musescore on android

• Feb 23, 2011 - 11:57

Greetings, tell, and whether the port musescore on android os is possible? Recently this system became very popular)

Comments

• Feb 26, 2011 - 00:54

Android applications are Java applications. Musescore is a C++ application.

Basically, they are different programming languages using different application development libraries. Porting would be difficult.

Plus, getting the UI to work well on a mobile phone/tablet environment (no keyboard, touch gestures, different UI in general) would pretty much require a complete redesign.

Reply

• Mar 1, 2011 - 06:56

Musescore is based on QT and there are at least 2 ports of QT to Android. One is called Necessitas Suite (it is still an alpha version but might be viable at some point), and the other, more promising version is Android-Lighthouse. The latter even gives complete instructions as to how to port your QT project. Therefore, getting Musescore functionality working on an Android tablet should be entirely possible.

Reply

• Feb 13, 2012 - 12:24

Hey, I have an ASUS EeePad Transformer Prime running the new Android 4.0 ICS and I was wondering if there is an up-to-date version of Musescore available for me to download at this point.
Thanks,
-Klosteral

Reply

• Feb 13, 2012 - 13:52

Hey, yeah, you are so right. They don't even have 3.2.1 which comes pre-loaded on all non-ICS enabled tablets these days also. I think this is a shame because they are missing out on a lot of potential; I would definitely donate to something that had ICS support and was still brilliant.

Reply

• Feb 13, 2012 - 22:23

I don't believe that page is for an android version of MuseScore, but a player app. The OP is asking for one thing, and he's being redirected to another. I don't believe the MuseScore player app that the page refers to will be a version of MuseScore that lets you create and edit scores.

We're back to needing to run Qt on android (or iPhone) in order for there to be a MuseScore port for tablets and phones. While that's technically possible (at least with android), I think we're a long way off from seeing a tablet/phone version.

Reply

• May 10, 2012 - 17:50

Since it doesn't seem that there is any effort to port MuseScore to Android, I am going to write my own note-input app for Android, tentatively called "FontaineScore", which will simply serve as a front-end note-inputter to save to musescore format (maybe also lilypond/musicxml), as well as possibly for uploading to musescore.com. The idea would not be to port the entire MuseScore program, but rather would take advantage of the touch capabilities of android devices so that you could input your music in a more organic way with a pen/finger (instead of keyboard/mouse), and then you would later load your draft score into MuseScore on a desktop machine so that you could do editing. I'm not going to use a QT porter, since that would add an extra layer of overhead, nor am I going to translate all the MuseScore C++ code to Java. Rather, I'm going to write this app from scratch to make it small, fast-to-load, and easy-to-use. I'll see what I can get done this week, and then I'll post updates here, with links to my development builds, so you guys can try out and provide feedback.

Reply

• May 10, 2012 - 20:03

I suspect it is not really accurate to say there hasn't been any effort to port MuseScore to Android (or to iOS). I suspect it is more a matter of it being a pretty huge undertaking. And indeed, rather than a straight port - which would be a big enough undertaking in itself - you'd want to redesign the interface to take advantage of the touch capabilities. So I think the already publicized plans to start with a player app to get the backend display of scores working first makes a ton of sense.

But FWIW, I have had very much the same kind of thoughts as you about building a simple lightweight note entry interface for touch devices, creating scores in MSCZ format that could then be loaded by a player app or sent to the full application on Windows/MacOS/Linux machine for further work. As a jazz musician primary, my thinking was to focus on features needed to create lead sheets - mostly single voice music with chords, lyrics, and other text, plus an easy way to enter slash notation and the like. Unfortunately, my programming skills are pretty ancient, and I don't have a ton of insight into UI design for touch devices. So I could see myself more as a consultant on such a project than as a lead developer.

On that note, there is one thing I'd ask you - or anyone else considering doing anything like this - to be open to regarding the note entry interface. And that is, finding a way to leverage as much of the current MuseScore methods as makes sense, so expertise in the desktop application carries over to the touch app and vice versa. Find the right balance between feeling "native" and feelong "familiar". In particular, note entry in MuseScore using the computer keyboard - one set of keys for duration, another for pitch, special commands for navigation and for modifications like accidentals - is pretty darned efficient as it is. I seriously doubt any ground-up redesign is going to beat that by enough to make the initial learning curve and continual readjustment worthwhile. If, on the other hand, you had something like a dedicated note entry keypad that just contained keys for durations, pitches, navigation, and modifications (presumably with descriptive labels rather than still using 5 for quarter note, etc) but that allowed you to use the same basic input method of pressing the keys directly rather than constantly shifting attention back and forth between a palette and the staff, people who are already skilled at note entry in MuseScore would be able to be adjust to the touch app easily and vice versa. By all means, have a more native touch type of interface as well, but don't completely discount the benefits of providing keyboard-style input in an app like this. As I see it, the advantage of the native touch interface would come more in editing than initial entry - dragging notes to new pitches or time positions, etc.

Reply

• Apr 19, 2013 - 13:45

My programming knowledge is pretty much nonexistent but I have lots of down time during travel which I would be glad to donate to testing an input n editing app when that time comes. I couldn't fix issues but I could tell you about them.

Reply

• May 29, 2016 - 20:00

I have just had a Nurvo Horizon 3G 7.9. screen Ipad, I am using musescore 2.2 on my laptop had have used it a great deal.

Now I want to know about the android ap, for. What can it do, on the internet i am getting contradicting information.

Can I for example import my own music produce on my laptop. What are the editing facilitates in the ap? It seemes as it can place the music.

So where can I get it? I dont like to do things on Googl..

Help me to make up my mind on this matter.

Wena D. Parry.

Reply

• Jul 14, 2016 - 22:11

Sure you can. For instance: email one of your score files (.mscz) to yourself and open that email on your mobile device. Tap on the attached score file and instruct the app to open the attached score file with the MuseScore Songbook app. Besides email, you can use file sharing services such as Dropbox, Google Drive to send files to yourself.

That said, I personally find the easiest way to open files to your mobile device by following this flow:
* In the MuseScore notation software, go to File > Save Online ...
* Log in with your MuseScore credentials
* Save your score
* Next open the MuseScore (Songbook) app on your mobile device
* Log in via the menu (upper left corner)
* And go to the My Scores section

Give both a try and let us know what you like most.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.