MuseScore Free Music Notation Software

A new entry into the music notation software arena, MuseScore is an open source, free music editor that sports many nice features previously found only on commercial music notation products.

MuseScore is a very flexible and full featured music editor that promises to be a strong replacement to the now non-free Finale Notepad.  Of course, free isn't always perfect, but the promise of this being an open source software product mean that in the future MuseScore could be to music notation what OpenOffice now is to Microsoft Word.

Open Source Music Notation Formats Supported:

Providing support for both MusicXML import and MusicXML export as well as beta support of the open source Lilypond music notation format , MuseScore provides access to many free libraries of sheet music such as the Mutopia Project and others that the major commercial products (Sibelius and Finale) do not.

About The Author
Chad Criswell

Chad Criswell is a career music educator working in the Iowa public schools.  His articles have appeared in dozens of publications both online and in print.  He currently serves as the national music technology writer for NAfME's Teaching Music Magazine and has presented sessions at numerous music education conferences including the 2012 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.


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