MuseScore for Beginners: Free Music Notation App

MuseScore is a free, open-source notation app from musescore.org that lets you write notes with a mouse, a computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, add chords and instruments, play the score back and export it as PDF, MIDI, MusicXML or audio.

Video lesson by Jason Zac · Beginner · 42 min

Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.

This lesson is a practical introduction to MuseScore, the free and open-source notation app Jason Zac uses for the scores, arrangements and exercises shared on the Nathaniel School of Music channel. It is for any musician who wants to write music down, transcribe what they hear, or arrange parts for piano, choir, band or orchestra, and hear it played back.

Installing MuseScore

Two websites can confuse beginners. musescore.com is a sheet music library where you can search scores, filter by difficulty and use an interactive player. To install the app itself, go to musescore.org and download the version for your operating system: Windows, Mac or Linux. It also comes inside a package called Muse Hub, which offers extra sounds, effects and related software.

Finding your way around

• Note input toolbar: choose note values from 64th notes to whole notes, augmentation dots, rests, accidentals, ties, slurs, articulations such as staccato and tenuto, and triplets. Each tool shows its shortcut in brackets. Be careful: if a note is selected, changing the value changes that note.
• Instruments panel (F7): add and reorder instruments.
• Palettes: clefs (including tab and percussion), key signatures laid out along the circle of fifths, time signatures (you can create unusual ones), tempo markings, text, chord symbols, pedal markings and repeat signs.
• Tools: a powerful transpose function (by key, interval or diatonically, including chord symbols), lyrics and community plugins.

Key preferences

Open preferences with Cmd + comma on Mac, or via the Edit menu on Windows. Set autosave to a short interval. If your keyboard already makes its own sound, turn off playing notes and chord symbols while editing so you do not hear double. In Audio and MIDI, choose your output device and buffer size: start around 512 and lower it if your computer is fast. Select your MIDI keyboard as the input device. Under Shortcuts you can change or add keys for each note value.

Starting a new score

Choose your instrument (Jason picks grand piano), then keep pressing Next rather than Done. Set the key (D major, two sharps, in the lesson), the time signature (4/4; the bottom number is always a power of two), and a tempo marking (90 BPM). Add a pickup measure only if the tune starts before beat one, as in Happy Birthday. Then add a title and composer. The score opens full of whole-bar rests, which you replace with notes.

Three ways to enter notes

1. Mouse: press N (or the pencil icon), choose a note value and click on the staff.
2. Computer keyboard: choose a value and type the letter names. It is quick, but you cannot control the octave, so fix it afterwards with Cmd/Ctrl + up or down arrow on a note, a bar or a selection.
3. MIDI keyboard: the fastest and most accurate, especially for chords, which appear instantly with correct spelling. In D major, for example, F# A C# shows as F# minor.

You can mix all three. Jason enters a D major melody (A, F#, D, B, D, G, F#, E, D, C#, A, D) this way, then builds more bars with dotted crotchets and quavers.

Building the arrangement

Select a note and press Cmd/Ctrl + K to type a chord symbol, such as D, G, A7, Dsus4, or a ii-V-I of Em, A7 and D. Turn on chord playback to audition them. Next he adds a left-hand arpeggio and block minims, then a flute line with staccato quavers, using a clef that reads an octave lower than it sounds for easier reading. Copy and paste saves time. Press Enter to break systems neatly, and Cmd + Backspace to delete unused bars. Guitar tab, percussion, drum kit and choir staves can be added the same way.

Mixing and exporting

The mixer offers volume, pan and basic effects for a quick demo. Under File, then Export, you can save as PDF, PNG, MP3, WAV, MIDI (for a DAW), MusicXML (for other notation or tab apps) or Braille.

How to practise

Follow along and build the score with the video. Then use MuseScore to transcribe music you hear, which trains your ear as well as your notation.

Questions about this lesson

Is MuseScore really free?

Yes. MuseScore is free, open-source notation software with no limitations, available for Windows, Mac and Linux from musescore.org.

Can I use a MIDI keyboard with MuseScore?

Yes. Select your keyboard as the MIDI input in Preferences under Audio and MIDI, press N for note input, and play the notes. If it already works with your DAW, it should work in MuseScore too.

Why are my typed notes in the wrong octave?

When you enter notes with the computer keyboard you cannot choose the octave. Select the notes or bar and use Cmd or Ctrl with the up or down arrow to move them by an octave.

How do I get my MuseScore file into a DAW or another notation program?

Use File, then Export. Choose MIDI to continue production in a DAW, or MusicXML to open the score in other notation or tab software.

Practise it

• LipiWrite and hear notation in the browser.
• All free music apps40 practice tools for harmony, rhythm, ear training and more.

Related lessons

• How Music Theory and Ear Training Are Really the Same ThingMusic theory and ear training are best learned together: ear training is your instinct for recognising what you hear, music theory is the prepared knowledge that explains it, and transcription is the practice that joins the two.
• Urvasi Bass Groove: 4 Exercises to Improve Your Timing (Part 2)To improve your timing on bass, keep a steady quarter-note pulse with your foot, imagine a sixteenth-note shaker running in your head, sing the line as you play it, and transcribe the groove onto a 1-e-and-a time grid so you know exactly where each note falls.
• Make Chords Follow Your Melody on Piano: Melodic ChordsTo make chords follow your melody on piano, change the harmony as often as every melody note, choosing a chord from the key that contains or supports each note, rather than changing only on beat one of every bar.
• The Ultimate Piano Workout to Speed Up Theory and Train Your EarThis piano workout has you transcribe a short melody by ear, decide its key, scale and mode, harmonise it with chords and cadences, then transpose it to new keys, scales and time signatures.