MuseScore in Minutes: Guitar & Percussion

For those wanting to work
with guitar tablature,

there are two handy templates
in the Solo section.

This option uses both standard 
notation and tablature together.

You can also manually add a linked staff 
at any point while working on your score.

For example, here I’ve created a score containing
only a guitar using standard notation,

but I’ve since decided that 
I want to add a tablature staff too.

To do this, I can go
to the Instruments panel,

and click this arrow icon
to show more options.

Next, we’ll click on this settings icon,
and choose "Create a linked staff".

This adds a new staff to the score,
but, as you can see,

it’s also showing as a standard
five-line staff with a treble clef.

To turn this into a tablature staff,

click on the settings icon next to
the staff you want to modify,

and select the dropdown
menu under "Staff type".

This gives us a wide range
of tablature options.

We’ll choose the
tablature 6-string simple.

Now these two staves are linked, 
meaning that when you enter notation,

corresponding tablature appears 
on the staff below and visa versa.

You can click on the tablature
to make changes too.

If I click on this note, which is
being played on the B string,

pressing up or down
will change its pitch.

Now I've changed it to a C, which
is being played on the 13th fret.

I can now press Ctrl + Up or Down
(or Command Up or Down on a Mac)

to choose the same note
on a different string.

Now this C is being played on
the 8th fret of the high E string.

If you want to write
in the tablature stave,

first select it and then press
the "Note Input" button.

You can now move the note input
highlight up and down between strings,

or left and right
between durations.

You can enter a number or letter on
your keyboard to specify the desired fret.

When entering letters, A is for open string,
B for first fret, C for second fret, and so on.

You can also change the duration
by holding the Shift key

and pressing a number
on your keyboard.

To enter percussion,

click on the percussion instrument
and press the "Note Input" button.

Percussion works very differently
to other types of note input.

First, you need to select
an option from this panel.

In this example, I've 
selected the bass drum.

If I now use my mouse to try
and place a note, you’ll see that

no matter where I click,
it’s locked to the bass drum.

You can see that the bass drum
is using voice 2,

which is positioning
the stems downwards.

If I now select this snare drum hit,

I can quickly place it throughout
the measure and it will use voice 1,

where the stems are pointing upwards.

You can also see that some
of the most common hits

have keyboard shortcuts
already assigned to them.

These allow you to enter
percussion more quickly.

It's worth mentioning that
this percussion system

has not changed since MuseScore 3

and we are intending to revamp
it significantly in later releases.

If you want to keep up to date with new
releases and feature improvements,

be sure to subscribe to this channel.