Glossary
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Listed below are technicial terms and musical terms, which are frequently used in MuseScore or in the Handbook. Links to relevant handbook chapter are provided. To help musicians who are capable of reading a notation but do not know its proper name, image is provided. This chapter does not aim to be a dictionary of all musical notations, see .
The differences between American English and British English are marked with "(AE)" and "(BE)", respectively. Editors and translators of this chapter should add the individual entry for each term.
Acciaccatura
A short which appears as a small note with a stroke through the stem. Musescore creates a quick playback, the playback duration is not affected by duration of the parent note.
Accidental
An accidental is a sign appearing in front of a note that raises or lowers its pitch. See . chapter. Musescore creates playback for common accidentals only, they includes , , , , , and triple flats. To create microtonal accidentals such as quarter tone, see Chapter.
Ambitus
Note (or vocal) range used in a . Used particularly in early music. See chapter.
Anacrusis (mostly BE)
See .
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 which takes value from its associated note. Musescore creates playback as such. It is acceptable to execute written appoggiatura as acciaccatura nowadays but Musescore does not create such playback. Appoggiatura's functions include: passing tone, anticipation, struck suspension, and escape tone.\
Arpeggio
An arpeggio tells the performer to break up the chord into the constituent notes, playing them separately and one after the other. The arrow arpeggio symbol indicates the direction in which the player should play the notes of the chord. See chapter.\
Articulation
A marking or symbol indicating how a note should be played, usually by altering the length of a note or shaping its attack and decay. See chapter.
Bar (BE)
Barline
Beam
BPM
Breve, or Brevis
A double whole note or breve is a note that has the duration of two whole notes.
Caesura
Capo (text)
Cent
Chord
1. A group of two or more notes sounding together.
Clef
Coda
1. A passage that brings a piece (or a movement) to an end.
Concert pitch
3. The frequency of A4.
Courtesy clef
Cross-staff notation
A musical phrase extending across two neighboring staffs: e.g. bass staff and treble staff.
Crotchet (BE)
Da capo (D.C.)
Dead note
Demisemiquaver (BE)
A thirty-second note.
Double Flat
A double flat (♭♭ or 𝄫) is a sign that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be lowered two semitones.
Double Sharp
A double sharp (♯♯ or 𝄪) is a sign that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be raised two semitones.
Duplet
Dynamic, dynamics, dynamic symbol, dynamics symbol
Edit mode, text edit mode
Eighth note
A note whose duration is an eighth of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a quaver (BE).
Endecalineo *
Endings
Enharmonic notes
Explode *
Flag
Flat
French Beam *
Ghost note
\
Grace note
Half Note
A note whose duration is half of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a minim (BE).
Hemidemisemiquaver (BE)
A sixty-fourth note.
Implode *
Interval
Interleaved *
Instrument
2. Real world instrument
Irregular measure marker *
Jump
Key Signature
Legato
Local time signature
Longa
A longa is a quadruple whole note.
Line
Measure (AE)
Measure repeat sign
Metronome mark
Minim (BE)
Multimeasure rest
Natural
Normal mode
Note input mode
Operating System (OS)
Underlying software that controls and manages the hardware and other software on a computer. Popular OSes are Microsoft Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux.
Ossia *
Part
3. Instrument(s) or their staves. MuseScore 4.1.1 uses this definition only on the window title and one subheading in "Staff/Part Properties".
Pickup Measure (mostly AE, also known as an Anacrusis (mostly BE) or Upbeat)
Properties
Quadruplet
Quarter note
A note whose duration is a quarter of a whole note (semibreve). Same as a crotchet (BE).
Quaver (BE)
Quintuplet
Respell Pitches
Rest
Re-pitch mode
Score
1. In MuseScore support forums and the MuseScore Handbook, score generally refers to a computer file with the suffix .mscz - and to its visual representation on a computer screen as well as its audio playback.
Section
Segno
Semibreve (BE)
A whole note (AE). It lasts a whole measure in 4/4 time.
Semiquaver (BE)
A sixteenth note.
Semihemidemisemiquaver (Quasihemidemisemiquaver) (BE)
A hundred and twenty eighth note.
Sextuplet
SF2
SF3
Shared note head
Sharp
Slash (slash chord, slash notehead)
Slash notation
Slur
Solmisation
SoundFont
Spatium (plural: Spatia) / Space / Staff Space / sp. (abbr./unit)
Staff / Staffs
A set of lines and spaces, each representing a pitch, on which music is written. In period music notation (before 11th century) the staff may have any number of lines.
Staff Space
Stave / Staves (BE)
Step-time input
Style
System
System divider
Text
Tie
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
Transposition
The tune is too low or too high for a singer. In this case the whole orchestra will have to be transposed as well—easily done using MuseScore.
The part is written for a particular instrument but needs to be played by a different one.
The score is written for an orchestra and you want to hear what the individual instruments sound like. This requires changing the transposing instrument parts to concert pitch.
A darker or a more brilliant sound is desired.
Triplet
Tuplet
Upbeat
Velocity
Voice
2. The musical term "voice" refers to a musical line or part which can have its own rhythm. MuseScore does not have a feature to implement the exact same idea, if the voice feature does not suit your need, try adding separate instruments instead.
Volta
Written pitch
See .
Vertical line through a , staves, or a full that separates . See chapter.
Notes with a duration of an or shorter either carry a or a beam. Beams are used for grouping notes. See also . See chapter.
A tempo displaying unit only used inside Musescore's Play toolbar. BPM is the amount of quarter notes would have been within one minute. It is not the number used in on a score. See chapter.
A caesura (//) is a brief, silent pause. Time is not counted for this period, and music resumes when the director signals. See chapter.\
A text to indicate the setting of the transposing device used on an instrument. See . Not to be confused with .
An interval equal to one hundredth of a semitone, used by Tuning property of a note. See chapter.
2. In Musescore, only notes sounding together that have same duration inside one constitute a chord. To select a chord in MuseScore, press Shift and click on a note. See chapter.
3. In Musescore, a chord symbol. See chapter.
A musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a →. See chapter. See also .
2. The navigation marker which resembles a set of crosshairs. It is used where the exit from a repeated section is within that section rather than at the end. See also sign. See chapter.
1. The sounding, or real pitch of a note—as opposed to the . See chapter.
2. A score viewing mode in Musescore, see chapter.
A reduced-size applied to the end of a system indicating a clef change at the start of the next system. See chapter.
To create notation where the two stems are at opposite sides of the beam, as shown above, see chapter.
To create notation where the stems are on the same side of the beam, as shown above, see chapter.
See .
A directive to repeat the previous part of music. See chapter. Not to be confused with .
See .
See .
A symbol indicating the relative loudness of a note or phrase of music—such as mf (mezzoforte), p (piano), f (forte) etc., starting at that note. See chapter.
Used to edit adjust literal layout position and content of Text, contrast with and . See and chapters.
Endecalineo or endecagram, the stave for Solfège. See (tutorial for MuseScore 3, pending update)
See .
Notes that sound the same pitch but are written differently. Example: G♯ and A♭ are enharmonic notes. To quickly switch between enharmonic spellings, press J. See chapter.
A feature that allows the user to split (or explode) the chords in a passage of music in a single staff into their constituent notes or voices. See chapter. See also .
See .
Sign (♭) that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be lowered one semitone, see and .
Beams where the stems only extend to the first beam, but don't intersect all the way through. To create use the plugin.
In music, notably in jazz, a ghost note (or a dead, muted, silenced or false note) is a musical note with a rhythmic value, but no discernible pitch when played. Musescore supports crosshead (cross notehead), diamond notehead(the small diamond same as musescore 3), slash/diamond notehead (new in musescore 4), and adding brackets (parentheses) to a note, see chapter.\
Grace notes appear as small notes in front of a normal-sized main note. See and . See chapter.
A feature allowing the user to combine voices from separate staves onto one staff. See chapter. This is similar to, but not exactly, score reduction (). See also .
The difference in pitch between two notes, expressed in terms of the scale degree (e.g. major second, minor third, perfect fifth etc.). See (Wikipedia).
A term used to describe two interlocking, oppositely-beamed sets of notes. To create, use the voice function and the beam palette. See
1. Musescore Instrument, see chapter.
A plus sign or minus sign at the top right of a measure indicates that its duration differs from that set by the time signature. See and chapters.
Jump objects are notations such as "D.S. al Coda", found in the "Repeats & Jumps" palette. See chapter.
Set of or at the beginning of the . It gives an idea about the tonality and avoids repeating those signs all along the . A key signature with B flat means F major or D minor tonality. See chapter.
Legato is a play style which involves playing the notes in a slurred manner. Legato may be written as text or shown through the use of .
The time signature on a single staff when different from the overall score time signature. See .
Musescore Lines, a type of objects capable of attaching (anchoring) to a horizontal continuous range of more than two notes or rests, or vertical collection of notes (chord). See chapter.
A segment of time defined by a given number of beats. Dividing music into measures provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a piece of music. Same as (BE).
A measure repeat sign looks like a "percentage" symbol having the two circles filled, or a slash with a dot at each side. See chapter.\
A kind of tempo marking. See .
See .
See chapter.\
A natural (♮) is a sign that cancels a previous alteration on notes of the same pitch, see → and →.
The operating mode of MuseScore outside or : press Esc to enter it. In Normal mode you can navigate through the score, and move elements, adjust Inspector properties, and alter the pitches of existing notes.
The program mode used for entering music notation, contrast with and . Enter it by pressing N or clicking on the pen icon in the note input toolbar. See chapter.
An alternative passage which may be played instead of the original passage (from the Italian for "alternatively", meaning "or be it"). See chapter.
1. Musescore's automatic staff extraction function, see .
2. A single melody line in a polyphonic musical composition. MuseScore 4 never uses this definition, but there is a similar feature .
Incomplete first measure of a piece or a of a piece of music. See , , and chapters. May or may not be compensated for at the end of the score or section.
1. Settings of an individual object on a score in Musescore, contrast with .
2. Musescore's panel, see chapter.
See .
See .
See .
Change accidental used on a note but keep note's pitch. See chapter.
A musical symbol that indicates silence. See chapter.
One of the note input modes.
2. In some chapters of the MuseScore Handbook, score means the layout and formatting of "Full score" or one particular Musescore part. See .
3. In other contexts (for example the IMSLP score-sharing website at ), a score generally refers either to a PDF file of the sheet music for a specific work or to an actual paper copy of the sheet music.
In MuseScore, a region of the score between ; also from the start of a score to the first section break, and from the last section break to the end of the score.
A navigation marker. See chapter.
See .
A virtual instrument format developed by E-mu Systems and Creative Labs. See .
An invention of Werner Schweer, the Musescore developer (). This format supports sound sample compression. See .
A single notehead with two beams—one up, one down. Especially common in guitar music, for example. See
Sign (♯) that indicates that the pitch of a note has to be raised one semitone , see and .
Indicates strum. See (Wikipedia).
A form of music notation using slash marks placed on or above/below the staff to indicate the rhythm of an accompaniment: often found in association with chord symbols. There are two types: (1) Slash notation consists of a rhythm slash on each beat: the exact interpretation is left to the player (see ); (2) Rhythmic slash notation indicates the precise rhythm for the accompaniment (see ).
A curved line over or under two or more notes, meaning that the notes will be played smooth and connected (legato). See chapter. A slur is not a .
see
A virtual instrument format supported by MuseScore. 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 4 comes with its own native soundfont, MS Basic. See chapter.
A unit of measurement, see .
See (above).
See (above).
MuseScore's default . See chapter.
The profile that contains settings in MuseScore, contrast with . See chapter.
Set of staves to be read simultaneously in a score. See chapter. See also .
Separates systems on the same page. Can be switched on for the score in Format→Style→System, see chapter. Also available in master palette, see chapter.\
A Musescore Text object is an object that contains individual characters that can be entered and removed by using (typing on) a computer keyboard. See chapter.
A curved line between two adjacent notes of the same pitch to indicate a single note of combined duration. See chapter. A tie is not a .
The act of moving the pitches of one or more notes up or down by a constant . See chapter. There may be several reasons for transposing a piece, for example:
See .
A tuplet divides its next higher note value by a number of notes other than given by the time signature. See chapter. For example a divides the next higher note value into three parts, rather than two. Tuplets may be: , , , and other.
See .
A property of objects inside Musescore that controls how loudly note(s) are played, see musescore 3 handbook chapter. Velocity property of notes are edited using Properties panel: Playback tab, see chapter.
1. In Musescore, voice is a software feature, you can use up to 4 voices per staff, see , also see .
In a repeated section of music, it is common for the last few measures of the section to differ. Markings called voltas are used to indicate how the section is to be ended each time. These markings are often referred to simply as . See chapter.
Transposing instruments (such as the clarinet, French horn, trumpet etc.) are notated at a different pitch (and key signature) to how they sound. The notated pitch is called the written pitch. Contrast with . See chapter.
