Appendix

Keyboard shortcuts

Most keyboard shortcuts can be customized via the menu: select Edit→Preferences...→Shortcuts (Mac: MuseScore→Preferences...→Shortcuts). Below is a list of some of the initial shortcut settings.

Beginning of score: Home (Mac: Fn+←)
Last page of score: End (Mac: Fn+→)
Find (measure number, rehearsal mark, or pXX when XX is a page number): Ctrl+F (Mac: Cmd+F)

Next score: Ctrl+Tab
Previous score: Shift+Ctrl+Tab

Zoom in: Ctrl++ (doesn't work on some systems) (Mac: Cmd++); or Ctrl (Mac: Cmd) + scroll up
Zoom out: Ctrl+- (Mac: Cmd+-); or Ctrl (Mac: Cmd) + scroll down

Next page: Pg Dn; or Shift + scroll down (Mac: Fn+↓)
Previous page: Pg Up; or Shift + scroll up (Mac: Fn+↑)

Next measure: Ctrl+→ (Mac: Cmd+→)
Previous measure: Ctrl+← (Mac: Cmd+←)

Next note: →
Previous note: ←

Note below (within a chord or on lower staff): Alt+↓
Note above (within a chord or on higher staff): Alt+↑

Top note in chord: Ctrl+Alt+↑ (Ubuntu uses this shortcut for Workspaces instead)
Bottom note in chord: Ctrl+Alt+↓ (Ubuntu uses this shortcut for Workspaces instead)

Note input

Begin note input mode: N
Leave note input mode: N or Esc

Duration

1 ... 9 selects a duration. See also Note input.

Half duration of previous note: Q
Double duration of previous note: W
Decrease duration by one dot: (as of version 2.1) Shift+Q (e.g. a dotted quarter note becomes a quarter note; a quarter note becomes a dotted eighth note)
Increase duration by one dot : (as of version 2.1) Shift+W (e.g. an eighth note becomes a dotted eighth note; a dotted eighth note becomes a quarter note)

Voices

To select a voice in note input mode.

Voice 1: Ctrl+Alt+1 (Mac: Cmd+Option+1)
Voice 2: Ctrl+Alt+2 (Mac: Cmd+Option+2)
Voice 3: Ctrl+Alt+3 (Mac: Cmd+Option+3)
Voice 4: Ctrl+Alt+4 (Mac: Cmd+Option+4)

Pitch

Pitches can be entered by their letter name (A-G), or via MIDI keyboard. See Note input for full details.

Repeat previous note or chord: R (the repeat can be of a different note value by selecting duration beforehand)

Repeat selection: R (The selection will be repeated from the first note position after the end of the selection)

Raise pitch by octave: Ctrl+↑ (Mac: Cmd+↑)
Lower pitch by octave: Ctrl+↓ (Mac: Cmd+↓)

Raise pitch by semi-tone (prefer sharp): ↑
Lower pitch by semi-tone (prefer flat): ↓
Raise pitch diatonically: Alt+Shift+↑
Lower pitch diatonically: Alt+Shift+↓

Change enharmonic spelling in both written and concert pitch views: J
Change enharmonic spelling in current view only: Ctrl+J (Mac: Cmd+J)

Rest: 0 (zero)

Interval

Add interval above current note: Alt+[Number]

Layout

Flip direction (stem, slur, tie, tuplet bracket, etc.): X
Mirror note head: Shift+X
Increase stretch of measure(s): }
Decrease stretch of measure(s): {
Line break on selected barline: Return
Page break on selected barline: Ctrl+Return (Mac: Cmd+Return)
Adjust space above a staff (except the top staff) for the whole score: Press Shift, click on the staff and drag

Articulations

Staccato: Shift+S
Tenuto: Shift+N
Sforzato (accent): Shift+V
Marcato: Shift+O
Grace note (acciaccatura): /
Crescendo: <
Decrescendo: >

Text entry

Staff text: Ctrl+T (Mac:Cmd+T)
System text: Ctrl+Shift+T (Mac: Cmd+Shift+T)
Tempo text: Alt+T
Rehearsal Mark: Ctrl+M (Mac: Cmd+M)

Lyrics entry

Enter lyrics on a note: Ctrl+L (Mac: Cmd+L)
Previous lyric syllable: Shift+Space
Next lyric syllable: if the current and the next syllables are separated by a '-': -, else Space
Move lyric syllable left by 0.1sp: ←
Move lyric syllable right by 0.1sp: →
Move lyric syllable left by 1sp: Ctrl+← (Mac: Cmd+←)
Move lyric syllable right by 1sp: Ctrl+→ (Mac: Cmd+→)
Move lyric syllable left by 0.01sp: Alt+←
Move lyric syllable right by 0.01sp: Alt+→

Up to previous stanza: Ctrl+↑ (Mac: Cmd+↑)
Down to next stanza: Ctrl+↓ (Mac: Cmd+↓)

For more lyric shortcuts, see Lyrics.

Display

Navigator: F12 (Mac: fn+F12)
Play Panel: F11 (Mac: fn+F11)
Mixer: F10 (Mac: fn+F10)
Palette: F9 (Mac: fn+F9)
Inspector: F8 (Mac: fn+F8)
Piano Keyboard: P
Selection filter: F6
Display full screen: Ctrl+U

Miscellaneous

Toggle visibility on selected element(s): V
Show Instruments dialog: I
Toggle multi-measure rests on or off: M

Known limitations of MuseScore 2.x

While all members of the development team did their best to make the software easy to use and bug-free, there are some known issues and limitations in MuseScore 2.x.

Local time signatures

The local time signature feature, which allows you to have different time signatures in different staves at the same time, is very limited. You can only add a local time signature to measures that are empty, and only if there are no linked parts. When adding notes to measures with local time signatures, you can enter notes normally via note input mode, but copy and paste does not work correctly and may lead to corruption or even crashes. The join and split commands are disabled for measures with local time signatures.

Regroup Rhythms

The Regroup Rhythms command found under the Layout menu may have unintended side effects, including changing the spelling of pitches and deleting some elements like articulations, glissandos, tremolos, grace notes and, esp. on undo, ties. Use this tool with caution on limited selections, so that you can tell if any unwanted changes are made.

Tablature staff linked with standard staff

When entering multiple-note chords on a standard staff in a linked staff/tablature system, the notes should be entered in order from the top (first) string to the bottom string to ensure correct fret assignment.

This limitation does not apply if entering notes directly onto a tablature staff, or when using an unlinked staff/tablature system.

Mixer

Changing settings in the mixer other than the sound doesn't mark the score 'dirty'. That means if you close a score you may not get the warning "Save changes to the score before closing?". Changing mixer values are also not undoable.

Header & footer

There is no way to edit Header and Footer in a WYSIWYG manner. The fields in Style → General → Header, Footer, Numbers are plain text. They can contain "HTML like" syntax, but the text style, layout, etc. can't be edited with a WYSIWYG editor.

Command line options

You can launch MuseScore from the command line by typing

mscore [options] [filename] (Mac and Linux)
MuseScore.exe [options] [filename] (Windows)

[options] and [filename] are optional. For this to work the MuseScore executable must be in %PATH% (Windows) resp. $PATH (Mac and Linux). If it is not, see Revert to factory settings for detailed instructions on how and where to find and execute the MuseScore executable from the command line on the various supported platforms.

The following options are available

-?, -h, --help: Display help (doesn't work on Windows)
-v, --version: Displays MuseScore's current version in the command line without starting the graphical interface (doesn't work on Windows)
--long-version: Displays MuseScore's current version and revision in the command line without starting the graphical interface (doesn't work on Windows)
-d, --debug: Starts MuseScore in debug mode
-L, --layout-debug: Starts MuseScore in layout debug mode
-s, --no-synthesizer: Disables the integrated software synthesizer
-m, --no-midi: Disables MIDI input
-a, --use-audio <driver>: Use audio driver: jack, alsa, pulse, portaudio
-n, --new-score: Starts with the new score wizard regardless of preference setting for start mode
-I, --dump-midi-in: Displays all MIDI input on the console
-O, --dump-midi-out: Displays all MIDI output on the console
-o, --export-to <filename>: Exports the currently opened file to the specified <filename>. The file type depends on the filename extension. This option switches to the "converter" mode and avoids any graphical interface. You can also add a filename before the -o if you want to import and export files from the command line. For example mscore -o "My Score.pdf" "My Score.mscz"
-r, --image-resolution <dpi>: Determines the output resolution for the output to PNG images in the converter mode. The default resolution is taken from Preferences, Export, PNG/SVG.
-T, --trim-image <margin>: Trims exported PNG and SVG images to remove surrounding whitespace around the score. The specified number of pixels of whitespace will be added as a margin; use 0 for a tightly cropped image. For SVG, this option works only with single-page scores.
-x, --gui-scaling <factor>: Scales the score display and other GUI elements by the specified factor, for use with high resolution displays.
-D, --monitor-resolution <dpi>: Specify monitor resolution, for use with high resolution displays (as of version 2.1).
-S, --style <style>: Loads a style file; useful when you convert with the -o option
-p, --plugin <name>: Execute the named plugin
--template-mode: Save template mode, no page size
-F, --factory-settings: Use only the standard built-in presets or "factory-settings" and delete preferences. For details, see Revert to factory settings
-R, --revert-settings: Use only the standard built-in presets or "factory-settings", but do not delete preferences
-i, --load-icons: Load icons from the file system. Useful if you want to edit the MuseScore icons and preview the changes
-j, --job <filename>: Process a conversion job (as of version 2.1)
-e, --experimental: Enable experimental features. See e.g. Layer (experimental)
-c, --config-folder <pathname>: Set config path
-t, --test-mode: Enable test mode
-M, --midi-operations <filename>: Specify MIDI import operations file; See this example file: midi_import_options.xml
-w, --no-webview: No web view in Start Center
-P, --export-score-parts: Used with -o <filename>.pdf, export score and parts
--no-fallback-font: Don't use Bravura as fallback musical font
-f, --force: Used with -o, ignore warnings reg. score being corrupted or from wrong version (as of version 2.1)
-b, --bitrate <bitrate>: Used with -o <filename>.mp3, sets bitrate in kbps (as of version 2.1)
-E, --install-extension <extension file>: Install an extension, load soundfont as default unless if -e is passed too (as of version 2.3)

Qt Toolkit Options

-style= <style>
-style <style>: Determines the style of the GUI application. Possible values are "motif", "windows" and "platinum". Depending on the platform other styles may be available
-stylesheet= <stylesheet>
-stylesheet <stylesheet>: Sets the application stylesheet. The value of "stylesheet" is a path to a file that contains the stylesheet
-platform <platformname[:options]>: Specifies the Qt Platform Abstraction (QPA) plugin.
Example: MuseScore.exe -platform windows:fontengine=freetype

External links

Glossary

The glossary is a work in progress—please help if you can. You can discuss this page in the documentation forum.

The list below is a glossary of frequently used terms in MuseScore as well as their meaning. The differences between American English and British English are marked with "(AE)" and "(BE)", respectively.

Acciaccatura

A short →grace note which appears as a small note with a stroke through the stem. It is quickly executed and technically takes no value from its associated note.

Accidental

A sign appearing in front of a note that raises or lowers its pitch. The most common accidentals are →sharps, →flats or →naturals, but double sharps and double flats are also used. Also →koron, and →sori and other quarter tone accidentals. Accidentals affect all notes on the same →staff position only for the remainder of the measure in which they occur, but they can be canceled by another accidental. In notes tied across a →barline, the accidental continues across the →barline to the tied note, but not to later untied notes on the same →staff position in that measure.

Anacrusis

See →Pickup measure.

Anchor

The point of attachment to the score of objects such as Text and Lines: When the object is dragged, the anchor appears as small brown circle connected to the object by a dotted line. Depending on the object selected, its anchor may be attached to either (a) a note (e.g. fingering), (b) a staff line (e.g. staff text), or (c) a barline (e.g. repeats).

Appoggiatura

A long →grace note which takes value from its associated note. Its functions include: passing tone, anticipation, struck suspension, and escape tone.

Bar (BE)

See →measure.

Barline

Vertical line through a →staff, staves, or a full →system that separates →measures.

Beam

Notes with a duration of an →eighth or shorter either carry a →flag or a beam. Beams are used for grouping notes.

BPM

Beats Per Minute is the unit for measuring tempo. See →metronome mark

Breve

Brevis

A double whole note or breve is a note that has the duration of two whole notes.

Cent

An interval equal to one hundredth of a semitone.

Chord

A group of two or more notes sounding together. To select a chord in MuseScore, press Shift and click on a note. In the Inspector, however, the word "Chord" only covers notes in the same voice as the selected note(s).

Clef

Sign at the beginning of a →staff, used to tell which are the musical notes on the lines and between the lines.
Clefs are very useful for →transposition.

Concert pitch

Enables you to switch between concert pitch and transposing pitch (see Concert pitch and Transposition).

Crotchet (BE)

See →Quarter note.

Demisemiquaver (BE)

A thirty-second note.

Duplet

See →tuplet.

Edit mode

The program mode from which you can edit various score elements.

Eighth note

A note whose duration is an eighth of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a quaver (BE).

Endings

See →volta.

Enharmonic notes

Notes that sound the same pitch but are written differently. Example: G♯ and A♭ are enharmonic notes.

Flag

See →beam.

Flat

Sign (♭) that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be lowered one semitone.

Grace note

Grace notes appear as small notes in front of a normal-sized main note. See →acciaccatura and →appoggiatura.

Grand Staff (AE)

Great Stave (BE)

A system of two or more staves, featuring treble and bass clefs, used to notate music for keyboard instruments and the harp.

Half Note

A note whose duration is half of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a minim (BE).

Hemidemisemiquaver (BE)

A sixty-fourth note.

Interval

The difference in pitch between two notes, expressed in terms of the scale degree (e.g. major second, minor third, perfect fifth etc.). See Degree (Music) (Wikipedia).

Jump

In MuseScore, "jumps" are notations such as "D.S. al Coda", found in the "Repeats & Jumps" palette.

Key Signature

Set of →sharps or →flats at the beginning of the →staves. It gives an idea about the tonality and avoids repeating those signs all along the →staff.
A key signature with B flat means F major or D minor tonality.

Koron

An Iranian →accidental which lowers the pitch of a note by a quarter tone (in comparison to the →flat which lowers a note by a semitone). It is possible to use this accidental in a →key signature.
See also →sori.

Longa

A longa is a quadruple whole note.

Ledger Line

Line(s) that are added above or below the staff.

Measure (AE)

A segment of time defined by a given number of beats. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a piece of music. Same as → bar (BE).

Metronome mark

Metronome marks are usually given by a note length equaling a certain playback speed in →BPM. In MuseScore, metronome marks are used in Tempo texts.

Minim (BE)

See →Half note.

Natural

A natural (♮) is a sign that cancels a previous alteration on notes of the same pitch.

Normal mode

The operating mode of MuseScore outside note input mode or edit mode: press Esc to enter it. In Normal mode you can navigate through the score, select and move elements, adjust Inspector properties, and alter the pitches of existing notes.

Note input mode

The program mode used for entering music notation.

Operating System

OS

Underlying set of programs which set up a computer, enabling additional programs (such as MuseScore). Popular OSes are Microsoft Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux.
Not to be confused with a sheet music →system.

Part

Music to be played or sung by one or a group of musicians using the same instrument. In a string quartet, 1st part = Violin 1, 2nd part = Violin 2, 3rd part = Viola, 4th part = Cello, in a choir there might be parts for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. A part has one or more →staves (e.g. Piano has 2 staves, Organ can have 2 or 3 staves).

Pickup Measure (also known as an Anacrusis or Upbeat)

Incomplete first measure of a piece or a section of a piece of music. See Measure duration and Create new score: Pickup measure. Also Exclude from measure count.

Quadruplet

See →tuplet.

Quarter note

A note whose duration is a quarter of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a crotchet (BE).

Quaver (BE)

See →eighth note.

Quintuplet

See →tuplet.

Respell Pitches

Tries to guess the right accidentals for the whole score (see Accidentals).

Rest

Interval of silence of a specified duration.

Re-pitch mode

Allows you to rewrite an existing passage of music by changing the note pitches without altering the rhythm.

Semibreve (BE)

A whole note (AE). It lasts a whole measure in 4/4 time.

Semiquaver (BE)

A sixteenth note.

Semihemidemisemiquaver (Quasihemidemisemiquaver) (BE)

An hundred and twenty eighth note.

Sextuplet

See →tuplet.

SFZ

A virtual instrument format supported by MuseScore (along with →SoundFonts). An SFZ library consists of one or more SFZ text files, each defining a particular instrument setup, and many audio sound samples.

Sharp

Sign (♯) that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be raised one semitone.

Slur

A curved line over or under two or more notes, meaning that the notes will be played smooth and connected (legato).
See also →tie.

Sori

An Iranian →accidental which raises the pitch of a note by a quarter tone (in comparison to the sharp which raises it by a semitone). It is possible to use this accidental in a →key signature.
See also →koron.

SoundFont

A virtual instrument format supported by MuseScore (along with →SFZ). A SoundFont is a special type of file (extension .sf2, or .sf3 if compressed) containing sound samples of one or more musical instruments. In effect, a virtual synthesizer which acts as a sound source for MIDI files. MuseScore 2.2 comes with the SoundFont "MuseScore_General.sf3" pre-installed.

Spatium (plural: Spatia)

Space

Staff Space

sp (abbr./unit)

The distance between two lines of a normal 5-line staff. In MuseScore this unit influences most size settings. See also Page settings.

Staff (AE)

Stave (BE)

Group of one to five horizontal lines used to lay on musical signs. In ancient music notation (before 11th century) the staff/stave may have any number of lines (the plural of 'staff' is 'staves', in BE and AE).

Step-time input

MuseScore's default note input mode, allowing you to enter music notation one note (or rest) at a time.

System

Set of staves to be read simultaneously in a score.
See also →Operating System (OS).

Tie

A curved line between two or more notes on the same pitch to indicate a single note of combined duration:

Quarter note + Tie + Quarter note = Half note
Quarter note + Tie + Eighth note = Dotted Quarter note
Quarter note + Tie + Eighth note + Tie + 16th note = Double Dotted Quarter note

Accessibility
Album
Cross staff beaming
Custom palette
Early music features
Figured bass
Fretboard diagram
Inspector and object properties
Master palette
Part extraction
Plugins
Replace pitches without changing rhythms
Score information
Staff type properties
Tablature
Tools
Nonexistant node nid: 39841

New features in MuseScore 2.0

What's New in MuseScore 2
MuseScore 2.0 Release Notes
Changes for MuseScore 2.0.
- Album (→Advanced topics)
- View modes: Continuous view and Navigator (→Basics)
- Copy and paste: Selection filter (→Basics)
- Custom palette (→Advanced topics)
- Early music features (→Advanced topics)
- Figured bass (→Advanced topics)
- Grid-based movement of symbols and staff text (→Text)
- Image capture (→Formatting)
- Inspector and object properties (→Advanced topics)
- Measure operations: Split and join (→Basics)
- MIDI import (→Sound and playback)
- Mid-staff instrument change (→Sound and playback)
- Part extraction (new options available) (→Advanced Topic)
Rehearsal marks: Automatic next rehearsal mark and Search for a rehearsal mark (→Text)
- Save/Export (→Basics) - Staff type properties (→Advanced topics)
- Swing (→Sound and playback)
- Tablature (→Advanced topics)
- Nonexistant node nid: 39841 (→Advanced topics)
- Master palette (→Advanced topics)
- Layout and formatting (some options have changed, and there is a new "apply to all parts" feature) (→Formatting)
- Breaks and spacers, section break (→Formatting)
- Selection modes, select all similar new options (same subtype) (→Basics)
- Create a new score, start center (→Basics)
- Languages settings and translation Updates (→Basics)
- Helping and improve translation (→Support)
- Accidentals, respell pitches (→Notation)
- Replace pitches without changing rhythms (→Advanced topics)
- Tools (→Advanced topics)
- Meta tags (→Advanced topics)
- Upgrading from MuseScore 1.x

Appendix

Keyboard shortcuts

Navigation

Note input

Duration

Voices

Pitch

Interval

Layout

Articulations

Text entry

Lyrics entry

Display

Miscellaneous

See also

Known limitations of MuseScore 2.x

Local time signatures

Regroup Rhythms

Tablature staff linked with standard staff

Mixer

Header & footer

Command line options

Qt Toolkit Options

See also

External links

Glossary

External links

Table of Contents

Getting started

Basics

Notation

Sound and playback

Text

Formatting

Advanced topics

New features in MuseScore 2.0

Support

Appendix