Hello! I'm getting close to completing my new counterpoint course, so stay tuned for an announcement soon!

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we look at your workspace - the arrangement of palettes, toolbars, and GUI settings that define the overall "look and feel" of MuseScore - and how to customize it to your liking. You can even have different workspaces for different purposes!

Tip of the Week

By default MuseScore displays multiple pages side by side, so you scroll horizontally (e.g., with Shift plus scroll wheel). THis makes sense for large ensemble music where there is only one system per page, as we can then read straight across, left to right. But for piano music or other scores where there are multiple systems per page, you might prefer the pages to scroll vertically. You can set this up in Edit / Preferences / Canvas.

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Music Master Class

This week I will be looking at a piano piece composed by Joel J Seda Orona in memory of his late father - an incredible tribute! There is much to enjoy and learn from in this piece, and I look forward to digging into it!

In Theory

Since I'm about to focus on counterpoint - and hence polyphony - in upcoming newsletters, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about what is more or less the opposite: monophony. This is the idea of a melody being sung or played in unison (or octaves). Although it's a very simple concept, it has great value even in the context of a more complex arrangement. Phrases where an entire ensemble plays a line in unison can create excitement and a change of pace from more densely scored passages. This can also be used in solo piano, where the two hands might play a measure or two in octaves. Or, in a large ensemble, having one or more section play in unison while another plays chords is a very effective texture. It can also be interesting to explore different combinations of instruments to play in unison - for instance, trombone, oboe, and harp.