How do you change tempo in musescore 4

• Jan 20, 2023 - 14:44

i hit F11 and I see the tempo marking but can't change it. How do you change the tempo?


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I've seen several of your comments and you seem to delight in correcting people rather than enhancing your "logic" with empathy, so you really understand the problem - seems to be a classical musician thing. Macs are different from PC's; F11 is not working for me even with Fn + F11, or Command or Ctrl. It simply does nothing. I also get bugs that are unfixable, or so obscure that the only real fix seems to be opening a new file, and beginning again. Do you work for Musescore or do you just do this for fun?

In reply to by rebeckajohnst

F11 on Windows/Linux opened the play pannel in Mu3. But never for Mac, for the reasons you stated. And no longer for Mu4, where it is the shortcut for Full Screen (on Windows, Linux)
And yes, I missed that, sorry about that.
I don't work for MuseScore, in the sense that I don't get paid for it. So yes, for fun.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Hi Jojo,
Please understand that YOU are an expert with this program. Not sure about our friend who asked, but I am certainly not.

So your answer, while making perfect sense to you... well I'm lost.

I just want to play my piece a bit slower, or faster, or whatever I'd like. Any help would be most appreciated.

I see 1/4 note = 120 at the top right of the screen and my logic says "click that and / or drag it up or down to change my mm". Not the case.

I don't know what a play panel is, and the 6 dots seem to to nothing for me.

So if you can shed any light on this daunting task of changing my bpm I'd be grateful.

In reply to by stevestockmal@…

Hi, I'm back. After researching and getting (sadly) no help from our "know-it-all smart-ass poor teacher" (sorry dude but either help or don't... nobody needs your attitude).

So...
1. Go to the View menu
2. Click Palettes
3. Look for "Tempo" to the left of the screen (4th one down)
4. Click and drag 1/4 = 80 onto your score (you have to touch an actual note).
5. When you get it right it will say "1/4 = 80" at the top of your score, double click the number 80 and type in whatever number you want.
6. Write an email to someone who knows entitled "why can't I just double click the bloody Metronome Marking at the top right".

  1. That's it, now your score is playing at the correct tempo.

In reply to by ChrisHC

You don't neeed the master palette - the standard palette contains the tempo markings. You can also add via the Add menu or via the shortcut Alt+Shift+T.

MuseScore is a notation program. If you want the musicians playing your score to play a C, you add a C to your score. if you want them to play C#, you add a sharp. If you want them to play it staccato, you add a staccato marking. If you want them to play loudly, you add a "f" dynamic marking. and if you want them to play 180 BPM, you add that marking. Tempo isn't special - it's just a thing you put in your score to tell people - and MuseScore - what you want to hear.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks Mark, but in my Musescore version (updated 4) the ordinary pallet does not bring up tempo (only Key signature, time signature, pitch, accidentals, dynamics, articulations, text, keyboard, repeats and jumps, barlines, layout and nothing more). Your Add menu did work successfully via text and that is what I will probably settle for. I also tried the Command (Mac) + Shift + T and that brought up the tempo box in which I was able to type numbers, but not notes and without an eg quarter note the new number does not adjust the tempo. Am I doing something wrong with the latter?

In reply to by ChrisHC

Sounds like you may have accidentally hidden that palette; add it back with the "Add palettes" button.

Cmd+Shift+T is probably system text on Mac, not tempo text. The shortcut for tempo is Alt+Shift+T on Windows and Linux, which on Mac keyboards should be Option+Shift+T, but also the Add menu should report this. It should default to note = 80 and then you can edit from there. You can also press Shift+F2 (may also require Fn to activate the function keys) to bring up the "Special characters" dialog while editing text - any text - and access the note symbols and more.

In reply to by stevestockmal@…

I am appalled and disgusted by what I see here.
I spent a couple of hours trying to understand exactly what the O.P. and several others in this thread were asking. Not because I or any of the others are idiots. But for two reasons: one simply (arguably) inadequate design, easily fixable. The other: really nasty.

  1. It is frustrating, that what should be a trivial setting for a new project requires, (for me and many others here) to go through lot of trouble to even understand why this anti-pattern, which unfortunately is not clearly documented (I understand and sympathize that maintaining documentation is hugely complicated, though). Posts here prove that.
    One should guess that the Play Panel has to be "dragged" out, so to get access to a small slider, not the actual numbers. Or: one would have to guess that having reached to the palette, we still have to figure out where the time marking has to be dragged to. The target is the smallest item: a note or rest. Which for someone with a big screen, and/or incidentally a trackball for ergonomic reasons, and/or a less firm pulse, it is extremely annoying to be dragging exactly with great precision a thing that is huge compared to the tiny target rest or note. Why? why not give a more accessible option?

  2. But please forget about that for now: that's debatable and really easy to fix, even if just adding a couple of lines to the docs. Far much worse than lack of a few UX design K.I.S.S. principles, there is this unbelievable attitude of Mr. @Jojo-Schmitz, who (yes, frequently as others have pointed out) manages to irritate or humiliate (not only) newbies with his rather nasty "style". Interestingly, he openly admits that he makes this "for fun". How nice for him this is so amusing. But not so much for some users, including me, too. Most don't dare to complain, they fear loosing support in the future, so they kindly endure that.

In any big corporation, -I guarantee in mine, for sure- an attitude like that would likely cost the employee's job. But hey, some people are really lucky.

So either:

a) this person is really MuseScore's owner or CEO, or its most important and influential person, and in that case, there ought to be some EULA that makes it very clear and binds the users to unconditionally accept and silently endure whatever rude, sarcastic, condescending, cynical or any similar form or shape of antisocial behavior from certain MuseScore collaborators ... OR

b) there is some group, or some mature adult that really cares about that and timely reacts to make sure that any kind of abuse or bad attitudes (whether more or less subtle, indirect, smart-ass, funny-guy, etc.) are totally banned and seriously condemned.
I haven't seen ANY reactions in that direction so far.

Finally: After having read so many threads on this forum and finding far too many "answers" of that nature (one would be enough), without any consequences, I am refraining myself of making any questions or contributions in this forum until I am fairly confident that I am not going to be mocked, ridiculed or in any way disrespected by anyone, especially if linked to MuseScore either by money or by "fun", at least not without a swift reaction from people concerned with the quality of MuseScore support.

The very minimum we all should expect to see, is a sincere apology, really, with no buts, no howevers, no excuses, no conditions, no explanations. Pure, sincere apologies. Otherwise, please do not even think of replying to this: there's been enough embarrassment already. Bad attitude is NON negotiable, NON washable.

Please do not bully and do NOT accept bullying of any kind from anybody.

In reply to by musongo

In case you forgot, MuseScore is open source. That means there are no paid employees on this forum. We are users trying to help. Anyone can download the code and fix it. Anyone can suggest changes to the manual. Speaking of the manual, the hours you spent (wasted) trying to understand this thread could have been spent in the manual. Why people think they can just open software they know nothing about and expect to be able to use it, is beyond me. Let me help you. https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/playback-controls#play-position-and…
This deals with tempo changes and how to undock and redock the tempo bar. Had you gone to the manual first you could have saved yourself a lot of time. And not wasted others time.
The forum is not the place to go to find information that is easily found in the manual. Do not bully goes for you, too. Your post is borderline. You don't get to decide who is on or off the forum. You don't get to decide who responds to you. You don't get to threaten anyone. If you don't like someone's post, try being the adult and ignore it.

In reply to by bobjp

Your reprimanding response has somehow come into my personal email (addressed to me) yet I have had nothing to do with the posts you refer to, so please be careful before you go accusing uninvolved bystanders (if even that as I had not seen any relevant posts) of bullying. I am not sure how there has been this glitch and am sure you did not intend to be rude to me as we have had nothing to do with each other. I have posted something today about "score invalid" notifications but nothing about tempo.

In reply to by musongo

@ musongo

And what case would that be? This was your first post and all you could do was present a list of grievances. You complained about the software. You complained about other posters. You demanded unconditional apologies. You made incredible and unfounded accusations.
Please ask yourself if your post helped answer the original question. Did your post offer any insight regarding any resolution of the topic in general? Did your post adhere to your own guidelines?
My post offered a link to the part of the manual that deals with the topic at hand. Aside from that, I did wonder at the veracity of your post, in general.

In reply to by Tixrus

It's not really clear what you mean here, but the usual way to change a tempo marking is to simply double-click it and edit the text. Or if there is no metronome marking within the text itself, use the Properties panel to set the desired BPM.

If you continue to have trouble, please attach your score and say which tempo marking you are having trouble with.

When I hit F11 it toggles full screen view. It should have nothing to do with tempo unless you have changed the default keyboard shortcuts.

If you can see the tempo marking in your score then you can change the tempo by clicking on it to select and then edit the tempo shown in it to be what you want.

Or after clicking on the tempo marking you can untick the "Follow written tempo" option in the playback section of the properties panel and write in the tempo you want in the box that then becomes enabled.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/tempo-markings

Or you can undock the play panel in the top right hand corner of the screen by dragging on the 6 dots and use the slider to adjust the tempo temporarily.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/playback-controls#play-position-and…

I use a Mac. I choose the measure where a tempo change is needed. Highlight it, go to the palettes, tempo and choose a tempo from the list. It appears above the measure.
Then, you can click on it to change its value.

M4, W10; I can change the tempo temporarily :) by undocking the play set, but not permanently, I have tried clicking on the tempo while docked (left and right buttons, tried ctrl, alt and shift) but it doesn't give me any way to change tempo. Undocked I can change it and it stays at that tempo when docked back...but it's just temporary, since if I undock it again, it still shows a %age.

BTW, my thanks and apologies to those with other mother tongues who suffer with the imperiality of English.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

OK, wherein it says:
Tempo text

You can override the written tempo by unchecking "Follow written tempo" in the Tempo section of the Properties panel, and setting a new tempo in the "Override written tempo" box.

There is nothing for tempo under properties, see screenshot #1
Under palettes, there is Temp, but nothing about overide, see second screen shot

It would be more intuitive just to be about to click on the BPI in the playback menu, then having it buried elsewhere, som levels deep.

Wonderful program....and as with anything this powerful, a steep learning curve

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NoOverideInPalletes.jpg 113.44 KB

In reply to by sdean7855

The Properties tab will show you the properties of a selected score element. You first need to select (by clicking on) a tempo marking to view its properties.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/tempo-markings#change-playback

But...
You can change an existing tempo by double clicking to directly edit its text, or to change the bpm number - without going into Properties.
If you wish to change the tempo somewhere else in the score, just add a new tempo marking at that point in the score.

For the tempo marking, you can go into view, make sure 'palettes' is enabled, click into it, find 'tempo' and click to add any of the premade tempo markings, then when it's on the page, you double click it to backspace the prewritten tempo marking and type in your own.

For the tempo the score itself plays at, make sure 'properties' is enabled, find 'tempo' and type in what tempo you want the score to play at, or click 'Follow Written Tempo' if you already have a tempo marking. Sometimes the 'Follow Written Tempo' checkbox doesn't work and (for me) sets it to 150BPM.

I hope this helped! (I had the same problem so when I figured it out by accidentally clicking 'Properties' I was happy)

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