Anybody Use MuseScore?

JackLuis

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MuseScore is a free music program that allows you to write music on a staff and tabs too. I down loaded it and found that you could create a Ukulele in different tunings and make tabs from a staff, but I had problems with it and went on to other things.

Since I play a lot of dGBE and both hi and low G C6 tuning, I thought it would be a perfect way to create tabs for C6 and G6 tuned instruments.

Anyone else use MuseScore and know how to get the instruments to work? I was hoping to use it to teach myself to read a staff and to flesh out my chord sheets into staff music.
Check it out at https://musescore.org/
 
I'd simply ask if you have an iPhone or iPad and push you to Notion. Notion has a ukulele fretboard and chords...and you don't have to buy the full desktop version to use it.

That said, MuseScore's user base is very active--and the program is fully functional. I don't use it as Finale and Notion are my tools of choice.
 
I'd simply ask if you have an iPhone or iPad and push you to Notion. Notion has a ukulele fretboard and chords...and you don't have to buy the full desktop version to use it.

That said, MuseScore's user base is very active--and the program is fully functional. I don't use it as Finale and Notion are my tools of choice.

I don't have an I-Pad/phone or stuff. MuseScore is Free and seems to be everything I want , but confusing for an old/ :eek:ld:

I was an early Mac adopter and liked it, but after I got my Power Mac I got tired of having to go to Apple for upgrades and new hardware.
 
I'd simply ask if you have an iPhone or iPad and push you to Notion. Notion has a ukulele fretboard and chords...and you don't have to buy the full desktop version to use it.

That said, MuseScore's user base is very active--and the program is fully functional. I don't use it as Finale and Notion are my tools of choice.
Thanks for the tip, I'll check those out. I have MuseScore, but haven't had a chance to play with it.
 
I find Guitar Pro (works fine for ukulele) more intuitive and overall more accessible, but I also use MuseScore because of its open source nature and the pace at which it improves.
 
I just had to add: MuseScore offers a reader for tablets (not sure about phones) but does not have an editor for mobile devices.

I have not tried to do any arranging for ukulele on MuseScore...I do most of that on Notion (you can go to my blog to see public domain examples of songs I have arranged to share with others on Notion). Maybe I'll give that a try over the weekend and report back.

One other thought...MuseScore does operate more like Sibelius than like Finale or Notion. Every measure in MuseScore starts with all possible beats (in the format of rests), and as you add notes, the rests adjust. Finale and Notion create from ex nihilo and you build the measure as you go along. The way Finale/Notion handles composition makes more sense to me, but I know a lot of people that prefer the other way.
 
I'm interested in how to create a set of Ukuleles in different tunings in the instruments and to crate tabs from the staff or Staff music from a tab. I want to make a Hi-g and Lo-G Concert and a Hi-d and Lo -D Baritone to use with my Ukes.

I want to use the Tabs to translate the muscle memory to Staff to teach myself how to read music. I can figure it out, but I wanted to have a tool that lets me develop the facility to read directly rather than have to 'figure it out'.

When I first downloaded MuseScore, within a few days I was able to make a Uke and did well, for me, but I did something that caused all my work to disappear and then was never able to get it to work the same way as I had??? I kind of gave up on it but wanted to use the winter to make another attempt.
 
I use Musescore for other kinds of music and have only just started experimenting with uke stuff. So far it works very well for me. It may be that you were using a 'development' version that had some bugs in it? The Musescore forum is very active and helpful, so I would ask there for help with your problems. The great thing is that if it really won't do what you want you can suggest it as a new feature - there is a good chance that it will be incorporated into future releases.

One way of managing different tunings would be to create a set appropriate templates. I think you can also add 'custom instruments' so that you could have different uke tunings there instead. Musescore often has several ways of doing the same thing.
 
I use Musescore for other kinds of music and have only just started experimenting with uke stuff. So far it works very well for me. It may be that you were using a 'development' version that had some bugs in it? The Musescore forum is very active and helpful, so I would ask there for help with your problems. The great thing is that if it really won't do what you want you can suggest it as a new feature - there is a good chance that it will be incorporated into future releases.

One way of managing different tunings would be to create a set appropriate templates. I think you can also add 'custom instruments' so that you could have different uke tunings there instead. Musescore often has several ways of doing the same thing.

Thanks. I downloaded an update yesterday and so now I have the latest program. I hadn't realized they had a forum so I will visit there. I guess one of the problems I have is that I have no background in music and lack a vocabulary to discuss it. That is one of the things I find UU is good for, to introduce me to new concepts and ways of viewing music. When I started about two years ago I had no concept of Keys or scales but now I can at least understand the concepts behind the discussion of them.
 
You've prompted me to take another look at MuseScore. :)

I originally tried v1.3, but I needed v2.0 for whatever it was I was wanting it for, (either uke or 'harp tab).
Anyhow, I'm going to give it another go as I've got v2.2 available on OpenBSD right now, & have installed it.
So, I guess, I've got some reading to do over the weekend now. ;)

Edit: Some links for anyone who is interested.
https://musescore.org/
https://musescore.org/en/forum
https://www.youtube.com/user/musescore
 
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I had used musescore this spring to transcribe a bunch of small piano compositions for my younger daughter, about 4m30s worth, to submit as a suite to a composition competition. Learned a lot about musescore along the way and yes, I used a midi keyboard to make some parts of note entry a bit easier. The whole measure as first class data really bothers me since I always want to write the notes in phrases, then lay the measures on top later as they are mostly a nice reference for keeping time.

I haven't messed with any tabs yet myself but need to look into that as a way of notating music. Is there any way to automatically generate nominal tabs from music score? (I refuse to buy any apple products and I don't have any windows in the house either.)
 
If you set up a uke (or guitar or whatever) score with staff and tab lines and make sure you choose the option to link them, then any notes you enter on the staff line will also be generated in tab, including the rhythm marks. If you don't like the position chosen, just drag the tab number to the string you want and it will automatically generate the new correct number.

MuseScore has the option of irregular or unmeasured bar lengths - useful for plainchant, or cadenzas, for example - and you can also change the length of individual bars.
 
I've been watching the MuseScore In Minutes vids. It looks like the 2.0X variation s a lot easier to use that the 1.X I had. Of course it helps that the vids are available!

But it is time for Christmas dinner and PIE!
 
I have a 13.3" tablet for all my music, I don't use paper anymore. I create the PDF sheets in my graphic design app, Canvas Draw 3, which allows me to control the page to the exact size of the tablet screen, 830x1280 pixels. Does anyone know if MuseScore allows modification of the page size?
 
Kohanmike, I'm not sure any program that i deal with exports specifically in pixels...most of the time they export in inches (mindset to paper). That said, you can export images (screenshots) in MuseScore at specific DPI and perhaps even pixels. I'm curious what 13.3" tablet you are using. I'm using an "old" iPad Air 2 with hopes to update to the next 12.9" iPad Pro in the Spring.

To everyone else in the thread, I just took 15 minutes to download the latest version of MuseScore (2.0.3.1) and my test of a notation package is to just throw myself into it and to make it work. Please keep in mind that I do one thing that the average user doesn't do...if I can't find the answer, I look in the manual (search) and if I cannot find the answer there, I look on the web.

I was able to make the linked part easily enough...select ukulele, then add linked part, and then scroll down nearly to the end for ukulele tab. I then threw in the notes to Twinkle, Twinkle. As I mentioned before, MuseScore works from the perspective of always working with a full measure, so as you add notes, you take notes away. This is a challenge, I think, if you need to add a note between other notes...I think you often are better off deleting the contents of a measure and starting over.

The next task was to add chords...CMD + K adds chords above the notes. Spacebar toggles forward.

Then I added fretboards...there are stock guitar chords in the palette, so I selected a note and then double clicked the "C" guitar chord, placing a fretboard above the desired notes (underneath the existing chords). The fretboard DOES NOT match the existing chord, so you can end up with a printed letter and fretboard that do not match. Once the fretboard is present in the score, you can right click it and chose to customize the fretboard to the pattern you want.

My shortcut, since there is no ukulele library of fretboard shapes, was to copy the one I had just made (select and CMD + C), then to go to every other similar chord, select the note, and paste the fretboard. I copied this step for all 3 chords in the song.

The final step was to add lyrics (CMD + L), adjust the position of the "composer", and to take a screen shot.

In summary...Notion is more friendly...iOS or computer, and it costs money. I was able to create this short score in a very short amount of time (less time that it has taken to write this review), and suffice it to say that if you want to create lead sheets with MuseScore, you can do it with just a bit more effort than Notion. Interestingly, I would suggest MuseScore over Finale, which makes dealing with fretboards very difficult...MuseScore is a better option. Notion has that library of standard fretboard diagrams and by default creates a linked part--but Notion was created by guitar-friendly owners and developers.

Here's a snapshot of my score, if you are interested.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.jpg

This is probably a better image (from my blog post...I generally copied and pasted what I wrote here):

twinkle-twinkle-little-star.png
 
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I'm curious what 13.3" tablet you are using. I'm using an "old" iPad Air 2 with hopes to update to the next 12.9" iPad Pro in the Spring.

It's a Hannspree Hannspad HSG1281 with Android 4.2.2. I'm very much an Apple Fanboy and at first used my iPad 3 Retina, but I found the music too small for my eyes, so a couple of years ago I searched online and found the Hannspad on sale at Amazon for $150. I only use it for my music with MobileSheets Pro, which is very similar to ForScore and OnSong, I use my iPad for everything else (including slipped into an Alesis iO Mix four channel mixer recording to GarageBand). After using it for a few months and seeing that it's discontinued, I grabbed another from Amazon for $225. Haven't seen any since.
 
kohanmike,

Thanks for sharing. I do know MobileSheets, and I just want to mention that the developer JUST announced MobileSheets for Windows 10...so anyone with one of those large Surface Pro 4 models now has an option for sheet music (there was Sheet Music Reader, which is a $65 program) in PDF on their devices.

I'll have to keep my eyes open for one of those Hannspad models if I don't get the 12.9" iPad soon. I have had to start wearing reading glasses...and I think 8 years of iPhone and 6 years of teaching with an iPad have increased the need for the glasses.
 
I tried to use MuseScore but was unhappy with the learning curve.

I was pleased to see that it was free, open source and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. I use a Mac for my music computer, but Linux on my everyday computer.

Having spent almost 33 yrs working as professional in IT, most software comes easy to me, and like Choirguy, I like to just dive in and figure it out, but this time I just kept getting too frustrated...and my time to go online and read the tutorials or watch the videos kept getting interrupted and cut short, so I had to shelve this program for the time being...

All I really wanted to do is get a treble clef for the melody line (with lyrics below) and then the guitar, or uke chords, either just the name (like Bb7+5) or a full pictogram lined up above the single staff line, and this I could never make happen. It would be nice also to get a uke or guitar TAB staff as well, but again, my efforts have been futile...

If anyone has a link to instructions, I'd sure appreciate having them. Not sure what version I am running, but seems like maybe I should check for an update as well...

Thanks in advance for your assistance. :music:
 
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