Hello! As some of you have already heard, last week the Muse Group (the company that manages the development of MuseScore) acquired Hal Leonard (the largest sheet music publisher in the world). I have no doubt that this is big news, although to be honest I have no real idea what it means right now. Meanwhile, though, you can check out the press release from Muse Group, and this article from the independent blog Scoring Notes, if you want to learn more.

This is probably as good a time as any to remind people that I have no connection to Muse Group, so I am unaffected by this. I have contributed much to the development and support of MuseScore over the years, but I have done so as an independent community member, not as a paid employee. The online courses and other services I offer are also completely separate from Muse Group and their various other ventures such as the score-sharing website musescore.com.

I should also mention that for a long time, I have been considering "rebranding" my own resources. While I haven't decided for sure, I feel this could help clarify my independent status and also better reflect the fact that much of what I do - including the Harmony and Chord Progressions course so many of you are currently enjoying - does not involve MuseScore at all.

Speaking of the Harmony course, we're in the home stretch now, working on our final projects. I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with. Next week's Music Master Class will be a special edition presenting everyone's work, so stay tuned!

Mastering MuseScore

For the ultimate guide to the world's most popular music notation software, see my online course Mastering MuseScore 4.

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!

Tip of the Week

MuseScore defaults to beaming eighth notes in groups of four in 4.4 time in accordance with modern convention, with other rules for other time signatures. But you can override the default beaming when necessary. In this video post, I show how to break a beam to create smaller groupings, join beams to create longer ones, and also how to beam over rests.

Musicianship Skills

If you want to learn more about music - theory, composition, improvisation, and more - become a Gold level member and receive access to all of our music courses as well as exclusive benefits like my weekly Office Hours.

Music Master Class

This week in the Music Master Class with Marc Sabatella, we continue our review of work submitted for the Harmony and Chord Progressions course.

In Theory

When learning music theory, we often focus on the construction and behavior of individual chords. But much of what there is to understand about harmony comes from looking at a somewhat bigger picture - the function of phrases consisting of several chords over one to four measures, forming "routes" from one milestone to another. In this video post, I discuss the impact of this type of thinking and how it relates to ordering chile rellenos at the post office...