Sharing a Post I Wrote About MuseScore Today

Sharing this that I wrote about my disabled daughter's journey that led us to MuseScore. She has visual impairments that resulted from a traumatic brain injury almost 8 years ago.

What do you do when music publishers such as Alfred Music do not make large print versions of their music available for people with visual impairments, nor do they sell PDF versions that can be read on the screen?

Well you end up scanning the music yourself, printing it, cutting it up and and enlarging it to a bigger size at a cost of about $10 a pop at FedEx Kinkos. It is a labor intensive process that can get expensive over time.

But what if there was a better mousetrap to achieve the same ends?

This morning I was providing technical support for my daughter as I worked to configure software (Reaper) to record MIDI output from her piano keyboard so that it can then be exported for import to MuseScore as a full up score that she can edit and have creative composing sessions. GarageBand would be the equivalent for Macs.

Why this roundabout way? Because we could not find ANY music scoring program (including the expensive AVID Sibelius*) that will record a midi input as the notes are actually played. They will only import to the note and length (full, quarter, half) selected manually before playing that specific note.

*She has already owned Sibelius 7.5 for many years from high school but it is not compatible with Windows 10. To upgrade she would have to switch to their software subscription model. MuseScore then became an easy choice as it is open source and free. Is it perfect? Nope, but as good as it gets.

There is also another huge plus for MuseScore: Easy conversion of PDF scores into an editable music format. There are very few tools for scanning music into MusicPDF (i.e., can read each individual music element as opposed to one big image it cannot interpret). MuseScore has a tool where you upload the PDF and it does a backend conversion into their music file format. That is so much easier than a paid program called SharpEye2 that only allows you to scan in one page at a time as a TIFF image and then makes you consolidate them all afterwards for conversion.

So in the end, here is the hardware and software configuration we ended up with:

𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗘:

-- Computer: Dell Inspiron 7000 2-1, 17.3 inch touch screen monitor.
Dell is pretty much the only manufacturer of a 2-1 screen of that size, which really is the best for people with visual challenges. The touchscreen makes the software much easier to work with.

-- Airturn Quad2000 Bluetooth Pedals
These are four programmable pedals that allow her to navigate between music systems (each line of the score) and between measures with her feet while she plays.

-- Manhassett 54 Conductor's Music Stand
This is the best music stand for this because her piano keyboard could not support the computer. It has two legs for stability and is extra wide to accommodate bard copies of her enlarged sheet music. She can also use it for playing the flute when she is able to do that again.

-- Wireless mouse and keyboard to interact with computer in tablet mode on music stand.

𝗦𝗢𝗙𝗧𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗘:

-- MuseScore 3 - a powerful open source software tool to compose music and import PDF scores as music files. Free.

-- Reaper - Digital Audio Workspace software that enables the recording of digital instruments and voice in both MIDI and Audio format. The MIDI can be output for use in Scoring software. Inexpensive.

-- Adobe Acrobat Reader - allows for the magnification and display of straight PDF files for instrumentalist to use. Free.

And wait, there is more. MuseScore also offers downloads of hundreds of thousands of scores as PDF, MIDI, and more. When music publishers such as Alfred do not make enlarged or PDF versions of their music available for people with visual impairments, it is nice to have an alternative.