Compose music with the help of your computer
MuseScore lets you compose music on your PC.
Do you still compose music with pen and paper? If so, then you should know you can also do it with the help of your computer. MuseScore lets you do this in a very easy way, either from scratch or using any of the score templates included in the program. It features dozens of musical elements, such as notes, clefs, keys, and time. Just by dragging and dropping them on the interface, you can effortlessly add them to your composition.
Whenever you want to hear your composition, simply use MuseScore's built-in player. It has support for multiple instrument sounds to allow you to hear the full effect of your creation. Alternatively, you can simply plug in your MIDI keyboard. Don't forget that you can also look for help on the website forums, or download the MuseScore Handbook.
MuseScore works with many different formats, including PDF and MID. Plug-ins will also extend MuseScore's functionality. It lacks the advanced options and tools from more professional applications like Finale, but it's perfectly usable and adequate for the amateur composer who just needs a free app to create music at home.
With MuseScore you can easily create your own music, listen to it and save professional-looking scores.
User reviews about MuseScore
by Anonymous
Very happy with this software.
MoreI was prepared for a lengthy getting to know the programme phase and a useless handbook, as is so often the case with free software, but I was surprised. After an hour of experimenting and looking non-obvious things up in the handbook, I was able to use the software pretty well, and got my first ever digital score sorted quite quickly.
There are a few things that could be improved of course, especially so that editing larger sections is a bit easier, but overall, thank you, thank you, thank you, developers! I'll recommend Musescore.
Pros:
Ease of use and good handbook
Many functions available for a free programme
Cons:
Editing could be made easier
Some of the options are in parts of the menu that are not really intuitive (though that could be me)
by Anonymous
Good except bugs.
MoreThis is good, but sometimes have bugs. You can write sheet music with it, and stimulate ,and share it on the Internet(maximum 5 songs with a free account) not bad.
Pros:
Sheet music writer
Music stimulator
Can create own music with the instuments.
Cons:
Bugs
Numbers of music to share
by Anonymous
Ran about as well as a ballpoint pen that skips badly!.
MoreI used 1.3 on a nine year old Celeron PC with 500mb/ram. The task of producing a 4.5 minute professional looking vocal solo with piano accompaniment proved daunting, to say the least. While the job eventually got done with beautiful results, numerous glitches, lockups and some crashes occurred along the way, and, in desperation, the final score formatting was done through screenshots and a third party graphics editor. This software has wonderful potential, and I am very thankful to the Musescore development team for its tremendous efforts and fair results. but at the present time, this software appears to have more bugs than an ant colony.
I've found problems such as this with other related music software. That makes me suspect that the glitches may be mostly related to the Windows XP (SP3) operating system. Has your development team considered doing a Windows build based upon JAVA? (I am an avid Jorgan user, a VTPO available from Sourceforge. As the name implies, Jorgan is based on JAVA. In spite of being very complicated software with a steep learning curve, Jorgan is very smooth, stable and usually glitch free.
Pros:
Very professional looking final results
Cons:
Eliminate the many glitches, lockups and crashes
by Anonymous
Issues for writing violin music using MuseScore..
MoreOverall, MuseScore does a rather good job, especially since it is available at no cost.
<br>It's not too hard to learn, but many short cuts are available that are not documented. These must be learned by trial-and-error.
Pros:
I especially like the ability to put changes in the key signature and time signature in some readily noticeable color, like red. And, transposing from one key to another is amazingly simple: transcribing a violin piece to viola is a dream.
Cons:
1) Harmonics are filled in as solid diamond notes instead of being hollow.
2) Tremolos on double stops overwrite one of the notes.
3) Non-selectable staff sizes.
4) Only grace notes that precede a note are supported, but those that follow the note are not.
by Anonymous
really amased.
MoreI download it just to quickly write a few notes, and I am really amased. I think I delete clumsy Encore and I will transfer to MuseScore. I also appreciate how purely and precissely it is programmed. No patchwork. :-) Congratulations and thanks a lot.
by Anonymous
Mscore 0.9.5.
MoreIn Ubuntu, I used version 0.9.4 a while, but often Musescore crashed, of course without saving. I think version 0.9.5 is a little better with less crashes. When I used Windows mostly, I had a licensed version of Sibelius, version 4. Sometimes I use it, but since I installed Ubuntu, I prefer that OS. But I must admit, Musescore has a long way to go before it can compete with Sibelius. Nevertheless, I use Mscore version 0.9.5 more often now.
Pros:
I find Mscore easy to use, but after using Sibelius a long time it is obvious that many features are not present or less easy to use. But until now I like working with Mscore. Keep up the good work!
Cons:
The playing functionality is not very good and can't configured like as in Sibelius. Copy and paste is rather limited.