MuseScore: Free Music Notation Software

This is a review of MuseScore, a free music notation software.

I know other musicians are lurking here on WdC. And I wager that many of those musicians would love a simple-to-learn, intuitive, and FREE notation software option.

First, a bit of background, I am a veteran of many different music notation software/apps. I've used Encore, then at the insistence of a publisher, Finale, and another publisher, Sibelius. All of them were fine apps. Encore was simplistic, couldn't do everything I needed it to, and eventually stopped being supported. Finale had a high learning curve, was a bit finicky at times, and I spent far too much time tweaking things until I found out the publisher had professional tweakers. Sibelius was more user-friendly, offered better support, and needed less babysitting. Encore, at the time, had a free, limited version and an inexpensive complete edition. I mainly used it to set up and print items for lessons and other classroom activities. Finale and Sibelius were both pay-to-play and, even with an educator discount, were well over $300.00.

MusScore is a free, open-source music notation app. It is highly user-friendly, very intuitive, and well supported. There is no full version vs. free version. The download is the full app, ready to go with instrument sounds and everything you need to start working. It can be used either with just the computer keyboard, a built-in on-screen piano keyboard, or a plug-in MIDI keyboard. I mainly use a tower gaming computer for my musical activities, along with a small MIDI keyboard and a plug-in numeric keypad. The gaming computer pretty much matched the Superduper Music Creation Computer that was hawked by a company specializing in music merchendise, but at half the price. The MIDI keyboard inputs the note (do, re, mi, etc.), and the numeric keypad sets the duration (quarter, half, eighth, etc.). The keypad also allows me to move it to my left hand. I play better right-handed piano. If you do have good keyboard skills, you can also use real-time entry to play directly into the score you are writing.

MusScore supplies its own instrumental sounds; they are pretty realistic, especially considering that they're included free. There are better sound fonts available, but pricing starts over $100, and climbs rapidly from there. For the casual user, or someone like me who wants a reasonable playback, the MusSounds are more than adequate. If you're local for production-level work, the sounds you need will cost you.

Some of the things MusScore is especially good at:

Being Free and easy to obtain and use.

Transposition - that's when you have a piece in one key and need to move it to another. Musicians do that when the original key is either too high or too low for the performer.

Printing Parts - Parts of your score, if written for multiple instruments, are automatically extracted from the score and separated for printing, with minimal tweaking needed.

Being Intuitive - Most standard commands used universally across a broad range of apps can be used in MusScore. These include Ctrl-C, cut, and paste, among others.

A Great Support System - There is a direct link to a searchable Manual linked in the Help tab of the program. There are user forums (including Facebook), where questions are welcome.

The Ability to Save Work in Multiple Formats - in addition to having a native MusScore format, you can also save items as PDFs, which you can share with others, as image files to post in sites, and MusicXML, which can be shared with other notation programs. I send Music XML files to my publisher, and let them sort it out (no complaints from the publisher, but they're running a bit scared right now for being jerks).

What MusScore isn't good at:

Production Playback - The sound produced is basic, and what you get is what you get. There are tweaks you can make to make it more realistic, but it never reaches a professional playback level. However, using the MusicalXML format, you can move it into production apps that will upgrade to a valuable product. I don't do that, so I can send you places; I don't have experience using them.

Importing Files - MusScore's import PDF function doesn't always produce clean, useful results. It's usually faster to import the score manually than to fix the import. MuseScore will import and render MIDI files; it's not perfect, and it depends on the size and complexity of the MIDI file.

Scanning - There is a pay-to-play add-on for scanning music into MusScore. Music scanning programs are in their infancy and, as such, still need to improve their accuracy. Again, it's quicker to enter the score manually in most cases.

Associated Sites:

https://musescore.org/en - The site to go and download the MusScore App. Note the .org URL suffix.

https://musescore.com/ - A place to look for music, scores, and other fun stuff. Free scores and sheet music are available. There are also items to buy. Anything downloaded from the site will open in MusScore for you to play with on your own.

https://www.musehub.com/ - This is where you can find plugins, improved sounds, and other related MusScore items. Again, there are free things here, as well as items that you need to buy to use.

Marc Sabetella - Marc is a MusScore expert and a great resource. He is the founder/administrator of the MusScore Facebook Group. He stops in quite often to provide answers and guidance.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/musescore (Yes, I'm in the group}

He teaches an online class that you can find at https://masteringmusescore.outsideshore.com/ {No, I haven't taken the course)

In addition, he has written a book, Mastering MusScore, available on Amazon. ASIN ‏: ‎B013HBLLUG (I own the Kindle Version, but haven't read it yet)

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-MuseScore-beautiful-sheet-music-ebook/dp/B013HB...

If anyone has questions, I would be happy to try to answer them. I am still learning, but we can learn together!