Using MuseScore
Attempt at using MuseScore
Okay. So I’m gonna have to go putting in my version of Now’s the Time. So I close that. That’s got a record of all of your previous scores and get rid of that. Double click on this. So this is the thing I want to do. I want to make it a bit smaller so that I can see all of this. Right. Now. Title. Just click on title and put in “Now’s the Time.” Whoops. Title. I didn’t get rid of title. Let’s see if I can do better with composer. We’re at composer and type in Charlie Parker. That’s that done. Now and we want to try and set this out as indicated. Umm. We got a problem with that first bar.
OK. Let’s make a start then. I think. I’ve only use this once. So let’s try and make a bit smaller so I got enough room. Push this up. I could see it. Let’s move this across here. I think you just use this for sort of starting and We want. mmm. We want to put a Quaver in here. So let’s split this up into two Semibreves that split up into two Crotchets and split up into two Quavers. And let’s put in the notes here. Now. I can’t remember how to put in a note. But let’s just try typing D. Ah. I get a D but I get the wrong D. I want to move that. So. Now moved it.
Not sure I can do that. Right. Let’s go to the next bar and let’s choose Quaver again. You want the claver to go there. And I want an F. Let’s try typing F. There’s probably other ways of doing it. But anyway. This works. So F. F. G. (Playing Notes) D. F. (Playing Notes) Except. Except we want that to be. So I choose that one. That be a Crotchet. There we are. And then. The next bar over here is the same. So let’s highlight the bar and copy it in the usual way. Control C and to this one control V. And now the next bar there’s two opening phrases are the same.
Let’s try and to see if we can copy a phrase. start here. Hold the shift. Key down. I’ve got that now. That’s copy that. View. whoops. That’s it. Now. Again. It’s the same at the beginning. Let’s just split this bar so I know what I’m doing. So doo doo doo doo (Singing). And now I want to Crotchet an F in here. So I Crotchet and put an F Great. So we’ve done the first line. Now second line. Starts and stops with the same phrase again. So let’s ah. Oh. no. Yes it does. Yes. Let’s umm. Split this bar and lets. Think it still remembers. Yeah. it does. So doo doo doo doo doo doo (Singing). So I want to here.
Quaver. I want an F. And I wanted to go down to B natural. No. B flat. Ah. unless I want to tie it? Let’s try tying it. And then. I want that to be a Crotchet. So that’s Crotchet. But now I want this to be flat. So let’s hit flat. See it’s pretty obvious what you’re going to do. And now the next bar is the same. Except that’s a natural. So let’s take that Control C. Click on here. Control V. Let’s change that to a natural. OK. Then. this next bar is the same as bar three. So take bar three and copy it. And then the next bar. Is that same thing with that same first phrase so.
Lets choose that first phrase. Whoops. Now we did it with the shift key didn’t we? Control C and control V. And now we want to have to have Crotchet here. So let’s put in a Crotchet. It’s an F. And our next thing is. We want a Quaver. Mm hmm. Why won’t it do it. Ah. We don’t want it there. Oh. Cause we didn’t click on that. So let’s now go back to this Crotchet rest. We ought to split it into two Quavers rests. We want to make this an A. Let’s try to put in an A (Plays Note). And that’s now try putting an A flat. That’s an A flat. A now we want to tie a that.
Tie goes across. Yeah. That’s correct. Goes across there. And then we want an F (Plays Note). So we don’t that flat there. Oh well. get rid of it. And F. D. (Plays Notes). D. Seems to know all about. (Plays Notes) Quavers now. Let’s go back to this and let’s get rid of that flat. Rid of that flat. That’s it. See. I didn’t know how to do it but just by clicking around. You generally get the idea. She could read the instructions. So we’ve done that bar. Now we’re onto this bar here. So. again. Remember it starts with a Quaver rest. And then we want this note. We want this note to be a G is try typing G (Plays Note).
Well that worked. And we want it. We want it tied. So let’s do tied. Don’t know. It knows what we’re talking about. Mmm Didn’t seem to work. That’s better. Except that we want that second note to be a Crotchet. Well. it’s still highlighted blue. So let’s just assume that we can change that to a Crotchet. No. we can’t. So let’s select this. Hit Crotchet. Good! So now on. Doo doo doo doo (Singing). So we want to start here with Quavers. We want F. G. F. E flat tied. (Playing Notes) but we didn’t make you a flat. So let’s get back that. click on that go to E. Clicked on the flat ( Playing Notes). Now we’re here.
So now we want. In this bar we want C (Plays Note). And We want it tied. to another Quaver C (Plays Note) and that’s what we got. Now we want to B flat here (Plays Note). And a C here (Plays Note). Except we want that last C to be. Crotchet. And we want that B natural here to be a flat (Plays Note). So choose it. and flatten it. We’re almost done now. We’re just onto this last bar. So we want a Quaver rest. Quaver rest. There we go. And then we want to note. E flat. So let’s type E (Plays Note) And let’s turn it into a flat. Mmm. That didn’t work (Plays Note). Turn into flat (Plays Note).
That worked. Then we want it tied. Mmm. I don’t know I quite got the hang of this. Let’s try again. Try to select the note and then put in the tie. Yeah that worked. And now we’re back to Quaver (Plays Note). Quaver (Plays Note). We want you that tie. Let’s go back and do that in a minute. B flat (Plays Note) and then C (Plays Note). Except. We want that C (Plays Note) to be a Crotchet. And we want this to be tied (Plays Note). I think that’s it. So it ends here. Barline. See. if we. Go over here to Barline. Let’s see? Final Barline? Yep! Now I want to get rid of these other things. So in Sibelius.
I think. You select them all and then you do either backspace. No. that didn’t work. That just didn’t do anything. So. I select them all using my Up Arrow Key and then that’s do. Not backspace. but control backspace. Yeah that got rid of them. Actually. I can’t see how far down they go. But let’s try again. Select all of them. Control backspace. Still some more there. Let’s get rid of that. Okay. So everything’s done now. apart from this first bar. Let’s see if I can get rid of this first bar. Backspace didn’t work. Control backspace. Mmm. Command backspace worked on my iMac. Command backspace. Don’t know how it’s affected it. Yes. I have. Kill it. Select it. Kill it. Now.
what else. I want that to be a double Barline. So go over to here to Barlines. double Barline. So let’s see what that sounds like. Let’s go to the play button (Music Playing). Oops. Oops. So. Two mistakes there. That should have been an A flat and that should have been a B flat. Now I think it’s right. Trouble is that I don’t like the way it’s laid out. I need. I need to break these at different places. So that’s in. In Sibeliusis called a system break. So let’s have a look for system breaks and MuseScore System breaks. MuseScore. Uh. Add a break to a measure. not sure that’s what I want to do. System breaks. Mmmm Add/ Remove system breaks.
Oh. yeah. So choose format. Add/ Remove system breaks and then look at that dialog. Let’s try that. In format. Add or remove system breaks. Lets um. Take them all out and start again. So remove system breaks. Now we want four bars for the end and One. Two. Three. Four. We want a break there. Let’s just choose that bar and hit return. Didn’t work too well. Ah. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Break it there. There. Ah! That worked. That’s what I want. So what’s the next thing? Oh the next thing is chords. So how to do chords in MuseScore? So let’s go to Google. Putting chords in MuseScore. Chords symbolism. MuseScore. Enter a chord symbol.
So control K or on a Mac command K and you need no new note roots or A. B. C. E. F. G. Sharp is a Hash or Atl 3. Flat is a small b. Atl 3. Flat is a small B and so on. We’d only need three chords and we don’t really need to know much more. Than that. So you select this. You do command K and then you put in F seven. F seven. And now do the same. Same for the next one. (Chord Plays) Ooh. Plays a chord. Let’s do command K. And I want B. Capital B small B gives me a flat. And seven. Fact there is only three chords (Chord Plays).
And this one is C seven. So. Command K. Capital C seven. And then (Chord Plays) all the rest. Mmm. It’s moved over a every bit don’t know why. Let’s try stretching (Note Playing) that bar using the left arrow key. That seemed to do it. Right. So now all we want to do is copy these things. So control C so there’s an F seven here. There’s and F seven there. There’s an F seven there. There’s an F seven there. There’s an F seven there. There’s an F seven there. Now got like that (Chord Playing). Control C. There’s B flat seven there (Note Plays) B flat seven there (Note Plays). And we’re done. Let’s try playing that (Music Playing). All right.
We miss missed out did we. Missed out here a B flat seven (Chord Plays). That. let us copy it and that solves it there. I mean you could try moving these chords. Back if you want to make it play a bit better but I don’t think it’s worth it. So that’s everything. So what do we do now? We want to save it. So umm. Let’s have a look up here. Save as. “Now is the time.” Now is the time and that’s going to stick that in somewhere called “scores.” And it’s going to be called. Now is the time dot m. c. z MuseScore. Well. all right. And then. perhaps the only other thing we want to do is print it.
So we go up to him. We say print. And then we go ahead and say print. OK. I think that’s enough to get you started. But if it isn’t. Then look for some videos. Let me just see if I see MuseScore videos. MuseScore Videos. Whoops. Tutorial videos. There they all are basic tutorial. 10 Easy Steps. Great. So. I hope that. Helps you.
I have made an initial attempt at using MuseScore “intuitively” to produce a blues chart and which I hope is enough to help you to produce your Composition blues chart.
If you need more help, then consult the various MuseScore videos which are available online.
Creating a PDF from MuseScore
It will vary, depending on what you are using, but you should find an ‘Export’ option in MuseScore’s file menu which will let you save as a PDF. Alternatively you may be able to ‘print as PDF’ from the print menu.
Please share any useful tips on using MuseScore in the comments or perhaps an alternative package that you use.
When you have your PDF and an mp3 recording of your performance, use the next step to submit them.
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