Hello! As I mentioned yesterday, it seems there was an issue with my email configuration that resulted in my newsletter being flagged as junk (or worse) on some systems for the past few weeks. I believe this is now fixed. I'm not sure how many systems were affected or if the changes I made will work for everyone, but anyhow - if this is the first newsletter of mine you've seen in a while, it's good to be back!

If you missed the recent newsletters, then that includes the one where I officially announced the rebranding of the Mastering MuseScore community as Outside Shore Music, and you probably also missed most of the messages that went out last week about the Practical Counterpoint course that began on Monday. It's not too late to enroll, and if you're interested in finding any of the messages you missed, try checking your spam folder. But you can also learn everything you need to know from the following links:

• The main course page for Practical Counterpoint​
• The replay of last week's Music Master Class, which previewed the course
• The newsletter announcing Outside Shore Music​
• The page where you can enroll in the course by becoming a Gold-level member of the Outside Shore Music community

Anyhow, I'm so happy to report that the Practical Counterpoint course is now open, and we'd still love to have you! Once enrolled, be sure to also follow the Musicianship Workshop space regularly for discussions and projects.

Mastering MuseScore

If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering MuseScore membership for the most comprehensive training & expert support available!

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we continue our first-Wednesday "ask me anything" series. Come with your questions, and I'll do my best to answer!

The free MuseScore Café is live on Wednesday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

Tip of the Week

It's common to want to hide empty staves in a score to save space. However, a question arises in ensembles containing piano: should the piano staves be hidden individually (so only one staff shows if one hand plays but not the other), or all together (so either both staves show, or neither do - never just one). In jazz, the former is common, but in classical music, we usually want the latter. In this video post, I show you exactly how to achieve both of these results.

Musicianship

If you are serious about learning music - theory, composition, improvisation, and more - become a Gold-level member and receive access to all of our music courses and workshops, as well as exclusive benefits like my weekly Office Hours, in addition to our acclaimed Mastering MuseScore resources.

Music Master Class

This week in the Music Master Class with Marc Sabatella, we'll be reviewing the materials from this first week of Practical Counterpoint and exploring additional musical examples.

The free Music Master Class is live on Thursday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

In Theory

In the first week of my online course Practical Counterpoint, I discuss the basic principles we'll need to understand before getting deeper into the subject - consonance and dissonance, voice leading, different types of contrapuntal motion and texture, etc. In this video post, I show how we can look at a brief passage of Bach's B Minor Mass in these terms.