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Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore

Navigation shouldn't be a drag!

Published over 2 years ago • 1 min read

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer (or winter, for those of you "down under"). This week starts a new school year for me, so I'll have education on the mind for a while. Remember, educators, to check out the group discounts I offer for educational institutions - and stay tuned for more updates!

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we look at the different ways of moving around your score. This is an essential skill to learn for anyone just getting started with MuseScore, but I find even many experienced users don't know about some of the tools that exist. So let's get moving!

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

I will confess I was using MuseScore for quite some time, and even considered myself something of a power user, before I ever discovered I could scroll my score via two-finger swipe on my touchpad. No more dragging the canvas! Most devices support a similar gesture that is equivalent to a mouse scroll wheel. This scrolls your pages vertically - but if you add Shift, it scrolls horizontally. Some devices also support horizontal two-finger swipe directly as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though - be sure to check out the Café for much more!

Music Master Class

This week I will look at any additional contrafacts submitted as part of our challenge, and I also want to talk about the reverse: writing new chord progressions to existing melodies. And of course, I'll look at music submitted by you!

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

I'll be talking about reharmonization in the Music Master Class this week, but today I want to share my #1 tool: the circle of fifths. There is an art to applying this well, but when it works, it is magic. Compare the following:

original and reharmonized chord progression using circle of fifths

In creating this, I started at the final F chord and worked backwards along the circle of fifths, choosing chord qualities that fit the melody, and using the IV chord Bb as a sort of "inert" chord to start things in motion.

For much more about harmony and chord progressions, see my online course of the same name!

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!

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