Mastering MuseScore Book vs the Handbook

• Aug 11, 2018 - 14:37

Do I need to buy the 40.00 book or can I learn how to use this software using the handbook and you tube?
Thanks


Comments

I learned how to use the program by reading the handbook. I learned more by participating in the forums. I don't own Mastering MuseScore.

Thanks that is good to know. I have a Yamaha DGX-640 with a USB to host and the midi driver installed. How can I interface with MuseScore?
Can I play the notes and it will appear magically?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks JoJo i did not have the startup op correct. I needed that page really bad. Everything above and below the MIDI info. How can I print out the free hanbook as a PDF? I was writing a LH bass clef boogie woogie pattern yesterday and learned how to put the score on a swing style but it was on top of the two text. Yesterday was my first day with the software and my first month on piano. Is using the swing style the same as using a dotted eight note followed by a sixteenth note for a swing feel?
You guys are a God sent I had a tough day yesterday. Can I make a 12 bar blues grand stay with just four bars per line at 4/4 as a template.

In reply to by Cadmandu

Swing is not really dotted eighth / sixteenth - not in real life anyhow. It's close to triplets, although even that is too exaggerated. If you right-click the Swing text, Staff Properties, on the Swing Settings tab you can set the ration however you like.

Layout details like line breaks are not part of a template. Only more general score-wide settings. But it's only a few clicks to add line breaks every four bars after score creation: Edit / Tools / Add/Remove Line Breaks.

I learned to use MuseScore long before I wrote the book Mastering MuseScore :-)

Mastering MuseScore is rather more in-depth than the Handbook, but it's not like there are specific things you won't find either place. It's more about how you like to get your information.

I would also recommend my website where there are a number of other resources:

https://masteringmusescore.com

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks for the PDF link now I can print just what I need at the time. This is a really nice software package. I was trying to write a C6 first inversion chord in the treble clef yesterday to go with my boogie woogie bass pattern. The C6 has a note that sits on a space to the right of the C chord could not pull it off. Any suggestions?

In reply to by Cadmandu

The chord should automatically format to look standard most of the time. If a note in the chord is in the wrong place you can open the inspector (F8), select the note and move it in the Segment section. Don't use the Chord section for this because it will move all of the notes in the chord. Hint: while entering the chord, the notes may move around with each new note until the last one is entered, don't stop until you are done with the chord. You may not need to move any notes.

Edit: You really should start a new thread for any more specific questions, so others can find the answers also.

In reply to by Cadmandu

As mentioned, though, it should do it correctly automatically. For instance, type E Shift+G Shift+A Shift+C to add the E, G, A, and C in order top to bottom - or just click the notes onto the staff - and the A automatically gets displaced to the right. It should virtually never be necessary to manually adjust note positions if you are entering your notes correctly to begin with. So if you continue to have trouble, please do start a new thread, attach your score, and describe precisely - step by step - what you tried, what you expected to see happen, and what happened instead.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Sorry for the late response I was cleaning out rain spouts for my mother in law. I'm 68 now and need to rock in my oak chair for awhile. I get up around 4:30 am plan on printing all this out and some parts of the manual. Study that with my coffee go to church then come home and open up my score and do all my new fancy tricks I've learned. Why does the tempo show up in the same location as the word swing?

In reply to by Cadmandu

FWIW, while different editors will do it differently, perhaps the most common system is to have the word "swing" be part of the tempo indication. The way to get this in MuseScore would be to edit the tempo to show the word swing, but to also an actual swing text for playback purposes but make it invisible.

If you choose to have these as separate elements, you'll need to decide for yourself how you personally want to resolve the inevitable collisions.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

You guys are way over my head with the reference swing text and temp text.
One called system text and one called tempo text. If I choose swing text for my score it makes the song swing instead of being played straight. If I change the tempo to 180 bpm it should effect the tempo not the rhythm correct? By the way this is a question not a statement. Thanks or all your help. How can I use this software with other software like band in a box, guitar pro and Reaper?

In reply to by Cadmandu

It is far more helpful to attach the .mscz file since page view is WYSISYGS and we can tell how it will print. From looking at the PDF, you have a page break after the 8th measure and you should have a system break. If this doesn't help, attach your score.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks how can you tell just by looking at it?
Once I fix this can I save it as a template?
I need to be able to start a new score that has 12 bars with a grand staff at 4/4 and is entirely in swing and formatted with four bars per line landscape.

In reply to by Cadmandu

I turned on the View->Show unprintable in the menu so I could see your breaks and spacers. Breaks and spacers are not saved to templates because the same breaks and spacers don't make sense on all scores. You may find scores where it is impossible to fit 6 measures on a system due to the notes being shorter and therefore more numerous in some measures. In this case you will need to decide if setting any set number of measures per line makes sense.

Having explained why breaks are not included in the template, you can set the number of measures in a system by using the menu item Edit->Tools->Add/Remove system breaks.

As I said before, any further questions need a new thread. Use the same button to start a new thread that you used to start this thread.

In reply to by mike320

Okay so if you have six measure on a line you click on number four and then add a system break. Is a system one line? If I did a save as to my score and named it 12 bar blues start sheet then deleted all notes and chords would it keep the swing thing? If you pick the first note on the first line and do a text swing will that cover the whole song?

In reply to by Cadmandu

The swing text will not be saved to a template, but if you use the menu Style->General and turn the swing on there, it will save to the score. If you are writing songs appropriate for a group that normally plays swing, the swing text is not even necessary, they will play it that way by default unless you give directions otherwise. If you feel the text is necessary, you will have to add it to every score, just as you do a time signature, key signature and even the number of measures. If you create a score using a template you have entered all of this information into the new score wizard.

People have worked around this limitation by saving an empty score set up as you are talking about as a score. When they make a new song, they open the "template" score and immediately save it under the new name to avoid accidentally overwriting it. You will have to use other MuseScore tools to add the title, composer and so forth into the score, but the system breaks and text you have added will be retain.

Finally, a system is a line of music for all instruments (or even one instrument) that spans from one side of the page to the other. Here in America, calling it a line when there is one instrument is not unusual but can get ambiguous when you start talking in the context of notation software such as MuseScore.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks I'm going to to give it a shot. I like to score what I an learning to play. I'm in into boogie woogie big time. So I will be using the same template many many times. When is version 3.0 coming out I read that it will include alpha notes? I'm going to try the plug-in for the fix. Can MuseScore make larger staffs and note heads while still using the plug-in for the EZ play method?

In reply to by Cadmandu

My educated guess for the release of version 3 is about a year, but as I said it is only a guess. I, like most people on the forum, have no control over that decision.

You can make everything larger by using Layout->Page Settings... and increasing the scaling. If you do this, you will definitely need to rethink 6 measures per system. The plugin does not care what the scaling is, so it will work according to it's instructions.

In reply to by mike320

I like four bars per system in a landscape mode total of 12 bars.
I just want to scale up to 150% so I can see the alpha notes. Maybe I could go to legal size. Do you think I could find some threads on this plug-in? Are triplet chords and to write.

In reply to by Cadmandu

I don't know what you mean by "alpha notes" - maybe you mean noteheads with notenames? But anyhow, if you scale up to 150%, chances are you won't be able to fit four measures of eighth notes in portrait mode, but you also won't be able to fit three systems of music in landscape mode. That's not some arbitrary limitation of MuseScore, it's just simple math/geometry. Legal size won't help since that will make the paper longer but not wider, which is what you'd actually need. So I'd recommend giving up on the arbitrary idea of trying to force an unnatural number of measures per line or systems per page. Just enter the notes, size it to make it readable, and be done with it.

No idea what you mean about triplets, either. As mentioned a few times already, please start new threads when asking new questions. It makes it much easier to help you, and also makes it much easier for the discussion to be useful to others as well.

In reply to by strumathon

I hope so :-). In theory, if you click on the link for Mastering MuseScore on this site, you get taken to a page on masteringmusescore.com that contains a special link that redirects you to the US, UK, or other store based on your location. I have no easy of testing that, though. Can anyone verify?

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