MuseScore

Just tried v4.3. It's mainly "cloud oriented", compared to v3 and I don't need that. Luckily, you still can use it offline and for anyone starting with v4, there's no reason using v3 instead. Unfortunately, if you have made a lot of scores using v3, and still use them, there are chances that the new engraving rules of v4 will mangle your old scores if you follow their advice to reset positions... If you don't, there might be some items slightly misplaced but it doesn't look that bad. The real issue is that if you open multiple files, each one will open in a duplicate version of the app! 😲 So, working with ten scores together will eat a lot of cpu and ram for nothing... That was not the case with v3.

MuseScore 4 introduced Muse Hub, something to download high quality sounds. The download page misses an important precision: Muse Hub is not mandatory and it requires macOS 11.5+ but there's no requirements mentioned for "MuseScore without Muse Hub". It works on 10.14.6+. I've not been convinced by v4.0.1 so I'm staying at v3.6.2 for the time being, also for platform compatibility.

Worst score editing software I ever used; I can't believe all of the good reviews it gets. I get that it's free, but nothing is intuitive, I had to look for a ridiculous amount of time to be able to even put in rests. Sometimes you can't put all of the notes you should in a mesure (For exemple, on multiple instances I could only put 6 eight notes in a 4/4 bar, which resulted in a quarter note of silence at the end of the bar in which I could just not put any note.) Lots of options, which could be a good thing, but a lot of them are just useless or confusing, and nothing really makes sense until you change everything in the options. Being forced to use MuseScore afterusing GuitarPro 6 for a while was a nightmare, since GuitarPro is a great and user friendly application; quite the opposite of MuseScore. Lots of bug; atrocious intuitivity; too many options that are often useless; very bad software overall. Don't know if it's worth its price even though it's free.......

So far, it’s been great! I knocked out a copy of one of my handwritten charts in no time, despite not knowing my way around the tools. I most likely won’t get super deep into things, but it seems more intuitive than other programs I’ve dealt w in the past.

the best

A few months ago, I was searching for a free score editor to advise a friend singer on pc, with the aim of sending her my work so that she could edit her part. MuseScore was the first result and it appeared reasonably good for that purpose. I was so convinced that it was a subscription app that I DLed v2 for myself... :-D Thanks to MU, I'm discovering today that it's absolutely free and I still can't believe it! :-o It really stands proudly in front of Sibelius and I'd certainly would be using it immediately if I was not so accustomed to its big rival. I haven't explored it thoroughly yet, but I'd strongly recommend it to anyone not keen on spending a lot of money on Sibelius — which I would recommend anyway if it was not for its price...

Be careful with this release - there is a bug that causes an immediate crash on launch. The Start Center is causing the crash - you can start the program by double-clicking an existing MuseScore file, then disable the Start Center in the preferences. A new version (3.0.5) is in testing and will be released soon.

This looks like a Fantastic App. But what I'm looking for is a Client that can Write lead Sheets (like MuseScore does) but allows a Chord Diagram to Show the Actual Chord Voicing.

This is an amazing notation application. I was able to use it in a number of commercial project with success and have donated to help the development - it deserves!

I was watching MuseScore for a long time, as Sibelius has become abandonware and Finale hasn't done much progress in the last decades (you are paying the yearly update fee a.k.a. "Finale-tax" mainly for bug fixes…). While MuseScore was at version 1, I couldn't imagine to dive into it, since it crashed far too often – and stability is crucial if you want to do more than just playing around. But now, since version 2 is out for a while, I can happily report that it is rock stable. I hadn't had any crashes or even bugs for the last months using it. And I have been using it daily, since it (nearly) completely replaced Finale for me. Of course, there are still some music writing features missing that Finale offers, but honestly those are easy to work around using other apps, as anyway for more extended (professional) work one would export and edit the sheet music in an DTP app (and you can just edit the output in a vector graphics app before…). OK, regarding tools for composing and audio, Finale has still the edge over MuseScore – but there are also features that are unique in MuseScore. Support for early music is better than in Finale or Sibelius which were mainly designed with more conventional notation in mind. For example, figured bass is much better thought through in MuseScore, more flexibility, easier to use. Same with different kinds of tablature, for example tablature for lute (which is my field…). While you can do all sorts of things in Finale, it is usually only as an unsupported work around – this makes Finale so difficult to use, and so prone for problems (every update could break your workaround; probably therefore Finale hasn't really been updated for the last 10 years or so, it is stuck). MuseScore is very promising and the UI is built in a way that I think new and more advanced features will fit well into it, especially in regard of audio and composing. So in the end, MuseScore is just a much "younger" piece of software than Finale is – and since version 2, it has outgrown teething troubles and it shows it's strength, it's fast and easy to use, and yes, feature-rich. Meanwhile, the "big" two, Finale and Sibelius have just gotten very, very old (actually, Sibelius is even dead…), their companies have just specialised in taking our money. So, at present state it is just ridiculous to pay 600$ for either one those. I use them only for legacy files anymore, and every time I have to start up one of those I return happily to MuseScore… Verdict: I wholeheartedly recommend MuseScore to anyone. Great, great app. Also, if you like it, please don't forget to support the team – my former yearly Finale tax goes to MuseScore now…

I have just discovered this programme and it seems to fill what i have wanted for years. I do have the high end programmes such as Sibelius, Finale including the midi/audio programmes. I wanted a programme that i could launch and simply start capturing my ideas, hearing the results immediately, saving the good and bad ideas without having to take a course on how to use this programme. For example, after years and years i still don't fully understand or make full use of Sibelius, Finale etc etc. There are a couple of quirks in MuseScore although perhaps if i spend a few more hours those problems will dissolve/resolve themselves. Top marks and more for this programme. Also a bonus for me it's free and as good as the other programmes ( midi/score/audio ) which i paid the big bucks to use.

As a long-time user and fan of Lilypond I have only just discovered MuseScore. I must say that I am highly impressed. Although Lilypond produces high quality output I find that MuseScore is far easier to use and also produces excellent printed scores. Many things that are quite difficult to do in Lilypond (e.g. fitting a lead-sheet onto one page) are a cinch in MuseScore with its WYSIWYG interface. And the immediate playback of written scores is also a great feature. This is a superb programme which I would recommend to all who need to write out musical scores

I was playing with this and it seems to have problems with input from a MIDI keyboard, which is pretty common. I want to play with this more before leaving a rating but, still, it looks promising.

Great for a quick notation "pad." Easily rivals Finale NotePad which isn't free anymore. Well done! Has never crashed on me.

For anyone interested in high-quality music typography (engraving), I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned what an excellent front end MuseScore makes for lilypond (free/OS engraving tool) - each plays to the other's strengths.

Every time I go to install this program from the disk image, it says that it can't open it. Why might this be? My MacBook Pro is completely up to date too.

I'm having a problem with this program. Every time I try to open it from the disk image, it says it can't open. Why is that?

It is a great start easy to use the only issue I am having is with stability, crashes a lot so I find myself saving it after every change I make

Sorry, forgot the rating.....

An impressing piece of software. It´s all there and it´s very intuitive and for most jobs one does t need the manual. I looked it up anyway, and it´s very systematic and easy to find what you are looking for. And it´s been translated to 20 languages! MuseScore is highly recommended