In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between notes or phrases (wikipedia. In Musescore, dynamics symbol objects should be used to indicate dynamics. They are Text objects. Musescore understands them to create appropriate playback.
All dynamics symbol objects are in the Dynamics palette. To add a dynamics symbol to the score, use either one of the following methods:
To add a dynamic symbol that is not present in the Dynamics palette, for example poco f, follow these steps:
There are no shortcut assignment options yet for adding any dynamics symbols onto a score.
Depending on software version, changing appearance of dynamics symbol on a score may or may not change its playback, refer to "Changing playback" section below.
Plain characters are characters entered using (typing on) a computer keyboard, their formatting behavior is different from that of professional glyphs. See musescore 3 handbook Fonts chapter.
Profession glyphs are not plain characters, their formatting behavior is different. They are not italic plain characters. They are only created using keyboard shortcut shown below, but not copied from other programs or the internet, as they are not exactly raw unicode characters. See musescore 3 handbook Fonts chapter.
Glyph | Windows & Linux Shortcut | Mac Shortcut |
---|---|---|
Piano p | Ctrl+Shift+P | Cmd+Shift+P |
Forte f | Ctrl+Shift+F | Cmd+Shift+F |
Mezzo m | Ctrl+Shift+M | Cmd+Shift+M |
Rinforzando r | Ctrl+Shift+R | Cmd+Shift+R |
Sforzando s | Ctrl+Shift+S | Cmd+Shift+S |
Niente n | Ctrl+Shift+N | Cmd+Shift+N |
Z z | Ctrl+Shift+Z | Cmd+Shift+Z |
An Expression Text object can be added beside a dynamic symbol object to indicate dynamics. To add one to the right of a dynamics symbol:
When an Expression Text object is added to a note that is already attached to a dynamics symbol (or vice versa), the two items align automatically. Dragging and moving either one of them moves both. Changing the Position property of either one changes both. This behavior is called "Snap to", and can be changed with the Expression Text object's Properties panel: Snap to dynamic property, see also the main chapter for Expression Text object. source https://musescore.org/en/node/351407.
Explained in Dynamics symbols properties and "Dynamics symbols style" section below.
Playback feature of dynamics symbols is under vigorous developement, it may change drastically among software versions. Information provided here is valid for Musescore 4.2 beta (November 2023). It could be outdated at the time of reading. Please help update this chapter.
To summarize the difference from musescore 3,
The followings are details of changes, it is also suitable to read for users not familiar with musescore 3:
Same as MuseScore 3, when a Standard dynamics symbols, such as p and ff etc. is added to the score, it affects playback from the parent note onward until the next dynamic symbol. Final barlines or rests do not reset the loudness to default. Single-note dynamics symbols, such as sfz only affect the playback of the particular note they are attached to.
Playback depends on each affected instrument's Sound setting, selected in the Mixer. See MuseScore 3 features not implemented in MuseScore 4: Velocity controls.
Playback is pre-configured and does not change with text content. This allows a f symbol to be modified into poco f, by adding plain characters, while keeping the playback effect the same as the original f symbol. This is true, however, even if new and correct profession glyphs are used. For example, a ppp symbol created by replacing the content inside a f symbol (added from palette) with three p glyphs, looks exactly like the ppp in the palette, but it creates f playback.
Playback settings of dynamics symbol , the Property Panel: Playback tab , present in MuseScore 4.0, has been removed. See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/13858.
Velocity property of dynamics symbol existed in MuseScore 3 is removed. The Velocity property is only available in individual notes, see Properties panel, its effect on playback also depends on Sound setting, see Mixer chapter.
Selected dynamics symbol(s)' can be edited in Properties panel. Under Properties : Dynamics:
Dynamics symbol objects are Text objects, character formatting using Properties : Text is covered in the Formatting text chapter. The Font property affects plain characters, but not the professional glyphs. Professional glyphs use "Musical symbols font", see "Dynamics symbol style" section. Dynamics symbol objects differ from other Text objects in that they do not have the overriding Text Style property (under Show More) used by plain characters inside. They always use the "Style for text inside Expression" profile.
To edit the score-wide settings, see "Dynamics symbol style" section.
See the main chapter Templates and styles