Much too hard to use
Because I'm not a composer, I don't know how things are going to sound until I enter them and listen to them. So I need to move the notes around after entering them. And I can't do that with MuseScore. Even just deleting a note is impossible. I've spent the past 10 minutes trying to delete a note. I can't figure out what typing the "delete" or "backspace" keys is supposed to to - it does random, unpredictable things, even if I don't switch modes. The manual says nothing about how to delete a note.
What I want is for editing music to be as easy as editing text. There is a vertical bar indicating where you are in the score and where your next note will be entered; I expect that when I press "delete" it will delete the note to the right, and if I press "backspace" it will delete the note to the left, as in a text editor. It's nothing like that. Sometimes 'delete' does 'undo' (which is unnecessary, as ctrl-z already does that. Sometimes it does something else. I eventually deleted most of the notes in my first measure by banging on the delete key over and over, but could not delete the first note. I had to delete the first note by deleting the first measure; but how to delete the first measure? The manual says to select the first measure, but I couldn't do it. I tried switching note mode on and off, clicking inside the measure, above the measure, and after several minutes I was able to select the measure, but never figured out how I did it.
And as far as editing, like moving a note after entering it, or making it longer or shorter, these things don't seem to exist.
Much too hard to use. I give up. Sorry.
Comments
If you change your decision, check the video tutorials : http://youtube.com/user/musescorehowto
What I want is for editing music to be as easy as editing text.
Written music is far more complicated than text... Unfortunatly, or fortunatly...
For the record, you delete a note by clicking it (while not in note entry mode) and hitting delete, simple as that. Unless your keyboard doesn't have a true delete key, as some Mac's don't, in whch case you might have to set up a different shortcut. Selecting a measure is as simple as clicking an empty space within it, but you can also shift-drag select or use standard keyboard shortcuts (click first note, shift-click last).
But indeed, music is *not* like text, and you do need to read up or watch the videos if you want to understand how to use the program - you can't expect note entry to work exactly like text entry. If you do actually check put the documentation and take the time to learn how things work, you will find it is extremely easy to use - certainly more so than either of the two most popular commerical alternatives.
In reply to For the record, you delete a by Marc Sabatella
I am new at this just tonight and have learned a lot. Wanted a program to rewrite music for my mum she has macular and can't see much. She was a music teacher and does the most amazing things with a keyboard she needs really big notes and likes A4 pages. So this has given me an excellent place to be.
I was having trouble deleting stray notes and rests. Thank you for your reply to someone else it has done wonders to help me. This looks a great program.
Is there an easy way to delete a full staff line or just bit by bit by selecting the a measure.
Once again thank you
In reply to Deleting notes and selecting measures. by [DELETED] 765056
For your mum, you can increase the size of the music in Layout -> Page Settings -> Scale. If you make the space unit bigger, the music will be bigger.
Regarding delete a full staff, you can click on the first note, Shift click on the last one and press Del to delete the content of all the measures. Press Ctrl + Del or Edit -> Delete selected measures.
In reply to For your mum, you can by [DELETED] 5
Lasconic's reply will remove the notes. If you want to remove the staves themselves, click in the first measure you want to remove, shift-click on the last, then, Control-delete (PC instructions).
Regards,
Just keep on playing and asking questions, check the forum for FAQ a lot of stuff keeps coming round and round like clockwork. I am no computer wiz but I am pleased as punch with musescore. I copy some stuff into it just so it can play it back to me so I can work out what it should sound like. When writing your music if you turn your sound on you can hear the note your putting in, if you don't like it turn of the notation mode (N) and just select the note and move it up and down.
Have a cup of tea and try again later.
If one enters "muse score is too hard" into Google this is what comes up. And after trying to use and love Muse Score for over a year I have to agree: Muse Score is just not very usable . But I care enough about this software to have created a login so I can offer my comment and maybe someone can educate and correct me.
In a nutshell, the only way I have found Muse Score to be useful is if I first write everything out by hand so it's perfect and then enter the score into Muse Score. But if I then want to edit: forget it.
Now it would be unfair to not offer an example, so let me proffer something simple.
Let's say I am transcribing a solo (a frequent occurrence) and I determine the first 4 notes are B-C-D-E and I enter them all as quarter notes. But then I realize that the B actually enters on the 2nd beat and the last 2 notes are eighth notes. Changing this should be easy: Just insert a quarter rest on the first beat and change the last 2 notes to eighth notes. But, when I change the D, Muse Score inserts an eighth rest. And this, in a nutshell, is what makes Muse Score so hard to use: instead of just doing what I tell it to do, it insists that it's smarter than me and makes changes I did not ask it to make. If I insert a quarter rest that pushes every note a beat to the right: just do it! If I shorten a note and that brings every notes over to the left: just do it!
I once tried to use Muse Score to transcribe a Vietnamese folk song where the time signature changes frequently: what a nightmare! Muse Score would consistently enter notes I never entered, just to maintain bar line consistency.
Stop it!
If you want to make Muse Score useful as a music EDITING tool (and not just a transcriber of finished product) then change the tool so it does EXACTLY what I tell it to do and not what it thinks I need it to do.
Someone, please use my example to explain I am totally off-base.
In reply to Muse Score is too hard by bejepop
Your frustration is indeed common among people who come to MuseScore with certain preconceptions of how it should work. I was once one of them. But once I *got* how it works and stopped thinking along the lines I was originally thinking, everything fell into place, and I now find it easier to use than the programs I had used previously.
The trick is to realize that MuseScore *is* doing exactly what you tell it - nothing more, nothing less. If you want to push things to the right, it's easy in MuseScore - just do it *yourself*. Select the notes you want to move - and after all, only you know how many notes you need moved - then cut and paste. Simple as that. It's a different mindset than thinking in terms of how it might work with pencil and paper, where adding a rest does indeed have the - often unintended - side effect of changing the times of others notes. In MuseScore, notes stay put until *you* move them.
What you are seeing as MuseScore trying to be smarter than you and do things you didn't tell it is exactly backwards. MuseScore is *refusing* to do anything you aren't telling it to do - and that means, it *will not move notes* unless *you* move them.
Once you truly wrap your mind around this, everything becomes dead simple. Want to change the time of notes? Then do so *directly*. Cut them from their current location, paste them to the new.
Now, that does mean it helps to enter notes in the right places the first time - entering them into the wrong location and then moving them later just creates unnecessary extra work. So why enter four quarter notes on 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you know that isn't right? But if you do make that mistake and wish to correct it, this still is not particularly difficult. Probably the most efficient way is to select the first three notes, cut, enter the quarter rest, paste the three notes you cut onto beat 2, then change the note on 4 to an eighth note and re-enter the last note onto the "and" of 4. Although in this particular case, simply re-entering all four notes is probably simpler still. Depends on how badly you mis-entered the notes in the first place whether re-entering the passage makes more sense or not.
In reply to Your frustration is indeed by Marc Sabatella
That's clearly and well stated Marc. I think all of us have shared the extreme frustration as we began to use MuseScore, and many of us have come to appreciate how well it works.
Best regards,
In reply to Your frustration is indeed by Marc Sabatella
I've only been using Musescore for less than three weeks, and I am finding it very easy to use. Yes, there was a bit of a learning curve, but then anything that can do what Musescore does would require some effort to understand. Once I got the hang of it, I found it easy to use. Within a week to maybe ten days, I had entered scores with multiple voices, arepeggios, accidentals, text for tempo and volume (ppp, pp, ff etc.), key changes, tempo changes, triplets, pedaling and more. This past week I added lyrics for the first time and (with help from forum members) learned how to align them etc. I downloaded and installed a soundfont within a week, and now I'm concentrating on formatting and layout.
I am very appreciative of the work and dedication that the team has put, and continues to put, into Musescore. Thank you!
none of music notation software easy to start to operate, just timely matter,
for beginner, just fill all bars with crochet e.g. 4/4 beat, click crochet and press 0 to get it done.
Then it's more easy to edit afterward.
I was in the process of looking for software to write down music and came across Musecore and a couple of other free notation programmes. I dabbled with all three and came to the conclusion that as far as I was concerned Musescore was way ahead on the others, can't even remember what they were called now. I have been using it for a couple of years now and still can't get over what a great programme it is for free. I haven't found anything serious I can't do with it and I find it really useful for my work with a Folk Band and a couple of Morris sides. Keep on digging and asking questions and I am sure you will get to grips with it very soon. Some of the page layout tools are useful for formatting your presentation and when I started I thought the handbook was way behind the programme, but by time I had put together a few suggestions they had beaten me to it and updated it. It is still a work in progress but it is getting to be more stable and better mannered all the time.
When in the normal mode, i.e. not in note insert mode if you click on a note you can drag it up or down to suit, or select the note and use the up and down keys on your computer keyboard to raise or lower the note a semitone at a time.
When selecting a measure you have to be sure to click in an empty space or you may select the note or anything else in the measure.
Just keep trying you will get there.
Agreed! It is incredibly fustrating. I add a note, sometimes I cna use the back space to removie it and add the proper note and sometimes I can't. Then there are so many different versions when you search for help you get an answer that worked four versions ago!
Is there anything that lets me put hwat is in my head onto the page?
In reply to Agreed! It is incredibly… by DouglasP1111
Best way get information on how to use the program is to use the actual online Handbook - see the Help menu within the program. be sure to read the section on note input. it's true random web searches might yield older information.
Backspace actually works as "undo" by default while in note input mode, so it can possibly undo things other than adding notes. Delete, on the other hand, deletes whatever is selected, whether that's the last thing you entered or not.
Everything actually extremely smoothly and efficient once you learn how, but like any other incredibly powerful program, there can be a little bit of a learning curve.
See also this tutorial I made - even though it's for an older version, everything about note input it still applies:
https://school.masteringmusescore.com/courses/366102/lectures/6267305
Meanwhile, if you attach your score and describe in more detail what you are having trouble understanding how to do, we can assist better.
In reply to Best way get information on… by Marc Sabatella
Interesting that a string to which I added my own petulant complaint almost 8 years ago still elicits responses! The fact that I continue to use Musescore should testify to my willingness to work through its challenges. More to the point, I have seen that many of the issues I have with Musescore do get addressed. For example, my specific complaint had to do with moving groups of notes from one location to another: Musescore would "offer" to add notes that I had never entered! It no longer does this (thank goodness); and if I attempt to move 3 and 1/2 beats of notes from beat 1 of measure 2 to beat 3 of measure 4 it no longer modifies the time values of those notes (!). All to the good, and, let's face it: there is no better FREE music notation software out there.
In reply to Interesting that a string to… by bejepop
Thanks for the followup! Good to see that that, indeed, as you start to wrap your brain around how things work, you learn to work with it and stop doing things that simply don't produce the results you want - you instead learn to do the things that do produce the results you want. Also, FWIW, while MuseScore never actually changed time values on paste, if you want to change them, you can now use Paste Half Duration and Paste Double Duration (in the Edit menu), neither of which existed eight years ago :-)
BN is big note music i have added for people with eyesight issues. My fussing around with musescore has been a most fun program. Trying to find the various F8 and Style / settings etc and the Palettes have been the worst part of the program. But this happens with all software that has a lot going for it. Keep on keeping on with this software, it really is awesome.