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Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore

MuseScore workshop and boot camp...

Published over 1 year ago • 2 min read

Hello! I wanted to give you a heads up that I'm planning an online workshop in conjunction with the release of MuseScore 4. Still no specific date to announce, but it won't be long. I plan to have live events as well as ongoing hands-on activites to help you all come up to speed. Tentatively, I'm thinking about a kickoff on a weekend day month (if the stars align and MuseScore 4 releases before then), with something like a 4-6 week "boot camp" to follow. I realize that gets us into holiday season, so it's possible the "boot camp" might wait until January. I'm also open to alternative names for these sessions. Feel free to post your thoughts on any of this to the Community site!

BTW, this month in the Musicianship Skills Workshop, we're working on barbershop harmony - and we'd love for you to join us!

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, it's time for our first-Wednesday "ask me anything" session. Come prepared with your questions. With the recent updates to the live streaming facility, you should be able to post scores directly to the chat, but, it doesn't hurt to post to the Conversation space ahead of time, either.

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

A question that came up in the Music Engraving Workshop this week - how to change instruments mid-score. Like, if a flute player needs to switch to piccolo briefly. To do this, use Add / Text / Instrument Change, enter some text for now (it will be replaced in a moment), and use the Inspector to select the actual instrument for playback:

MuseScore automatically updates the text and handles any clef or key changes that are needed, and it creates a subchannel for the new instrument in the Mixer and sets the playback sound appropriately. This even works for changing between pitched and unpitched instruments, like marimba and timbales. Note that there is also an instrument change element on the Text palette, but there is a bug in how transposition works if you add the change that way, so it's better to use the menu.

Music Master Class

This week in the Music Master Class with Marc Sabatella, we've got a new arrangement by Steinar Kjærnsrød , and I'll say a few words about barbershop harmony in support of the Musicianship Skills Workshop.

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

As mentioned above, we're working on barbership harmony in the Musicianship Skills Workshop. I'm excited to be digging into this topic deeper, since it has always fascinated me. And one thing in particular I learned recently kind of blew my mind.

Normally in tonal music, root position triads are most common, followed by first inversion, with second inversion used more occasionally and mostly reserved for specific contexts. In barbershop, harmony, however, while root position chords are still most common, second inversion is much more common than first. The reasons for this have to do with the overtone series and how the harmonics of different chord tones align. Whether major or minor, the third has a more complex acoustic relationship to the chord than the root or fifth, and keeping the bass focused on roots and fifths helps make possible the characteristic resonance of barbershop harmony.

Of all the things that help make this music sound the way it does, that was not anything I expected!

Here's a sample - one of the official theme songs of the Barbershop Harmony Society, with barely a first inversion chord to be found anywhere:

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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