My review on MuseScore
There are lots of cool things I like about MuseScore 2. My favorite is that you can play it back just as written: accurate, instant feedback! But there are, imho, some things that I find awkward, time-consuming, and rather maddening. I hope this helps improve the product. Take this review with a grain of salt, because I’m an older guy, and I’ve never been very “techy.” Nevertheless…
- I bought a midi cord to be able to input notes from my keyboard, but MuseScore and my keyboard aren’t talking. Nothing pops up automatically. There’s no discernible sound or sight. I pushed the midi symbol (alone and in every possible combination). Nothing.
- There’s got to be an easier way of returning from a second page back to page 1, but if there is, I haven’t found it. What I do is go to the menus, pull down the play panel, click the rewind button, click play for one second, click pause, and I’m there. A back button would be great.
- It talks about “selecting a section” in several places, but rather than tear my hair out looking for it, I limp along selecting and dealing with one measure at a time.
- I found how to add a measure, but I don’t seem to get a choice of right or left.
- I can add rests (sort of), and I can delete notes, but it should be MUCH easier to delete rests. I can always put it back if I want to. All my attempts to do it another way fail. The problem is it won’t tolerate, even temporarily, the measure having the specified # of beats.
- I found out how to “add a measure,” but I see no “delete a measure.”
- Many of us are so accustomed to basic Windows navigation (click and drag, cut and paste, etc), it would be nice if MuseScore did as well. For instance, it would be so nice if I could simply “grab” an 1/8 note and move it from the front to the end of the measure.
- It sometimes just does weird stuff, like I’ll change an 1/8 note to a ¼ note and other things will change, too, like delete a flat sign, or change the value of a note nearby.
- One more. If I hover over various symbols, it will give me an “explanation” but most of them consist of simply showing me the symbol (again), with no explanation. Not helpful.
Comments
1. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-input#midi-keyboard, make sure the MDI Keyboard is connected and Switchen on before yopu start MuseScore
2. Multiple ways, see https://musescore.org/en/handbook/keyboard-shortcuts#score-navigation
3. Click one measure, shift+click last measure, see https://musescore.org/en/handbook/selection-modes
4. You have the choice to insert (in fron of the current) or appaned (to the last) measure
5. Voice 1 rests can't get deleted. Music is there (note) or not (silence → rest)
6. Select measure, press Ctrl+Del
7. Copy/Cut/Paste do work, using the strandard shortcuts or the menu
8. If you change an 1(8 to a 1/4, the next note/rest will have to change to give way for the now longer note. MuseScore doesn't habe an 'insert' mode, just 'overwrite'
Thanks for taking the time to reply to all my stuff, Jo Jo. Coincidentally, one of my nicknames is also Jo Jo! I see a common thread: I guess I need to read the instruction manual. Manuals aren't usually much help to me, but I confess I should spend more time on that. Some of your answers I understood, some will take more time, and one (#5 I think) I didn't get at all. The last one (#9) means that in the middle of doing one thing, the program will do strange things, as mentioned. Thanks again.
Joe (Jo Jo)
In reply to Thanks for taking the time to by Joe Nickeson
?? 9.One more. If I hover over various symbols, it will give me an “explanation” but most of them consist of simply showing me the symbol (again), with no explanation. Not helpful.
Nothing about strange things happening there
#5: you enter notes (musik) in voice 1 (blue), these replace rests (silence). On places where you don't have music, you still have rests (silence. You can't delete them and there's no point in doing this anyway. MuseScore just makes sure that every measure has notes and/or rests to sum up to the actual duration of that measure.
For voice 2, 3 and 4 though, you can enter notes, and get rests in the 'gaps', but these you can delete.
If for some strange reason you think a voice 1 rest should not be vilisble, select it and press V, it won't print then anymore
In reply to Thanks for taking the time to by Joe Nickeson
The reaosn you cannot delete a rest is that it would leave you with too few beats in that measure. Plus it doesn't make musical sense - you don't delete silence; you *replace* it with sound. So assuming your actual goal is to replace that rest with sound - whether a newly entered note or a note copied from elsewhere - just do that. No need to delete the rest first - just enter the desired note directly on top of the rest, and it will be replaced.
These may not directly answer your questions, but they are related:
5. Try right-clicking on a rest (or any other symbol on the score) and go to Select > All similar elements, then press delete. Even better: select a few measures then right-click on a rest and go to Select > All similar elements in range selection, then press delete.
9. Once you have added a symbol to the score you can select it and then press F1 and you will be taken to a help page about that symbol (help page opens in your web browser).
As for deleting rests, I guess I didn't make it clear, but I wanted to delete a rest TEMPORARILY so I could then add one in toward the end of the measure. Or if I want to, say, replace an 1/8 rest and an 1/8 note with a 1/4 note, It won't like that either, because it would (temporarily) be too many beats. I guess I could clear the whole measure and start over, but it's such a waste. I haven't got around to trying the other solutions yet. Thanks.
Joe Nickeson
In reply to As for deleting rests, I by Joe Nickeson
Or if I want to, say, replace an 1/8 rest and an 1/8 note with a 1/4 note, It won't like that either, because it would (temporarily) be too many beats.
Presumably, the 1/8 rest and 1/8 note are adjacent to each other so all you have to do is enter a 1/4 note onto the position occupied by the 1/8 rest. The succeeding 1/8 note will be overwritten, i.e 'absorbed', by the 1/4 note, so there's not 'too many beats'.
You don't have to clear the measure and start over.
More info. here:
https://musescore.org/en/node/101016
Regards.
In reply to As for deleting rests, I by Joe Nickeson
For the first case, again, the effect of deleting the rest is to replace it with sound - specifically, the sound of some number of the following notes. So again, you don't need to delete the rest - that would be a wasted step. All you need to do is repace the rest with the notes you wish to hear instead, *directly*. That is, select the range of notes you wish to hear instead of the rest (the next note, maybe the next two or three or seventeen notes or whatever), Ctrl+X to cut, then click the rest, Ctrl+V to paste.
For the second case, once again, no need to delete the rest. Y9u want to hear a quarter note instead of the rest, so simply enter it *directly on top of the rest*. No need to waste time trying to delete the rets firs t- it's unnecessary and indeed does not work. Just click the rest, enter note input mode, and enter the note. It will replace the rest as well as the following note; no need to delete anything at all.