Navigating Musescore

• Mar 18, 2025 - 02:16

Hi everyone,

I'm a visually impaired indie musician who has been recently starting to learn how to compose music with Musescore Studio. I am so far very impressed with the accessibility of the UI for screen reader users; it's very challenging to find software thatActually works with screen readers and that's very easy to use, focusing on my music compositions.

I read through the handbook on accessibility and keyboard navigation. While I understand the basic keyboard shortcuts to get around the user interface, I'm still unsure of how to access it's advanced features.

For example, I'm not sure how to set up a gradual tempo change. Through the pallets menu, I appear to only be able to make the tempo change faster or slower by a predetermined amount, but I'm not sure how to change the tempo changes by a sposific amount (E.G. from 55 BPM to 105 BPM).. I'm also unsure of how to insert a crescendo with specific parameters, for example, from dynamic MP to dynamic FFF. I was able to insert tempo and Dynamics elements manually to simulate a gradual tempo change or a crescendo, but it wasn't very efficient. Do you have any suggestions on how to set the tempo and crescendo parameters with a keyboard and screen reader?

I also don't understand how to insert repeated notes with a very fast interval, like a drum roll or similar repetitive note sound, except for perhaps adding repetitive 32nd or 64th Notes. Is there a better, easier way to accomplish that?

Thanks so much for your help!

Comments

• Mar 18, 2025 - 03:55

I'm not sure how this will translate to your particular situation, using a screen reader. But in general ...

To add a gradual tempo change, we first assume that you have a tempo defined at some point before you want the change. The default tempo, if none is placed in the score is 120 bpm. It's usually best to specify the tempo in the first measure if you're intending to have any change in the music (even if your initial tempo is actually 120 bpm).

Select the note that begins (or ends) the rit. or accel.. Then Shift+click the last (or first) note of the tempo change. (You may need to use Shift+Right, or Shift+Left. I'm not sure!) This will select the notes that the gradual tempo change is to happen over. In the Tempo palette, click the appropriate change: rit. or accel..

To change the tempo by a particular amount, select the tempo change text (the rit. or accel.) itself. Go to the Properties tab (upper left) and click the Playback button. The default slowing for a rit. is 75% (3/4); the default speeding for an accel. is 133% (4/3). You can change those percentages on this screen. You can even make it do the WRONG thing: have it say rit. and increase the tempo instead. It would be a dumb thing to do, but it's possible.

Changing the dynamic gradually is very similar. Once again, it needs to have an initial dynamic level set at some point prior to the dim. or cresc. Select the range over which the dynamic change is to take place. Then click on the dim. or cresc or a hairpin. Then set a new dynamic level immediately after the change ends. (Alternatively, you can do the two steps in the other order.)

For a drum roll or similar, check out the Tremolos palette and the Handbook section on them: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/tremolo-and-rolls.

Hope this helps! (And sorry I can't be more directly helpful about how these actions work with a screen reader.)

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