MuseScore- A Free Music Notation Software
If you are researching music notation software programs, you are going to see MuseScore mentioned a lot. It is hard to believe that a free program would be almost as robust as some of the “All-Stars” of music notation software. Is it true?
The Product
MuseScore, a free music notation software option, is a very popular music notation software program allowing you to write sheet music for a wide range of instruments and ensembles. Like other notation programs, you can input notes with your mouse, computer keyboard, or MIDI keyboard and includes a large sound-bank of virtual instruments for playback.
The Beginning
Werner Schweer started working on a stand-alone notation program around 2002. His finished product was MuseScore, a free download that became available in 2008. By the end of that same year, there were about 15,000 downloads per month! Downloads continued to increase up to 80,000 downloads per month by the end of 2010! They were able to support the free software by using income from the company’s commercial sheet music sharing service. In 2017, the MuseScore company was acquired by Ultimate Guitar, which added full-time paid developers to the open source team.
Features
MuseScore newest version 4 arrived at the end of 2022 and offers extensive tools for music notation. The setup makes sense and is easy to learn, Even users with no prior experience with music notation software can make it a go. There are tutorials and documentation available to help you get going although the resources may not be as fully featured as more expensive rivals. It is; however, very good for most musicians' needs. The program provides an unlimited number of staves and scores. Like other programs, there are multiple ways of entering notes, rhythms and expressions. Also supported is the ability to import and export many different types of files. For example- compressed and uncompressed MusicXML files from other notation software, MIDI, .mgu and .sgu (Band-in-a-Box), WAV, FLAC and MP3. Scores can be exported to PDF (a problem in previous versions), SVG, and PNG formats, and/or printed directly. There is an active user community that has contributed additional fonts, color palettes, instruments, and more. The forums provide support to users. Another feature of the Musescore product is that it allows the user to publish and share their music online through MuseScore.com. Initially, MuseScore.com allowed users to download up to 5 scores and paid accounts had unlimited downloads. As of 2020, all users are allowed to have unlimited downloads. Additional features are available to those users paying a subscription. On the downside, Musescore has limited tablature support and lacks advanced notation tools. The flexibility in score layout design is not as extensive as in some premium notation softwares. Printing out scores are less customizable than other professional software and Musescore does not compare with complex layout options available on more extensive products. PCWorld did a review on Musescore. Check it out!
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Cost
I started this blog to hopefully earn a little money towards my retirement. Now let’s see, 10% of $0 is what?? Well it was tempting to move on to other things but you did see the word “frank” on my homepage didn’t you? Now there are plenty of things that are “free” but how many of them can compete with high-end products? In this case, we are talking about Sibelius and Finale! This low-cost product allows musicians and writers to be able to access a quality program without worrying about how you are going to be able to afford it.
Summary
In summary, Musescore is a highly popular music notation software program that does amazingly well as a free music notation software product. It is perfectly adequate for personal use and will meet basic needs for most users who need to write some music. It has a large combination of capabilities, It is also has an active community support structure to get help when needed. For most users, this will be an adequate solution. If you need the high-end features, you will have to go along with one of the other giants in music notation software. Peace!
If you are interested in trying MuseScore out, here is a great video to help you get started!
