YouTube channel.

Hearing Notes with MIDI

To listen to notes in MuseScore, you will hear played music through sounds called MIDI. However, it’s essential to note that on at least MacOS, my experience suggests that MIDI might not function properly without an internet connection. So make sure that your internet connection is running at all times.

Adding Notes

• Ensure you are in note input mode (shortcut: N)
• Move forward with the right arrow key or the number 0
• Press numbers 1-7 to indicate note duration
• Press the desired note (e.g., “D”)
• If the note is too high in pitch, press Cmd+down arrow to lower the octave

Adding Chords:

• Select the note where you want to add the chord symbol
• Press Ctrl+K (MacOS: Cmd+K)
• Manually input the chord, starting with one of the following: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, followed by:
  • Sharp: #
  • Flat: b
  • Double sharp: x or ##
  • Double flat: bb
  • Natural: Ctrl+Shift+H
• If you want to add chords before or after the selected note, you cannot use the arrow keys; specific commands are available for this purpose
• Press Esc when you’re done

Reducing Measures If the Song Is Too Long:

• Select the measures
• Press Cmd+Del

Adding an Instrument:

• Press “I”

How to Fit the Entire Score on One Page:

• Go to Format → Page Settings
• Choose Scaling: Staff space (sp)

For more essential information on this topic, check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TprrHgmHg6E

Issue with Exporting as MP3:

When exporting a song, such as to MP3 format, some instruments may disappear. The reason for this is that certain instruments, such as the Piano channel, cannot contain a Sine Wave Expr. sound type; it must be a plain Sine Wave.

Creating a Hotkey for Rewinding:

To enable quick rewinding, it’s highly recommended to set up a hotkey.

1. Go to Preferences → Shortcuts (“Player: rewind”).
2. Create a custom hotkey for this function.

For further discussion on this topic, visit:

https://musescore.org/en/node/285182

Using Wikipedia Images for Reference:

If you need to work with bass clef notes on the piano’s left hand and haven’t memorized which note corresponds to which sound, you can use the image found at the following link from Wikipedia as a reference:

Wikipedia Bass Clef Image

Selecting/Extracting Notes for a Single Instrument:

1. Go to File → Parts → Single Part
2. Choose the instrument you want to select/extract

Deleting the Bass Clef Section for Piano:

1. Press “I” to open the instrument dialog
2. Click on staff 2 in the piano section
3. Click the “Remove” button in the middle of the box
4. Click “OK”

Changing from Alto Saxophone to Tenor Saxophone:

If the piece is coded correctly, there’s no need to actually “transpose” anything. Simply change the instrument as follows:

• Right-click on the staff
• Select “Staff Properties”
• Click on “Change Instrument”
• Choose “Tenor Sax”

If the notes are already transposed and thus “mixed up,” you can easily transpose them back as follows:

• Select “Notes” → “Transpose”

Selecting All Chord Symbols:

To select all chord symbols:

• Place the cursor on a chord symbol
• Right-click
• Choose “Select Similar”

Adjusting Dynamics for Each Note:

If importing a MIDI file brings dynamics for each note, and this is bothersome, you can proceed as follows:

• Open the Inspector (F8 or View → Inspector)
• Right-click on any note
• Select → Select All Similar Elements
• In the Inspector view, under the Note section, find “Velocity Type” and “Velocity”
• Reset both “Velocity Type” and “Velocity” to default

Keep Exploring!

I hope these tools give you a little jumpstart as you continue to explore and create in MuseScore. Happy composing!