Adding and removing measures

Inserting measures

MuseScore allows you to insert or delete measures in the score using a variety of methods. Measures can be inserted:

• After a selection
• Before a selection
• At the start of the score
• At the end of the score

Measure context menu

To insert one or more measures:

1. Right-click on a blank area of a measure
2. From the context menu, choose Insert measures
3. From the options presented, choose the location where you want the measure(s) inserted
4. Complete the dialog box and press OK.

The Properties panel

To insert one or more measures:

1. Click on a measure
2. Go to the Properties panel
3. Click Insert measures in the Measure section
4. Type the number of measures you wish to insert (or leave it as “1” to insert a single measure)
5. Select where you want the measure(s) to be inserted from the dropdown menu (or leave it as is to insert the new measure(s) after the selection point)
6. Click the + button

This popup remains open until you click another part of the user interface. As such, you can continue pressing the + button as many times as you need to insert further measures.

In addition, you can insert measures from one of two menus:

Note input toolbar

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)
2. Click the + button in the Note input toolbar
3. Navigate to Measures
4. Choose where you want the new measure(s) to be inserted

Menu bar

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)
2. Click the Add in the Menu bar
3. Navigate to Measures
4. Choose where you want the new measure(s) to be inserted

Inserting measures with keyboard shortcuts

To quickly insert one measure before the selection point:

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)
2. Press Ins

Insert more measures before the selection point by repeatedly pressing Ins.

To quickly insert multiple measures before the selection point:

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)
2. Press Ctrl+Ins (Mac: ⌘+Ins)
3. Type the number of required measures in the dialog that appears
4. Click OK

To append to the end of your score, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B (Mac: ⌘+B) for a single measure, or Alt+Shift+B (Mac: Option+Shift+B) for multiple measures.

Add measures to a frame

It is also possible to add measures to a frame in the score:

1. Click on the frame
2. Use one of the methods shown under "Note input toolbar" or "Menu bar", or a keyboard shortcut (above).

Deleting measures

To delete one or more measures using keyboard shortcuts:

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)
2. Type Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Del (Mac: ⌘+Backspace or ⌘+Del).

Alternatively,

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)
2. Right-click on any measure within the selection
3. Select Delete measures

You can also:

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)
2. Go to Tools
3. Select Remove selected range

Remove empty trailing measures

To remove any empty measures at the end of your score:

1. Go to Tools
2. Select Remove empty trailing measures

See also

Other measure-related pages:

• Measure numbering
• Measure and multimeasure rests
• Pickup and non-metered measures
• Measure properties
• Mensural notation and Mensurstrich