Handbook 3
This handbook is for MuseScore version 3.0 and above. It is maintained and translated by the MuseScore community. Find out how you can help.
(If you are still using MuseScore 2.x, you can access the old handbook here).
Getting started
This chapter helps you to install and run MuseScore for the first time. The chapter will also show you how to create a new score.
- Learning MuseScore
- Get Support
- Installation
MuseScore exists for various different operating systems, like Windows, macOS, as well as many Linux distributions, and several BSD variants.
Find the instructions for the system you use below.
Basics
The previous →"Getting started" chapter guided you through the installation process. The "Basics" chapter gives an overview of MuseScore and describes the general methods for interacting with the score.
- Create a new score
- Note input
- Concert pitch
- Copy and paste
- Edit mode
- Inspector
- Measure operations
- Palettes
- Workspaces
- Open/Save/Export/Print
- Selection modes
- Share scores online
- Undo and redo
- Viewing and navigation
- Voices
Notation
In the previous →"Basics" chapter you learned how to enter notes and interact with the palettes. The "Notation" chapter describes the different types of notation in more detail, including more advanced music notation.
- Note input (→Basics)
- Palettes (→Basics)
- Workspaces (→Basics)
- Accidentals
- Arpeggios and glissandi
- Articulations and ornaments
- Barlines
- Beams
- Bends
- Brackets
- Breaths and pauses
- Clefs
- Drum notation
- Grace notes
- Hairpins
- Key signatures
- Lines
- Measure rests
- Octave lines
- Repeats and jumps
- Slurs
- Tablature
- Ties
- Time signatures
- Transposition
- Tremolo
- Tuplets
- Voltas (1st and 2nd time endings)
See also →Advanced topics.
Sound and playback
MuseScore has "Sound and playback" capabilities built-in. This chapter covers the playback controls and ways to extend the instrument sounds.
- Mid-staff instrument changes
- Mixer
- Piano Roll Editor NEW
- Play mode
- Soundfonts and SFZ files
- Swing
- Synthesizer
- Tempo
- Dynamics
- Capo playback NEW
Text
Many score elements in MuseScore are based on text, either alone (e.g., staff text, dynamics, tempo, fingering, lyrics, etc.) or in combination with lines (e.g., voltas, octave lines, guitar barre lines, etc.).
This chapter covers some of the different classes of text MuseScore supports, and formatting options.
- Text basics
- Text editing
- Text styles and properties
- Staff and system text
- Chord symbols
- Fingering
- Lyrics
- Rehearsal marks
Other types of text are covered in other chapters:
- Tempo (→Sound and playback)
- Dynamics —p, mf, etc. (→Sound and playback)
- Swing (→Sound and playback)
- Mid-staff instrument changes (→Sound and playback)
- Repeats and jumps —DC, Fine, Coda, etc. (→Notation)
- Figured bass (→Advanced topics)
- Frame text —in vertical, horizontal or text frames (→Formatting)
- Headers and footers —different from standard text objects (→Formatting)
- Lines (→Notation)
Formatting
- Layout and formatting (overview)
- Page settings
- Breaks and spacers
- Frames
- Images
- Image capture
- Align elements
Advanced topics
- Accessibility
- Albums disabled in the initial release, expected back in a later patch release
- Automatic placement
- Cross-staff notation
- Custom palettes (→Basics)
- Early music features
- Figured bass
- File formats
- Fretboard diagrams
- Master palette
- MIDI import
- Note input modes
- Noteheads
- Parts
- Plugins largly broken in 3.0 and 3.0.1, expected to work as of 3.0.2
- Preferences
- Recovered files
- Score properties
- Score comparison NEW
- Staff / Part properties
- Staff Type Change
- Timeline NEW
- Tools
Support
This chapter describes how to find help using MuseScore: the best places to look, the best way to ask a question on the forums, and tips for reporting a bug.