How To Install musescore on Ubuntu

Posted on April 1, 2023 (Last modified on May 20, 2023 )

7 minutes • 1468 words

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install musescore on Ubuntu.

What is `musescore`

musescore is:

MuseScore is an Open Source (GNU GPL) music notation software that runs on all platforms supported by Qt5 (GNU/Linux, MacOS X, Windows), and is available in over forty different languages. It features an easy to use WYSIWYG editor with audio score playback for results that look and sound beautiful, rivaling commercial offerings like Finale and Sibelius.

This package provides MuseScore 2. You can install multiple versions of MuseScore in parallel, and upstream recommends doing so, because each major version has a new, incompatible, layout engine, and changing old scores without relayouting them fully with the new version can only be done by the old version. Install the musescore3 package for MuseScore 3 and expect a musescore4 package to show up in Debian bookworm.

Create, play back and print sheet music for free. Features include:

easy-to-use and customisable interface
albums combining multiple scores
unlimited score length
unlimited number of staves per system
up to four independent voices per staff
score creation wizard and templates
easy and fast note entry with a (PC) keyboard, the mouse, including an on-screen virtual (piano) keyboard, or MIDI (step-time, real-time)
continuous view: focus on the content, scrolling by as an endless ribbon, undistracted by line breaks or page breaks; switch to page view to polish up for printing
automatic part extraction and transposition; advanced transposition: transpose a selected passage to any key, or by any interval — or even transpose diatonically within the same key
repeats, including segnos, codas, measure repeats, advanced repeats
dynamics, articulations and other expression markings
playback support for almost all notation elements
custom text markings
style rules that apply to the whole score at once
lyrics
chord symbols
Jazz notation, including lead sheets and slash notation
swing and shuffle playback
integrated sequencer and two software synthesisers (FluidSynth for SF2/SF3, Zerberus for SFZ), which also can use third-party soundfonts
mixer for instrument levels and effects
mixing and panning for individual parts
percussion notation
early music notation
cross-staff beaming
import of graphics
custom key signatures
additive time signatures
user-defined score styles
and much more…

Choir features:

powerful lyrics copy and paste tools
implode/explode: combine up to four voices on one staff, then separate to individual staves
hide empty vocal staves, such as in a piano intro
figured bass for historical notation
smart lyrics: unlimited verses, with notes and staves automatically spaced, and verse numbers automatically aligned
voice leading checker: download the Check Harmony Rules proofreading plugin to check for errors in your part writing, according to standard rules
part mixer: mute, solo, or change volume of staves to learn individual lines — settings even apply to MP3 export

Piano features:

support for solo + piano (add small staff with different instrument)
support for cadenzas (smaller notes and variable length measures)
complete notation: pedaling, fingering, cross-staff beaming — you name it; everything needed to write piano sheet music is here

Guitar features:

bends, fingerings, and other common guitar notations supported
add/remove linked staves any time; enter notes on either standard (pitched five-line) or TAB staff
percussion/drumset also included
templates include guitar, tablature, guitar+tablature, rock/pop band
complete tablature: multiple tab styles available — from note symbols outside the staff to upside-down strings — and linked standard/tab staff pairs
Guitar Pro import: MuseScore can now open files from Guitar Pro, so you can easily migrate over. Import filters are improving with every release; GP3, GP4, GP5, GP6, GTP, GPX are currently supported.
Fretboard diagrams: 21 default chords for every key, and a powerful editor to create your own — with barre, fret position, and any number of strings
beyond guitar: banjo, mandolin, ukulele, oud; custom string tunings; even historical lute tablature: MuseScore does them all.

Orchestral features:

templates for common instrumentations
custom linked parts (e.g. create choral score from orchestra+chorus): any change you make to the content of any part is immediately reflected in the full score — and vice versa
powerful style controls: edit the formatting of parts and score independently — or apply the same style to all parts with one click
one-click transposition: instantly switch between transposed and concert pitch: sounding pitches stay the same while the written notes change

Jazz features:

templates for Jazz Lead Sheet, Big Band and Jazz Combo
real “handwritten” Book-style jazz font for text and chord symbols
formatting tools include adding line breaks every X measures
instantly switch between transposed and concert pitch
intelligent chord symbol: chord names are automatically formatted when you finish typing — plus, they transpose with the notes
easy slashes: commands to fill bars with slashes — and to turn notes into rhythmic slashes, and even accent notation above the staff

Marching ensembles features (needs the MDL extension):

marching band, indoor percussion, front ensemble, drumline and drum corps (even G bugles); no setup or configuration — select a template, start writing

Band features:

diverse templates: concert band, brass band, marching band, battery and pit percussion — ready out-of-the-box (plus big band for jazz)
custom linked parts: you can even keep a drumline score linked to a full marching band score and to individual percussion parts

Most elements in MuseScore are laid out automatically on a “virtual note sheet”, with a near professional-quality layout engine, but can also be positioned manually, giving you total control of every score element’s position. The capabilities of MuseScore can be extended via plugins and extensions, and the growing repository on musescore.org contains many plugins submitted by users and an active development team.

MuseScore includes a set of sounds that reproduce common instruments (as defined by General MIDI) without taking up a lot of disk space or memory providing full orchestral and band sounds (with the Drumline extension installed this includes marching percussion). The general (non-Drumline) sound font is available as musescore-general-soundfont Debian package, if you wish to reuse it with other synthesisers.) You can also load any sound font you prefer for a wider variety of sounds or for more realism.

MuseScore can import and export MIDI and MusicXML files, and it can also import from Capella and several other programs. MuseScore can export to PDF, PNG, and other graphic formats, to WAV and other audio formats such as OGG Vorbis and MP3, or to GNU Lilypond for an alternative layout and print option.

MuseScore can upload scores to musescore.com, a score sharing site, and send scrolling sheet music videos to YouTube. In addition to the desktop software, you can rehearse “on the go” with MuseScore mobile apps (which do not support note entry, but many advanced playback functions). Note that all of these are commercial or otherwise non-free offers optionally integrated with, but not part of, the Free notation program. Scrolling video scores feature the notes highlighted in the score as they sound — and highlighted on a virtual piano keyboard below.

There are three methods to install musescore on Ubuntu. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install musescore Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install musescore using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install musescore

Install musescore Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install musescore using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install musescore

Install musescore Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install musescore using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install musescore

How To Uninstall musescore on Ubuntu

To uninstall only the musescore package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove musescore

Uninstall musescore And Its Dependencies

To uninstall musescore and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove musescore

Remove musescore Configurations and Data

To remove musescore configuration and data from Ubuntu we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge musescore

Remove musescore configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove musescore configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge musescore

Dependencies

musescore have the following dependencies:

References

musescore website

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install musescore package on Ubuntu using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.