Exporting individual score parts in MuseScore

• Jul 19, 2024 - 19:31

I've got some scores in MuseScore. I want to export and save just one instrument from the scores in MuseScore format so that I can make some amendments to that one individual part.

So far I've not been able to find a way to do this.

Has this never been a feature of MuseScore or is it hidden somewhere and I just can't see?

Many thanks in advance for any help with this.


Comments

With MS 3 it works : first you must create these parts, after you enter in one part and save it , only it with a personal name . After , if you close the first score you can load this new "sheet music" and work with it, but the modifications don't go to the score .

In reply to by cadiz1

It is not clear to me why you would want to export a single part. It seems simpler to Just save a copy of the whole .mscz file (with a new name) and work on that. You can close the parts and hide the staves you don't want to see.

If you really want just one instrument in the score you will work on then remove all the instruments you don't want and save the resultant score (again with a different name).

In reply to by SteveBlower

Thanks for your reply.

As I said in the original post, I want to export one single part in MuseScore format. Not in any other format.

I'm doing this because I'm key matching with original recordings and trying different 3-note, swing-style guitar chord voicings.

This means that sometimes the recording is not the same key as the supplied score. Also, sometimes the guitar chords quoted are just wrong and need to to be tweaked to make them compatible with the recording.

It's a practice and education exercise.

As for opening the score with focus just on the guitar part, I've already done that and saved the full score as "SCORE_NAME_GUITAR" and then deleted all the other parts. But that's a pain. I posted my question in the hopes that there was an easier way of doing this.

I have some 25-30 scores I'm going to be potentially working with, so doing that for every tune is a frustrating time-suck I was hoping to avoid.

It doesn't seem, though, that that is the case.

C'est la vie.

In reply to by SteveBlower

I didn't say it stopped me from doing anything. But it's not my preferred working method and I don't want the clutter of all the other parts.

And it has nothing to do with hearing or listening to the guitar part. As I said in my original post, I simply want to easily export a single instrument in MuscScore format and work with it. It's that simple. I also explained that I have found a workaround (although I don't see why I should have to do that - namely save the score under a different name and remove all the instruments I don't want to work with).

I don't understand why MuseScore provides the option to export a part in about a half dozen different formats, none of which is the native MuseScore format, but that was someone else's decision, strange and illogical as it may be.

In reply to by willh

"I don't understand why MuseScore provides the option to export a part in about a half dozen different formats, none of which is the native MuseScore format, but that was someone else's decision, strange and illogical as it may be."

Musescore has never provided an export option in the same .mscz format. Why should it? To use your term, it's illogical. Indeed, why go through a detour, waste time with the export process, choose the wished format etc. when it was enough (V3) to do:
1. Open the part
2. Save As... Name.
Done!
As already said, this is a regression in V4: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/15582

I used this feature a lot in V3 when, for example, with Guitar Pro scores, the only thing I was interested in for my students was the electric guitar part, solo or/and rhythmic (not the vocals, bass, drums etc.)
I'd save this part, and the original file would go to the recycle bin. No useless files lying around.

Since XML export is not an option for you, I'm afraid your workaround of deleting unwanted instruments is the least bad. If there are only two or three instruments, let's say it's still okay. But if you have 6/8/10 or more instruments, it's a pain indeed.

In reply to by cadiz1

Perhaps "export" was not the best choice of term. I used it, however, because the only way to access the option to save what I wanted to work with as its own discrete part was under "Export". Maybe this is where comments should be directed at the developers rather than the users.

Think of it this way: I use a Mac. It has a built-in tool called Preview that can be used to view and work with both PDFs and various graphic files.

If I open a multi-page PDF and only want to save or work with one of those pages (a guitar part, for instance), I can just click on that page, copy it and open it instantly as a new PDF. Job done. I don't have to save the entire file as a new file, then open the new file and delete everything except what I want to keep.

This brings us back to the work "illogical" I think.

Anyway, it is what it is and I've moved on with just getting the work done.

In reply to by willh

Well, since your very first message, we've been talking about .mscz format and only .mscz format. Now the the conversation takes a sudden turn towards the use, with a Mac, of a built-in tool called Preview that can be used to view and work with both PDFs and various graphic files.
It's a bit confusing.
First, I work with Windows, so maybe there's an equivalent, I don't know at the moment. Secondly, as far as PDF export is concerned, it works perfectly for parts: Open a part / File / Export / Pdf format. Done.

In reply to by cadiz1

Clearly I was drawing a parallel with my reference to Preview.

But since you're finding that hard to understand, I'll try again.

MuseScore doesn't allow you to save individual parts of .mscz files as .mscz files.

Every other piece of software I've ever worked with does allow you to do that. Preview is an example of that. It opens and supports PDF files and allows you to save individual pages of a multi-page PDF file as a PDF file.

And again, one final time, I have absolutely no interest in saving any score parts in any other file formats. I've said that I think 3 or 4 times now.

Does that make things clearer?

In reply to by willh

"Clearly I was drawing a parallel with my reference to Preview. But since you're finding that hard to understand, I'll try again."

I understand perfectly, thank you. I'm just saying that the conversation has taken a different path. I reread: you referred to the Preview tool in your last comment, not before.

"MuseScore doesn't allow you to save individual parts of .mscz files as .mscz files."

Once again, it works perfectly with V3. Not with V4, which is a known regression, I've linked to twice.
What can I do about it? Perhaps the most useful thing for you to do would be to add your voice to this bug report on Github, to press this request for the return of this feature, by detailing your use case, as you have doing here.
Here then: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/15582
(All you need to do is open an account on Github)

EDIT: Well, I see that Jojo-Schmitz has already provided the link to this discussion on Github. So, since it describes your use case I guess we can leave it at that and hope this regression resolved sometime.

In reply to by cadiz1

You certainly can save just one part. Open the file, remove the other parts, save the file. If you want to keep the original (which certainly seems likely), save the file under a new filename. How is this difficult?

In reply to by willh

Notation software, any notation software, doesn't work like other programs any of us are used to.

There are at least two ways to do what you want. But you have to think a little differently. Sorry. No exporting involved.

  1. Open your score. Hit "I" and delete all the other instruments. Work on your part and save as a different name.

  2. Open your score. Open the "Instruments" palette. Close the "eye" next to all the other instruments. Work on your part and save normally.

Your method and method 1 require reintegration with the score. Method 2 does not, and seems the simplest.

I'm a guitar player.

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