Lyrics

Updated 10 years ago
This page shows old instructions for MuseScore 1.
For MuseScore 4 users, see Lyrics.
  1. First enter notes
  2. Select first note
  3. From the main menu choose Create → Text → Lyrics or type Ctrl+L (Mac: ⌘+L) and type the syllable for the first note
  4. Continue entering lyics:
    • Type Space at end of a word to go to the next note
    • Type a hyphen - at end of syllable to go to next note. The syllables are connected with a dash
    • Shift⇑+Space moves to the previous syllable
    • ↵ (Mac: Return) moves down to the next lyric line (Note: not the Enter key from the numeric keypad!)
    • Type ↑ to return to the above lyric line
  5. Hitting Esc ends lyrics entry
  6. To type a second or further lyric line repeat steps 2 and 3 above, or double-click the first syllable, hit ↵ and type the syllable for the first note, then continue at step 4

Sample lyrics:A-des-te fi-del-es

Syllables can be extended by an underline _ to notate a melisma:
Syllable extension line

Entered with: soul, Shift⇑ + _ _ _ To Esc.

Melisma over system break:

melisma.png

enter Ctrl+Space as the lyric for the first note of the new system, then type _.

Two syllables under a note can be joined with an elision character, also known as a "lyric slur" or "synalepha".
Sample syllable under a note

In the text toolbar, click on the keyboard icon Keyboardico.png , or hit F2 to open the Text Symbols palette. The synalepha is the 4th from the end (U+203F ‿ "undertie"). The synalepha will be evenly centered separating the syllables with two spaces and by inserting it after the first. For the "e͜ A" example shown above:

  1. Type e
  2. Insert the synalepha using the F2 palette
  3. Type Ctrl+Space (Mac: ⌥+Space)
  4. Type A

Note: AltGr+- leaves the dash near the syllable, as the mi- in the example.

Not all fonts include the synalepha character. To see which fonts on your computer support the synalepha, see fontlist . (Look for any font that shows a tie between "e" and "A" instead of a blank rectangle). The alignment of the character also varies between fonts.

Special characters

Lyrics can be text editing as normal text with the exception of a few characters: If you want to add a space, hyphen, or underscore to a single syllable, use the following shortcuts:

  • Ctrl+Space (Mac: ⌥+Space) enters a space into the lyrics text
  • Ctrl+- (Mac: ⌥+-) or AltGr+- enters a hyphen (-) into the lyrics text
  • Ctrl+Shift⇑+_ (Mac: ⌥+_) enters an underscore (_) into the lyrics text
  • Ctrl+↵ (Mac: ⌥+Return) or Enter (from the numeric keypad) enters a line feed into the lyrics text

See also