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(Very amateur musician here.) I've been writing my scores on Noteflight. Does MuseScore do the same and is it a better alternative? Are the two compatible at a

(Very amateur musician here.) I've been writing my scores on Noteflight. Does MuseScore do the same and is it a better alternative? Are the two compatible at all? Thanks, hope someone has some thoughts.

adrianh 6y ago
They are indeed compatible, as are most modern music-notation programs. You can transfer music between them using an open standard called MusicXML. But MusicXML isn’t 100% lossless, so you might need to tweak your music upon importing into a new app (mostly presentational stuff). Whether MuseScore is better likely depends on your exact needs. What’s your end goal — preparing music for printing? Just jotting down ideas? Composing and hearing high-quality synthetic sounds? Creating instructional material? Sharing stuff easily online?
- nchelluri 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. I am embarrassed to say it but you asked: I can't read music very well and I like to use NoteFlight to play back scores that I type in to me, so that I can ensure I'm practicing them correctly. That's about the sum total of my usage so far. And I'd prefer to use free software all else being equal.
  - adrianh 6y ago
    No need to be embarrassed — we all start somewhere! In that case, I think you're fine with Noteflight or MuseScore. If I were you, I'd play with both and choose whichever one you feel is more intuitive. You might also give Soundslice a try (https://www.soundslice.com/ https://www.soundslice.com/) — it has a web-based music notation editor that has practice tools built in (like a visual piano keyboard to show you where to put your fingers). It's free to use for your use-case. And though it's not open-source, it was developed by one of the people who created the Django web framework (me!) — so maybe my past open-source work counts for something.
    - nchelluri 6y ago
      Thanks for the link, will check it out and play with all of these tools. :)

adrianh 6y ago

They are indeed compatible, as are most modern music-notation programs. You can transfer music between them using an open standard called MusicXML. But MusicXML isn’t 100% lossless, so you might need to tweak your music upon importing into a new app (mostly presentational stuff). Whether MuseScore is better likely depends on your exact needs. What’s your end goal — preparing music for printing? Just jotting down ideas? Composing and hearing high-quality synthetic sounds? Creating instructional material? Sharing stuff easily online?

nchelluri 6y ago
Thanks for the feedback. I am embarrassed to say it but you asked: I can't read music very well and I like to use NoteFlight to play back scores that I type in to me, so that I can ensure I'm practicing them correctly. That's about the sum total of my usage so far. And I'd prefer to use free software all else being equal.
- adrianh 6y ago
  No need to be embarrassed — we all start somewhere! In that case, I think you're fine with Noteflight or MuseScore. If I were you, I'd play with both and choose whichever one you feel is more intuitive. You might also give Soundslice a try (https://www.soundslice.com/ https://www.soundslice.com/) — it has a web-based music notation editor that has practice tools built in (like a visual piano keyboard to show you where to put your fingers). It's free to use for your use-case. And though it's not open-source, it was developed by one of the people who created the Django web framework (me!) — so maybe my past open-source work counts for something.
  - nchelluri 6y ago
    Thanks for the link, will check it out and play with all of these tools. :)