Tremolos and rolls
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A Tremolo is the rapid repetition of one note or chord, or a rapid alternation between two notes or chords. The placement of tremolos is handled automatically by the program.
For stemmed notes, the rhythmic value of the tremolo is indicated by the number of diagonal strokes through the stem. One stroke indicates that the original note is divided into eighth notes, e.g.
Two strokes divides the note into sixteenth notes, and three strokes into thirty-second notes. (On notes with beams or flags, the number of strokes and flags are combined, e.g. an eighth note with a one-stroke tremolo is divided into sixteenths.)
On whole notes and other notes without stems the tremolo is centered on the notehead.
A buzz roll symbol is also available from the Tremolos palette. (Whether it plays back correctly depends on which sound library you are using.)
Click on a notehead in the score
Click on the desired tremolo symbol in the Tremolos palette.
Enter the notes at half the desired final duration of the tremolo.
Select a note in the first chord.
Click on the desired tremolo symbol in the Tremolos palette (one of the tremolo symbols without a stem).
Tremolo beams appear between the notes/chords and the appearance of the noteheads is adjusted accordingly.
Example: To enter a two-note tremolo with the duration of a half note, enter two normal quarter notes. After applying a tremolo symbol to the first note, the note values automatically double to half notes.
Three styles of tremolos between notes/chords are supported in MuseScore. To change the style:
Select the tremolo symbol in the score
Go to the Properties panel
Under the Tremolos section, choose the desired setting for Style (between notes).
In traditional two-note or two-chord tremolos, incomplete beams are drawn between the notes to indicate the rhythmic value of the tremolo (to change the style see ). One beam indicates eight notes, two beams sixteenth notes, and three beams thirty-second notes. e.g.
