From Silence to Score

Learning to compose — from a blank staff to a piece for small orchestra — with MuseScore 4 at your side the whole way.

1. ·Before the First NoteWhy compose, why MuseScore, and the one promise this book makes about how theory and tool will never be separated.

1. 1Installing MuseScore 4First launch, the workspace tour, and naming the parts of the window you will live in for the rest of the book.
2. 2Getting Notes InThree ways to enter notes — mouse, computer keyboard, MIDI — and why the keyboard method is the one worth learning first.
3. 3Navigating the ScorePalettes, the Properties panel, the Mixer, and playback: the four surfaces through which you shape everything.
4. 4Saving and ExportingProject files, PDF, MusicXML, and audio — what each format keeps, what it throws away, and a sane way to organize your work.

1. 5Staff, Clef, and PitchThe staff as a graph of pitch against time, the clefs that anchor it, and the keyboard that makes it concrete.
2. 6Rhythm and MeterNote values, rests, beat and meter, and time signatures — how music is measured before it is pitched.
3. 7ScalesBuilding major and minor scales from whole and half steps — and the three faces of the minor scale.
4. 8Key Signatures and the Circle of FifthsWhy sharps and flats collect at the front of the staff, and the map that organizes every key.
5. 9IntervalsMeasuring the distance between two notes by number and quality — the atom of every chord and melody to come.
6. 10Dynamics, Articulation, TempoThe markings that turn a correct sequence of pitches into something a performer can play — and feel.
7. P1Notate a MelodyFrom a recording and a reference score to clean, readable notation. The first piece of your portfolio.

1. 11TriadsMajor, minor, diminished, augmented — the four three-note chords that everything else is built from.
2. 12Diatonic ChordsThe seven chords native to a key, their Roman numerals, and the gravity between them.
3. 13Inversions and Chord SymbolsTurning a chord over, and the lead-sheet shorthand that names it in a single line.
4. 14Four-Part WritingSATB chorale texture and the voice-leading rules that keep four independent lines sounding like one.
5. 15CadencesAuthentic, plagal, half, deceptive — the punctuation marks of harmony.
6. 16Non-Chord TonesPassing tones, neighbors, suspensions — the notes that don't belong to the chord and make the music breathe.
7. P2Harmonize a MelodyGive a given melody four voices, obeying the rules you now know and breaking them only on purpose.

1. 17What Makes a Melody WorkContour, motive, and sequence — the difference between a line and a tune.
2. 18Phrases, Periods, SentencesHow small musical units join into the sentences and paragraphs of a piece.
3. 19Motivic DevelopmentRepetition, sequence, fragmentation, inversion — squeezing a whole movement out of a three-note idea.
4. 20Melody from HarmonyWriting a tune over a progression, and a progression under a tune — the two directions of the same craft.
5. 21Accompaniment PatternsBlock chords, arpeggiation, and the Alberti bass — turning a chord grid into texture.
6. P3Compose a Melody with AccompanimentAn original eight-to-sixteen-bar melody with its own accompaniment — the seed of everything in Parts 5 and 7.

1. 22Simple ModulationMoving to the dominant or relative major and finding your way home again.
2. 23Binary and Ternary FormThe two-part and three-part shapes underneath most short pieces ever written.
3. 24Theme and VariationsKeeping a theme recognizable while changing everything around it.
4. 25RondoA recurring refrain and the episodes between it — form as return.
5. 26Toward Sonata FormA light-touch look at the most important form in the repertoire, kept to an intermediate ceiling.
6. P4Compose in Binary or Ternary FormA short, complete piece with a real beginning, middle, and return.

1. 27Writing for PianoTwo-hand texture, voicing, and what the pedal implies — the instrument every composer thinks at.
2. 28A Counterpoint PrimerFirst and second species, used as a practical tool rather than an academic discipline.
3. 29Writing for Two InstrumentsDuet texture, imitation, and call-and-response — two independent voices in conversation.
4. 30Writing for a Small EnsembleBalance and register across a string quartet or similar group.
5. P5Arrange a Melody for an EnsembleTake an earlier melody and score it for a small group — the last step before the orchestra.

1. 31The Instrument FamiliesStrings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion — how each makes its sound and where it lives.
2. 32Ranges and TranspositionWritten pitch versus concert pitch, and how MuseScore keeps the two straight for you.
3. 33Idiomatic RangesWhere each instrument sounds its best, and the beginner mistakes that make players wince.
4. 34Doubling and VoicingCombining instruments across a small group without mud or collision.

1. 35What Orchestration IsComposing with timbre, not merely assigning notes to players.
2. 36Orchestral TexturesMelody and accompaniment, homophonic blocks, simple counterpoint — the basic ways an orchestra can be arranged.
3. 37BalanceWho carries the melody, who supports, and how to keep the middle register from turning to mud.
4. 38Scoring for Chamber OrchestraBringing it together on a real MuseScore template.
5. 39Reading Real ScoresA few annotated public-domain excerpts, and how to steal from them well.
6. CRe-Score for Small OrchestraTake one earlier piece and fully orchestrate it, with a short written analysis of your own choices.

1. AKeyboard ShortcutsThe MuseScore 4 shortcuts worth committing to muscle memory.
2. BInstrument Range ChartConcert and written ranges for the instruments in this book.
3. CGlossaryThe vocabulary of the book, in one place.
4. DWhere to Go NextBelkin, Adler, Piston, and the scores worth a lifetime of study.