Adding and removing bars

Inserting measures

MuseScore allows you to insert or delete bars in the score using a variety of methods. Bars can be inserted:

• After a selection

• Before a selection

• At the start of the score

• At the end of the score

Measure context menu

To insert one or more bars:

1. Right-click on a blank area of a bar

2. From the context menu, choose Insert bars

3. From the options presented, choose the location where you want the bar(s) inserted

4. Complete the dialogue box and press OK.

The Properties panel

To insert one or more bars:

1. Click on a bar

2. Go to the Properties panel

3. Click Insert bars in the Bar section

4. Type the number of bars you wish to insert (or leave it as “1” to insert a single bar)

5. Select where you want the bar(s) to be inserted from the dropdown menu (or leave it as is to insert the new bar(s) after the selection point)

6. Click the + button

This popup remains open until you click another part of the user interface. As such, you can continue pressing the + button as many times as you need to insert further bars.

In addition, you can insert bars from one of two menus:

Note input toolbar

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)

2. Click the + button in the Note input toolbar

3. Navigate to Measures

4. Choose where you want the new measure(s) to be inserted

Menu bar

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)

2. Click the Add in the Menu bar

3. Navigate to Measures

4. Choose where you want the new measure(s) to be inserted

Inserting measures with keyboard shortcuts

To quickly insert one measure before the selection point:

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)

2. Press Ins

Insert more measures before the selection point by repeatedly pressing Ins.

To quickly insert multiple measures before the selection point:

1. Select something in your score (can be anything except line objects)

2. Press Ctrl+Ins (Mac: Cmd+Ins)

3. Type the number of required bar in the dialogue that appears

4. Click OK

To append to the end of your score, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B (Mac: Cmd+B) for a single measure, or Alt+Shift+B (Mac: Option+Shift+B) for multiple measures.

Deleting measures

To delete one or more measures using keyboard shortcuts:

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)

2. Type Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Del (Mac: Cmd+Backspace or Cmd+Del).

Alternatively,

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)

2. Right-click on any measure within the selection

3. Select Delete measures

You can also:

1. Select a measure (or hold Shift and select multiple measures)

2. Go to Tools

3. Select Remove selected range

Remove empty trailing measures

To remove any empty measures at the end of your score:

1. Go to Tools

2. Select Remove empty trailing measures

See also

Other measure-related pages:

• Measure numbering

• Measure and multimeasure rests

• Pickup and non-metered measures

• Measure properties

• Mensural notation and Mensurstrich