Marc brings a personal touch to the book, writing in the first person without overusing the technique, which makes you feel like he is gently guiding you along: “In this section, when I use the word ‘chord,’ I am describing how to add multiple notes that share a single stem. A section from Mastering MuseScore with an inset Many pages have insets which helpfully explain the reasoning behind a feature or action. The remaining four sections - Note Entry and Editing, Other Score Elements, Staves and Layout, and Working with MuseScore - deftly begin by describing basic operations but seamlessly introduce more complex concepts without feeling overwhelming. However, to look at it from a more positive angle, the remainder of the material is clearly and briskly organized, so if you prefer that your information not be buried in a lesson that you have no intention of completing, then you’ll feel right at home with Mastering MuseScore. If you are looking for the satisfaction of completing a larger project from beginning to end with the book’s guidance, unfortunately you’ll have to look elsewhere - there aren’t any other lessons or exercises included with the book. Here the book suffers a bit from an identity crisis, as the tutorial approach is abandoned henceforth, relying instead on many unrelated small examples to illustrate concepts and features. A page from “Mastering MuseScore” on creating your first score The tutorial covers the basics of entering notes, rests, rhythms and lyrics, and also briefly touches on page text and playback. Should you wish to put the book on your e-reader, one has been promised in the near future, but was not yet available at the time of this review.Īfter some preliminary material and an introduction to some of MuseScore’s basic windows and palettes, Mastering MuseScore begins with a quick tutorial called Your First Score, which guides you through the process of creating eight bars of the familiar song “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Best of all, it’s actually published as a real, tangible softcover book that can sit on your bookshelf within easy reach. Published by the MuseScore BVBA (the official company that owns the MuseScore software) and available for $40 from Amazon, it’s logically organized in five large sections that you can read in sequence or jump around if you prefer. It’s in that spirit that jazz musician, educator and MuseScore expert Marc Sabatella wrote Mastering MuseScore, a thoroughly comprehensive and engaging 387-page guide to MuseScore 2. The best software guides seem to still be the ones that you can read while on your sofa or in a café and absorb the material so it seems like the author is personally guiding you along. The online manual, however, while being a useful and essential reference, is not organized in a way that is conducive to easy reading. The online help manual, known as the Handbook, runs some 185 pages when downloaded, and is available in a variety of languages, maintained by the MuseScore community. As I recall, the supporting documentation consisted of just a handful of pages containing the basics of how to use the program, very much in keeping with the freeware nature of the product at the time.įast-forward to MuseScore 2 - the program is still free, but it has evolved and matured into a robust, powerful and impressive music notation package. MASTERING MUSESCORE is all you need to become in an expert in using MuseScore, the most powerful free music notation software in the world.I remember when I first downloaded MuseScore 0.9.6 some five years ago. Hundreds of examples and illustrations are included to make it easy to follow along. The book covers score and part organization and page layout, as well as the playback, graphics, import, and export features, and it explains the many customizations the program offers. The book then explains how to create and edit each of the many different types of markings supported by MuseScore, including time signatures, repeats, tablature, chord symbols, slash notation, and much more. Next it explores the process of note entry and editing in depth, covering everything from notes and rests to tuplets and grace notes to cross staff notation and feathered beaming. This book starts with the basics, walking you through the notation of a very simple song. MASTERING MUSESCORE is the definitive guide to MuseScore 2, the free and open source music notation program for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
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