Published on MuseScore (https://musescore.org)

Tools

    A number of useful commands can be found in the Tools menu.

    Transpose

    This opens the Transpose dialog with various options for transposing passages of music.

    See Automatic transposition.

    Explode

    The explode command allows you to select a passage of music in a single staff and split (explode) the chords into their constituent notes or voices as follows:

    To explode a section of the score:

    1. Ensure that there are enough staves underneath the source staff to receive the exploded notes. Create extra staves if necessary using the Instruments dialog.
    2. Choose one of two options:
      • Select a range of measures in the source staff: this allows all notes to be exploded if there are enough staves available.
      • Select a range of measures that includes both the source staff and also extends downwards to include one or more destination staves: This limits the number of exploded notes/voices to the number of selected staves.
    3. Choose Tools→Explode.

    Notes: (1) If the selection is all in voice 1, MuseScore will discard the lowest note(s) of any chord that contains more notes than the number of staves in the selection. (2) If the selection is all in voice 1, and If a given chord has fewer notes than the number of destination staves, then notes will be duplicated as needed so that every staff receives a note. (3) Any existing music in the destination staves is overwritten. (4) If you select a partial measure, the explode command will automatically expand it to a full measure.

    Implode

    The Implode command works in the opposite way to "explode":

    Apply implode to a single staff

    1. Select a range of measures in the desired staff.
    2. Choose Tools→Implode.

    All selected notes in the staff are now displayed in voice 1.

    Apply implode to multiple staves

    1. Ensure that there is only one voice in each staff.
    2. Select a range of measures in the destination staff and extend this selection downwards to include the other staves to be imploded.
    3. Choose Tools→Implode.

    Voices

    This allows you to swap the voices of a selected measure-range of notes. See Exchange voices.

    Measure

    Join or split measures. See Measure operations: Split and join.

    Remove selected range

    This command is used to completely remove an element, or range of elements from the score.

    To remove measures (including partial measures):

    1. Select a range of notes/rests, or a range of measures;
    2. Use one of the following methods:
      • Press Ctrl+Del.
      • Select Tools→Remove selected range.

    Note: If the selected range includes only part of a measure, the result will include a measure of smaller duration than the indicated Time Signature. This is indicated by a small - (minus) sign just above the system.

    To join measures:

    1. Select (i.e. click on) a barline;
    2. Use one of the following methods:
      • Press Ctrl+Del.
      • Select Tools→Remove selected range.

    The following table is a comparative summary of the Delete and Remove selected Range_ commands when applied to single elements:

    Selected Element Apply Delete Apply Remove selected range
    Note Replaces with rest Removes score section
    Rest (voice 1) No effect Removes score section
    Rest (voices 2-4) Deletes rest Removes score section
    Barline No effect Deletes barline and joins measures
    Measure Replaces contents with rest Removes measure

    Note: To insert notes, see Insert.

    Fill with slashes

    This command fills the selection with slashes, one per beat:

    1. Select one or more measures;
    2. From the menu, select Tools→Fill With Slashes.

    If a measure is empty the slashes are added to voice 1, full-sized and centered on the middle line of the staff:

    Slash notation

    Notes: (1) If there are already notes in a measure in the selection, the command will put the slashes into the first available empty voice. (2) Voice 2 slashes are full-sized and centered on the middle line of the staff; voices 3 slashes appear small and above the staff; voice 4 slashes are small and below the staff. (3) If a measure contains notes in all 4 voices, voice 1 will be overwritten. (4) All slashes are set to not transpose or playback.

    Toggle rhythmic slash notation

    This command toggles selected notes between normal notes and rhythmic slash notation:

    1. Select a range of notes or measures (Note: use the selection filter if you need to exclude certain voices);
    2. From the menu, select Tools→Toggle Rhythmic Slash Notation.

    The selected noteheads are changed to slash noteheads which do not transpose or playback.

    Rhythmic slash notation

    Slash-notehead notes in voices one or two are fixed to the middle staff line; those in voices three or four are small ("accent" notation) and fixed above or below the staff:

    Accent notation

    In percussion staves, notes in voices 3 and 4 are not converted to small slashes but to small notes above or below the staff.

    Rhythmic slash - percussion

    Respell pitches

    Corrects accidentals to fit in with the current key signature. See Accidentals: Respell pitches.

    Regroup Rhythms

    This option corrects note ties, durations and beaming so that they are grouped according to standard music notation practice. For example:

    Before:
    regroup_rhythms_before.png
    After:
    regroup_rhythms_after.png

    Any notes that are tied and are the same length as a dotted note will be changed to the dotted note with two limitations. (i) Only the last note of a group of tied notes will have a single dot. Notes with more than one dot are not produced using this option. (ii) Dotted notes will not span from one group of beamed notes to another unless their duration is the same as all of the beam groups it covers. Any notes with more than one dot will be regrouped according to the above rules.

    To apply:

    1. Select the section of the score you want to reset. If nothing is selected, the operation will apply to the whole score;
    2. Select Tools→Regroup Rhythms.

    Note: This is an experimental feature and there are known bugs. Articulations and ornaments are deleted and some pitches respelled. Ties across barlines may be lost on UNDO.

    Resequence rehearsal marks

    The Resequence Rehearsal Marks command allows you to re-order the numbering/lettering of rehearsal marks if, for any reason, they have got out of sequence. For details see Automatically resequence rehearsal marks.

    Unroll Repeats (version 3.1 and above)

    This command creates a copy of the score (in a new tab), eliminates the repeat barlines and notates the repeat sections in full instead.

    Copy lyrics to clipboard

    This command copies all the lyrics of the score to the clipboard:

    Image capture

    Take a snapshot of a selected part of the document window. PNG, PDF and SVG formats are supported. See Image capture.

    Remove empty trailing measures

    This automatically removes any blank measures at the end of the score.

    See also