Rehearsal marks can be used in one or more ways:
Typically, a rehearsal mark consists of one or more letters or numbers, or a combination of both. Marks appear in sequence in the score—e.g. A, B, C…, or 1, 2, 3… etc.; or they may contain the number of the measure they are attached to (usually larger than plain measure numbers, often boldface and/or enclosed in boxes).
Rehearsal marks can be added to the score (i) automatically—which ensures that they are named in sequence—or (ii) manually, allowing you to name them as you wish.
The simplest way to add a rehearsal mark is to click on a note (or rest) at the start of a rehearsal section and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+M (Mac: Cmd+M), or use the menu command Add → Text → Rehearsal Mark: then enter the desired text yourself.
Alternatively, select a note, open the Text palette, and double-click the [B1] rehearsal mark icon: the correct letter or number is entered automatically, according to the following rules:
The first automatic rehearsal mark you create is labelled "A," the second "B," the third "C," and so on. If you want to establish a different format (lower case, number or measure-number), change the first rehearsal mark accordingly before adding the second one. Subsequently-added rehearsal marks follow the format of the previously-added mark.
If you add a (palette) rehearsal mark between two existing alphabetical marks, a "1" is appended to the name of the new mark: so a mark added between letters "C" and "D" becomes "C1," and so on. Similarly, if you add a new rehearsal mark between two existing numerical marks, an "A" is appended: so a mark added between numbers "3" and "4" becomes "3A" and so on. Afterward, you can automatically resequence the rehearsal marks, if required (see →below).
To create a series based on measure number, the first rehearsal mark should be altered, before creating a second one, so that it reads the same as the number of the measure it is attached to. (If the number of the rehearsal mark is different from the actual measure number, subsequent marks will assume a numerical order.)
MuseScore allows the user to automatically re-order a series of rehearsal marks if they have got out of sequence for any reason. Use the following method:
MuseScore automatically detects the sequence based on the first rehearsal mark in the selection—all rehearsal marks in the selection are then altered accordingly. The following sequences are possible:
To navigate to a specific rehearsal mark, press Ctrl+F (Mac: Cmd+F) to open the Find bar, then enter the name of the rehearsal mark. The first character of a rehearsal mark must be a letter for it to be found: subsequent characters can be letters or numbers. As of version 2.1 all rehearsal marks can be searched for by typing an "r" followed by the rehearsal mark.
Note: If the text entered in the Find bar consists only of numbers, the program assumes you are searching for a measure number. See Viewing and Navigation: Find.
Rehearsal marks are a variety of system text. They will appear on every part and on the score. Multi-measure rests are automatically broken before and after rehearsal marks.
By default, rehearsal marks are bold, in large font size, and enclosed in frames with rounded corners. All aspects of their appearance can be changed globally via the rehearsal mark Text style.