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• Jun 3, 2012 - 08:27

The Musescore is gaining momentum. It has come a long way. Its worldwide application is established. One feature ALONE will make it even more universal--the musical sounds' names. The alphabet is used in English speaking countries.
And if the Musescore designers find a way to include "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la si" as an alternative to "c, d, e, f, g, a, b", that will be phenomenal. This way we will have Musescore for continental US and Musescore version for overseas. It is a fact, the "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si" is the most popular way of naming sounds outside the US. I hope one day, this could be achieved.

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• Aug 9, 2015 - 06:35

Please, all the Latin derived languages (Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, etc.) use the DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-SI syllabic system.

Even here, my beautiful and lovely country: Chile, we also use the DO-RE-MI system.

Was Mr. Guido d'Arezzo (XI century) the "Inventor" of this, using an old Latin tune (See the attached file from the MuseScore website).

BUT... As an old music teacher, I think it isn't a good practice to put the note names into the score. It is a very bad custom. I always try to avoid this with my students.

The only part where "my" musicians (guitarists) ask the DO-RE-MI system, on my printed scores, is as the chord (diagram) names.

Attachment Size
GUIDO D'AREZZO - Ut Queant Laxis (Hymn to St John the Baptist).png 42.13 KB

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• Jun 3, 2012 - 14:11

I believe there is currently an initiative to include this as parte of the locale configuration - there has been some discussion in the issue tracker I think.

Not sure whether it will happen for version 2.0, however.

Regarding international use, generally, tonic solfa is used by Southern and Eastern European countries and their erstwhile colonies, so that is used in Latin America, and parts of Africa.

Letter names are used in Northern European countries and their erstwhile colonies, so the US, Canada and Australia, and parts of Africa use letter names.

So a good slice of the world does use this terminology.

India and Japan have their own note naming system, so ultimately we should perhaps include these as well??

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• Jun 3, 2012 - 14:22

Surely you can call notes by whatever names you like but when it comes to note entry then the majority of the world's keyboards have a, b, c, d etc. Is the desire for "do, re, mi" to refer to signature keys?

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• Jun 3, 2012 - 18:38

As mentioned, use of the solfege syllabes are not names is hardly universal - really just a few countries do that. But in any case, as underquark suggests it also isn't obvious what specifically you'd like to see different. You can already customize the keyboard shortcuts used to type notes in note input mode, so that "D" (for "do") entered a "C", etc, "R" (for "re") entered a "D", etc. I suppose in the transpose dialog, where you have the option of transposing by key, they could be.listed by solfege names - that would be something for the folks providing the translations to handle, I suspect (although there might be need to be support added in the application for localizing those strings). Chord symbols could be made to support these names, and there are outstanding feature requests for that already. I did add glyphs for those names to the MuseJazz font, so if you care to customize your own version of any of the chordname style files, you can get those to display (you'd still enter them as C, D, E, etc.).

Are there other places MuseScore uses note names?

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 02:54

I'm still having trouble understanding what you mean. Could you give a specific example - perhaps via a screenshot - of something you would like to see different? Why would a "layman" need to use the plugin interface?

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 03:53

Hi Marc,
In the plugins menu, the note names allows to supply the names of notes and because a good chunk of the world uses solfege to name notes instead of the alphabetical signs, the question arises about the possibility of a version that would give those names in terms of "la, si, do, re, mi, fa, sol". Also, I mentioned the term "layman" in response to Jojo-Schmitz who has an algorithm ready for this purpose. We would like to apply this algorithm in total simplicity and within reach of those of us who are not specialized in software design.

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 05:10

I guess I am still not making myself clear. Is there some place within MuseScore that you see letter names being used that you would like to be solfege names instead? I mean, a specific menu, or a specific dialog. As I said before, the only place I currently see letter names being used is if you click Create->Transpose - the dialog that comes up has a drop menu menu allowing you to select a key to transpose to, and those keys are listed as letter name. That is what I mean I mean by specific example - a specific menu item that uses letter names rather than solfege names. What aI am asking is, are there other *specific* places like that? Or are you just wanting to use the plugin in to automatically write in solfege names below the notes for educational purposes? If so, that's already done. All you have to do is install the modified plugin using the instructions in the Handbook (it's different for each operating system) and run it from the plugins menu.

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 06:34

Marc, hello again,
Thank you for your patience. My message boils down to this--naming the notes after writing a given score through the plugins menu. How can I make solfege names instead of the alphabet letters. Please help. I followed the procedure with no avail. Thank you.

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 07:00

Try to install my plugin, from https://github.com/Jojo-Schmitz/notenames_solfa/zipball/master. See http://musescore.org/en/handbook/plugins.

The 'algorithm' is quite simple:

       while (!cursor.eos()) {
            if (cursor.isChord()) {
                  var text  = new Text(curScore);
                  switch (cursor.chord().topNote().name) {
			case "C": text.text = "Do"; break;
			case "Db": text.text = "Ren"; break;
			case "D": text.text = "Re"; break;
			case "Eb": text.text = "Mib"; break;
			case "E": text.text = "Mi"; break;
			case "F": text.text = "Fa"; break;
			case "Gb": text.text = "Solb"; break;
			case "G": text.text = "Sol"; break;
			case "Ab": text.text = "Lab"; break;
			case "A": text.text = "La"; break;
			case "Bb": text.text = "Sib"; break;
			case "B": text.text = "Si"; break;
			default: text.text = "?"; break;
		  	}

                  text.yOffset = -5;
                  cursor.putStaffText(text);
                  }
            cursor.next();
            }

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 10:50

I believe solfa is NOT the good name for it. Tonic Solfa is the name of a particular method for solfege with "a moveable DO", so it doesn't name the note but instead the degree in the scale.

A tonic solfa plugin would use the algorithm found in the shape notes plugin instead of the one of the note name plugin.
To make it right the note name plugin should be changed and propose a dialog a language selection, maybe with a default depending on the current locale. It's really about the note names here.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signature_names_and_translations for note names in different languages.

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• Jun 4, 2012 - 15:26

so notenames_locale might be OK? Or rust notenames and replace the one that currently comes with MuseScore? Who would one check for the current locale in a plugin? Just via having a translation, like in the batch_export and musescore.com plugins? How would one then switch to another locale, from within the plugin?

Hmm, no manual locale selection (yet?), checkout https://github.com/Jojo-Schmitz/notenames/zipball/master and let me know what you think? Translations into English, German, Dutch, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Romainan.

oops, next attempt, had the folder with the translations named wrongly...

And now, after having changed from looking at note.name to note.tpc, also with sharps, double sharps and double flats
And with added translations for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Slovak, Czech (all same as German) and Greek.
None of the double flat or double sharp are translated yet, I'd need some help here.

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• Aug 16, 2014 - 21:05

Hi !

I'd like to use Musecore for ear-training. The above plug-in would be of great help.
The link for the download mentioned above is not functional. would appreciate it very much if you please point me in the right direction.
I am newbie to Musecore, details would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Martin

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• Aug 16, 2014 - 23:28

Thanks for the response.

I just downloaded from the link you mention, and tried it on a score, it did give the standard note names C, D, E ...etc.

How do I turn on the Solfa note names Do, Re, Mi Fa ..etc.

Appreciate the help
Martin

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• Aug 8, 2015 - 19:03

I don’t know about other people in the music writing or teaching profession but one thing I do know and understand is to respect the opinions of others. I have read several comments about using a plug-in to add note names to a score in order to help students and novice musicians learn to read music more easily.

Many years ago a music teacher of mine, who by the way was the featured piano soloist with the Detroit Philharmonic Symphony, told me that in her opinion using “Easy Play Notation” was an extremely good idea for the beginner or anyone wanting to learn on their own.

I happen to agree with the idea of learning to read by first learning how to spell the words in order to learn and to put letter groups into words. This same holds true with music. Every music teacher I have ever had over the years has told me the same thing. Placing the note names above, alongside, or in the note face was an excellent way to learn. In fact having the student actually perform this task improved the student’s sight reading ability.

I would like to thank the developer of the “bottom up” and the “top down” note name plug-ins because these tools are making it much easier for me to learn. I am a retired aerospace vehicular maintenance engineer and am really enjoying the MuseScore program. With these plug-ins I can transcribe a piece of music and add the note names for melodies and chords thereby making my playing and learning more enjoyable.

Just a note to other respondents, making “sarcastic” or apparently “sarcastic” negative comments is not the way to criticize another person’s ideas. Simply state your opinion in a positive non-bragging style and you will be more likely to win the respect of others.

Once again, thanks to the developers of MuseScore and its contributors;

Charles Glasscock

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• Jun 16, 2017 - 23:22

I am trying to move note names below the staff but the only way I can find is to do so for each individual note. Is there a way of selecting all the note names together on one line without having to actually click on each note name individually, and then move them all down below the staff. Otherwise this will be a long process!
I would be grateful for any advice
Yvonne :-)

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• Jun 19, 2017 - 10:03

As a musician in band for 9 years I don't believe doing this is doing music justice. Using that system does not accurately depict actual musical notes. I would never be able to play with a musician overseas who simply didn't know what an A flat major scale is etc. there is no do re mi scale in music or scales. That also only indicates moving up and down a scale in general but doesn't make any reference to the multiple various scales in music.

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• Jun 19, 2017 - 10:38

In french, "La bémol majeur" is exactly "A flat major". Do, ré, mi are used exactly like english use C, D, E etc... You might only know Do, Ré, Mi in a movable Do system, Do being only the first degree of the scale but it's not the case for French (or Italian) musicians. For them, Do is exactly what you would call C.

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