Instruments, staff setup and templates

Updated 5 days ago
This page shows old instructions for MuseScore 3.
For MuseScore 4 users, see Instruments, staff setup and templates.

    This chapter discuss real world instruments and vocals, Musescore Instruments, score instrument setup and score template files.

    Instruments

    An instrument in Musescore is an abstraction that contains,

    • Tablature(s) or staff(s). See also Layout and formatting;
    • Settings related to playback audio created by the Musescore synthesizer. When setting up sound, start with changing instrument setup;
    • Notation styles such as clefs, noteheads; and
    • Other musical behaviors such as transposition, playable range.

    A Musescore instrument contains staff(s) that can represent a single or multiple real world instrument(s), for example in Beethoven's Symphony No.3, Op.55 First edition published by Cianchettini & Sperati, n.d.[1809] London, the third staff Corni 1 & 2 in Eb represents two French horn players:
    corni1.png
    To transcribe this, add one Musescore instrument "Horn in Eb". Optionally rename it. Playback is not affected by naming.
    corni2_ms3.png

    The detailed relationship between Musescore Instrument and real world instrument (staff or tablature), instrument section, vocals, and choir:

    • A Musescore Instrument using the same name, such as "Piano", "Acoustic Guitar", "Acoustic Guitar (Tablature)", "Violin", "Violins", "Strings", "Soprano", "Voice", "Women" and some percussions such as "Timpani", "Concert Bass Drum", "Cymbal" (concert). Similar items might have different playback.
    • "Drumset" Musescore instrument "Standard" (the option "Drumset"), a single item containing "Snare", "Bass Drum", "Ride Cymbal" etc. There are no seperate MuseScore Instrument for these.
    • "Drumset" Musescore instrument "Standard 1" and other variations, (same for "Room", "Power", "Jazz" and theirs), use them by changing Mixer: Sound dropbox. They are different in playback only.
    • "Drumset" Musescore instrument "Brush" and variations, use them by changing Mixer: Sound dropbox. The brush snare is the "Electric Snare" item in Drum notation, only creates short brush playback. There is no seperate MuseScore Instrument for brush snare.

    Instruments supported by Musescore 3.6.2 (archived https://musescore.org/en/instruments page December 2022). To suggest adding a missing instrument, see https://musescore.org/en/contribute

    Choose instruments

    chooseinstruments362.png

    Two ways to open this window to manage setup:

    • File New Score Wizard window: Choose Instruments when user create a new score, or
    • In a score, use the keyboard shortcut I; or select from the menu Edit→Instruments....

    This window contains the following items:

    • The search box at the top left filters items to be shown underneath. Clear it out to show all available instruments.
    • The type filtering dropdown box under the search box filters items to be shown in the space underneath. "Common" is selected by default, which filters out some uncommon instruments or voice parts. Select "All instruments" to show all available instruments.
    • The left column space shows a list of instruments or voice parts that can be added. They are grouped by the instrument families they belong to. Click on a family name subheading to expand or collapse that group.
    • The Ordering dropdown box at the top right shows the current automatic vertical arrangement (ordering) of staffs. 'Orchestral' is the default preset. User can always rearrange staffs manually. User cannot edit or create new presets inside Musescore. To utilize templates for custom default ordering on new scores, see template section.
    • The right column space shows currect score setup, the vertical order represents the real instrument vertical order on score. Empty column means the score contains no staffs.

    The result of actions available in this window are explained in the list below, the steps to do each are shown under corresponding section headings later.

    • Add a new instrument to the score: The essential and most common action. Adds a new instrument and staff(s).
    • Add a staff to an existing instrument: Inserts an extra editable staff to an existing instrument (on the right column space) and create a custom instrument. For example, to create a piano that use three staffs rather than normally two staffs. Rarely used because its limitation on playback - staffs under the same instrument cannot be configured to use different sounds, nor can they be muted individually. It is advisable to utilize multiple instruments.
    • Add a linked staff to an existing instrument: Inserts an non-editable, ready-only staff to an existing instrument (on the right column space). A linked staff automatically mirrors content. Use case includes displaying two staffs for a guitar (a standard staff + a linked tablature) where user enters notes onto the standard staff and the same music is automatically reflected the tablature.
    • Make an existing instrument soloist:
        1. Reorders an existing instrument on the score (all its staffs) to the soloist position. The soloist position is defined in the instrument ordering setting chosen in Ordering dropdown box. For example, in an 'Orchestral' ordering preset, soloists are above the strings.
        1. Adds "solo" and a number to its name. Non-soloists do not affect the numbering.
      • The soloist designation is a score layout feature only and has no impact on playback. A score can contain multiple "soloist" instruments.

    Add instrument

    To manage instruments of "Drumset" Musescore instrument, see Drum notation

    To add a new Musescore instrument to the score, use any of the following options:

    • Select one or more instruments in the left column, and then click Add to score in the middle of the window, or
    • Double-click an instrument in the left column.

    The instrument names, and their associated staff lines, now appear in the list of instruments in the right column.

    Add Staff

    To add an editable staff to an existing instrument in the score:

    1. Select a staff of the instrument in the score list on the right-hand side
    2. Click Add Staff at the top.
    3. Adjust the Staff type, if applicable.

    Add Linked Staff

    To add a non-editable ready-only staff to an existing instrument in the score:

    1. Select a staff to be linked in the score list on the right-hand side.
    2. Click Add Linked Staff at the top.
    3. Adjust the Staff type, if applicable.

    See also, Combine pitched staff with tablature.

    Make / undo soloist

    To make an existing instrument soloist, or to undo it:

    1. Select an instrument name subheading in the score list on the right-hand side.
    2. Click Make soloist or Undo soloist at the top.

    Change order of instruments or staffs on a score

    • Click either an instrument name or a staff in the right-hand column, and click the arrow buttons.

    Delete an instrument or staff

    • Select an instrument (all of its staffs) or a staff in the right-hand column and click Remove from score in the middle.

    Change instrument and staff setup

    Hiding and unhiding staffs

    Edit Format→Style→Score (Style window: Score settings) and Staff / Part properties. Handbook 4 Showing staves only where needed chapter summaries different methods with use cases, the workflow in musescore 3 is similar.

    Templates

    Not to be confused with Staff / Part properties : staff type template

    Score template can be used to quickly set up a new score with staffs and tablatures. A template file is a score file under certain directory that Musescore uses. You can create a score file from scratch and save it to that directory. You can also copy any existing .mscz file to that directory to use it as template.

    Generally speaking, global settings are re-used when the new score is created, specific formatting settings on individual objects are not re-used.

    There are two kinds of templates:

    • Pre-defined System templates shipped with MuseScore,
      When you create a new score, they are sorted into categories in Choose template file window .
    • Custom templates created by user,
      The score files must be stored inside the custom templates folder. When you create a new score, they are under Choose template file window : Custom Templates .

    As of Musescore 3.6.2, a template contains the following information,

    • instrument setup (staffs and tablatures),
    • these items of the 'Full score' only,
      • Staff / Part properties of all instruments;
      • settings under Format→Style and Format → Page Settings. See Layout and formatting chapter;
      • the View→ Show visible, Show Invisible, Show Unprintable, Show Frames, Show Page Margins, Mark irregular measures, and toolbar's Concert pitch, Zoom level and Page View/Continuous View/Single Page options. See also Viewing and navigation chapter; and
    • the setup (only) of every Musescore Part.

    Check out the Score from Template plugin by parkingb which improves template function.

    Save a score as a custom template

    Click File > Save as and save the score file as .mscz format into the template directory Musescore uses. File name is used as the template name.

    Creating a score from a custom template

    1. Make sure the custom template file is in the correct folder.
    2. Choose a custom template when you create a new score. In Musescore 3, the preview window shows what the template file looks like when opened as a score, it is not the preview of what a new score looks like when created from this template.

    System templates folder

    Not recommended to use this folder for custom templates

    This folder contains the pre-defined templates. It can be found in the following directory:

    • Windows: Usually at C:\Program Files\MuseScore 3\templates or C:\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore 3\templates (Actually %ProgramFiles%\MuseScore 3\templates or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\MuseScore 3\templates, respectively) .
    • Linux: Under /usr/share/mscore-xxx if you installed from the package manager. If you compiled MuseScore on Linux yourself, then look under /usr/local/share/mscore-xxx (with xxx being the version you are using).
    • MacOS: Under /Applications/MuseScore 3.app/Contents/Resources/templates.

    Custom templates folder

    Custom template files must be stored here. The default directory of the custom templates folder is as follows (The folder name "Templates" varies with the language version of Musescore installed):

    • Windows: %HOMEPATH%\Documents\MuseScore3\Templates.
    • MacOS and Linux: ~/Documents/MuseScore3/Templates.

    To configure the directory of custom templates folder: From the menu, select Edit→Preferences...→General.

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