Almost as good as Amadeus

Of course you can edit a rest, and you can delete them in all voices except voice 1.

I've never used Amadeus, but obviously the way you enter notes and rests in MuseScore is different. Note (and rest) entry in MuseScore is based on the method used in Sibelius ie you start with a full bar rest, and as you add notes to the bar it is filled out with the appropriate number of rests.

The idea behind this is simple - in a bar you can either have sound or silence, but you cannot have nothing - sound is represented by notes and silence by rests. If you add a note the duration value of the rests decreases, and if you remove one, it increases. Once you get hold of this concept Note Entry in Musescore becomes a doddle.

To edit a rest directly select it and then select the time value you want it to be from the duration palette. MuseScore will then change that rest into 1 of that duration followed by others to fill up the bar.

And if you make a mistake you simply hit Undo and re-enter.

I'm not sure what you mean about accelerando and rallentando? As neither of these are currently implemented in the playback engine of MuseScore stipulating tempo is irrelevant, however it is possible to implement them by means of assigning Tempo text to each bar.

Want to transpose with a key signature change? That is done (funnily enough) from the Transpose dialogue where you can choose to transpose by key signature or interval.

So maybe you need to spend a little more time with MuseScore and find out how it does the things you do in Amadeus - after all, as you point out, ir is free :)

If you don't know how to do something and can't find it here, please ask.

Just another note on the idea of "the ability to edit or delete a rest". As mentioned, you definitely *can* cause rests to be changed or to be deleted, and it's not really indirect at all. Just click the rest and hit the key for the duration you would rather it be, and it is changed for you. The thing you are presumably seeing as being indirect is that you don't actually care about the rest; you care about moving the notes the follow earlier or later than they currently are. Well, if your goal is to change the time position of those notes, just *do that directly*. Trying to change the start time position of a note by changing what came before it - *that's* more like taking three lefts to make a right.

What you're describing, though, is a basic difference between the use model in Finale and in Sibelius, and it's the subject of quite a few threads from people who come to MuseScore expecting it to use the Finale use mode. But MuseScore follows Shelius, which is almost universally considered to be the easier-to-use program - except by people already accustomed to the Finale model (which I assume is what Amadeus uses; I've never heard of it). As someone who had to make the same adjustment, I'd say it's six of one, a half dozen of the other. Kind of like making an adjustment from British measurements to metric or vice versa.

And yes, there is a point to changing key signature without transposing the notes. I use this on ocass, such as if I write a passage all in one key signature even though it contains a passage that temporarily visits another key, and only later do I decide it's worth notating with an actual key signature change. But as noted, if your goal is to transpose the passage, you do that *directly*, via the ranspose

I must say, though I am sympathetic to the Finale note-entry approach, I find some of the points about Musescore compelling. The idea that a note belongs on beat 3 or beat 4 and changes to other beats shouldn't alter that... very good way of thinking about how Musescore works.

But the Finale approach is more like writing on paper. With paper and pencil, no symbols ever show up without my choosing to enter them. I can choose not to include bar lines, and I can add notes or rests between existing ones. In many way, that way of thinking makes more sense. It is also more like word processing! I would be extremely grateful if Musescore were to add a Finale-like note entry mode, ideally with the option of no bar lines, no measures at all.

All in all, it's important to remember that Musescore vs Amadeus or whatever isn't only a matter of $100 (or $600 for Finale). It's free as in FREEDOM because it is open-source GNU licensed and community developed and supported. That means you can use it on any system, share your files with others without hassle, have reliable access to updates, and even alter it yourself if you really want to. These things make it worth supporting even if other programs were $0 but still restricted in various ways.