profile

Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore

Back to School

Published over 2 years ago • 1 min read

Hello! It's September, which means back to school for many of us - whether you're a teacher like me, or a student, or a parent, that's a big deal. I wish you all great success in the coming academic year!

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we look at the various ways one can use MuseScore in an educational setting. And I'll show you how the features I demonstrate can be useful to everyone, not just teachers and students!

The free MuseScore Café is live on Wednesday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

Tip of the Week

MuseScore comes with a small handful of plugins, and there are dozens more available to download and install from musescore.org. I've talked about plugins before in this column, but today I want to tell you about one that comes pre-installed and that many of you in the education field (particular general / primary school education) will find especially interesting. Its called colornotes, and it does just what it says - it colors notes. You do need to enable it via Plugins / Plugin Manager before you can use it. Once enabled, select the music you want to color (e.g., Ctrl+A or Cmd+A to select all) and run the plugin via Plugins / Notes / Color Notes, and you'll see everything colored according to the familiar Chroma-Notes scheme used in Boomwhackers and other instruments designed for children. Combine that with the facility to add note names to the noteheads (via the the "Head scheme" setting in the Inspector) and to produce large print music (via Format / Page Settings) and you're in business:

Music Master Class

This week we continue looking at entries from the reharmonization challenge and talk more about harmony in general.

The free Music Master Class is live on Thursday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

In Theory

Last week I invited to you consider which of two musical excerpts weas from Charlie Parker and which was from J.S. Bach. It was great to see the speculation and discussion about this on the community site, but now it's time to officially give the answer. In the following video, I show where both excertps come from, where the noteworthy points of similarity are, what might have tipped me off as to the difference, and what you can learn from this:

I'd love to hear your feedback, and I encourage you to continue this discussion in the community!

Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore

by Marc Sabatella

My name is Marc Sabatella, and I am the founder of Outside Shore Music - a pioneer of online music education since the dawn of the web. As the creator of Mastering MuseScore, A Jazz Improvisation Primer, and other resources, I have dedicated most of my life to helping as many musicians as I can. Subscribe to my free newsletter for MuseScore tips, theory insights, and more information on how to create your best music!

Read more from Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore

Hello! This week in the Practical Counterpoint course, we are wrapping up our focus on two-part counterpoint. We have a fun project to cap it off with, so even if you're not taking the course, you'll probably enjoy this week's Music Master Class! Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering MuseScore membership for the most comprehensive training & expert support available! MuseScore...

3 days ago • 1 min read

Hello! This week marks the first day of spring, and after the snowstorm we just experienced here in Colorado a few days ago, I'm ready! In the Practical Counterpoint course, we are continuing our exploration of so-called "species counterpoint". This is a subject that is often taught with little or no reference to any actual context, making it seem like an abstract concept with no relevance to real music. My aim is always to focus on the practical value of the theory, and species counterpoint...

10 days ago • 2 min read

Hello! An important note to members outside the US: we started daylight savings time this week. That means if you didn't also set your clocks ahead in your part of the world, my live events will now be an hour earlier. So be sure to do the math to see what 12:30 Eastern now works out to be for you! For the rest of spring / summer / fall, events will be at 4:30 PM (16:30) UTC.Meanwhile, a new batch of lessons is now available in the Practical Counterpoint course, so be sure to check them out,...

17 days ago • 2 min read
Share this post