red notes

• Nov 9, 2021 - 22:53

Why do some noteheads turn red and how do I make them black again??

Comments

• Nov 9, 2021 - 23:07

They are red on nscreen only as a warning to you that the notes you have entered are too high or too low for the instrument you told MuseScore you are writing for. if you are they will playable anyhow by the people you envision playing your score, you can safely ignore this, and they'll be black when printed or exporting to PDF. You can also turn off those warnings if you write at the extreme of registers often and don't wish to be reminder - see Edit / Preferences / Note Input.

If on the other hand the issue is that you told MuseScore you are writing for a different than you actually are, it's not too late to change this - just right-clkick the staff and go to Staff/Part Properties then Change Instrument to what you really meant. You can also customize the range info in this dialog directly, if for example you are writing for a trumpet player who you know can consistently hit high E's but not F's.

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• Nov 14, 2023 - 01:26

For some instruments, red means red and you CAN NOT play that note (e.g. piano, steel drums, hand bells, lower notes for stringed instruments) . For others (including voice, most brass instruments), red means be aware that the music that you are writing might not be able to be performed by the average player/singer. In those cases, though, there is almost certainly someone out there who will see it as a challenge and say they can play or sing that note (or better). For soprano voice, I know a few who can reliably sing Bb6 and I used to be able to play that on the soprano cornet but I'm older now an would ask any composers not to put that sort of note into their work, please.

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