Main features of Muse

It shows you the music in standard (5-line) notation. or tablature (guitar, mandolin, anything).

It plays the music via MIDI (you need a sound card that does MIDI, but most of them do). A dialog box lets you choose between internal and external synthesisers or between cards if you have several.

Up to 8 parts with different instruments play simultaneously. You can select any part or parts to be displayed and any part of parts to be played. If there are several parts displayed then the notes are aligned vertically so that notes which sound simultaneously are displayed underneath each other. Like this:

Any or all of the 8 parts can be polyphonic (i.e.written out chords). e.g.

Guitar chords can be written by name (e.g. Em7) and they play too. If you don't want the chords to play then there's an option to turn them off.

Some sample guitar chords are A, Bm, C#7, Dbm7, E-, F#+, Gb6, A!, Bbmaj7
There doesn't seem to be much agreement in the musical world as to how diminished or augmented chords are written so Muse allows diminished chords to be written as (say) G#0 or G#dim or G#-
Augmented chords can be written as (say) Bb+ or Bbaug

You can set any part (or any part of any part) to play on any MIDI instrument. If you don't bother to specify then it will play using the default instrument, and there's an option for you to alter the default. (Different synthesisers can sound quite different for instruments with the same name, and although there is a standard (called "general MIDI") for which instrument has which number, not all synthesisers comply with this - so an instrument number that might be (say) "tuba" on one synthesiser might conceivably be say "applause" or "squeaking floorboards" on another. So you can enter instruments by name or by number).

Even without the help file the program is easy to use but there is a comprehensive help file which explains many details of how to get the best out of it.

To make it easy to get started with Muse there is a palette of common symbols available at the bottom of the window. (The whole window looks like this) You can just click on the symbol you want (the cursor changes to become that symbol) and drop it where you want into the score.

The Symbols menu contains even more symbols, and for many of them there is a keyboard shortcut. Once you have learned the shortcuts the fastest way to enter music turns out to be not with the mouse but with the keyboard. Try this:
Download Muse.exe, run it. Put your right hand on the up and down arrow keys and left hand on the numbers row of the keyboard. Use the arrow keys to get the cursor the G line of the staff (second line up). Now type:
5 5 up 4 down 4 up up up 4 down 3 You should have the first part of something close to "Happy birthday". Type "P" to play it.

I have found this to be much quicker and more accurate than the MIDI in scam

Muse supports all four clefs: treble, alto, tenor and bass. Good news for viola players, tenor trombones etc. Of course, any part can have any clef. In fact you can change clef within a part.

A wide range of musical notation is supported. (It is not complete and comprehensive. There will always be some symbol somewhere that I haven't done yet). Here are some of the ones that are included:
Notes(whole note down to 1/32 - that's semibrieve to demi-semi-quaver), dotted notes, triplets, grace notes, rests, accidentals (sharp flat, natural), ties, ornaments, staccato, bars, double bars, repeats, 1st-time only endings, all 13 possible key signatures (from G# to Fb) volume indications from ppp through fff (eight levels) tempo indications and time signatures (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, 1/2, 2/2, 3/2, 4/2)

The help (and menus) use both English and American names (e.g. semi-quaver or 16th note). I'm English, but I find the American names very simple and logical!

I have taken special care to make the keyboard shortcuts simple, intuitive, memorable and natural. Of course mapping music to ASCII is not natural, but here are some to give you the idea:

• # for sharp, b for flat, = for natural (American keyboards must use s for sharp)
• 4 for 1/4 note and then work out from there: 5 for 1/8, 6 for 1/16, 3 for 1/2 etc.
• . for adding or removing a dot from a note
• / for a bar, | for a double bar

Muse supports repeats and first-time only endings of repeats and even nested repeats (so if you are a fan of what my daughter calls "car alarm" music, just type the shortcuts {{{ before and }}} after a phrase and it will be played eight times).

Muse can transpose music into new keys automatically. Mark the section to be transposed and select Transpose Mark in the edit menu. If you want to transpose the whole thing then there's a transpose all function. If you don't want the music to look transposed but want it to play transposed (e.g. for clarinet) it can do that too. In fact Muse has comprehensive transposing facilities, allowing you to control whether accidentals become sharps or flats (or automatic), whether guitar chords are transposed too, or only the chords (Capo) whether only the written form is to be altered or only the sound when it is played, or both.

Muse lays out the music automatically. It would be very tedious to get vertical alignment of harmony parts by hand. This means that apart from the very first one, you normally do not enter bar lines. Muse puts them in for you and Muse spills whole bars onto new lines much as word processors spill words. This tends to save time inputting the music. If you input a note that won't fit (e.g. a whole note when the end of the bar is only a quarter note away) Muse highlights the error by changing the colour (OK, color). When Muse spills bars it automatically inserts a clef and key signature on the next line.

Muse is not a MIDI editor, even though it uses MIDI to play and can generate a MIDI output file. It does however allow you to select the instrument you want to play a part either by general MIDI name or by instrument number. Muse is not aimed at creating the ultimate computer performance of the music - for that, use a real MIDI editor. Muse is aimed at helping you create music. It can play a backing part or a harmony part to help you practice. It can play a piece that you have just entered so you can get a feel of what it sounds like, but ultimately it's to help you produce music.

Muse can generate fingerings automatically and display them as tablature for any instrument with up to 6 strings (any tuning you feel like, but there are shortcut buttons for several common guitar tunings, mandolin and bass guitar. By "any" I include multiple strings on the same pitch (balalaika) or "left-handed" tuning with the bass string nearest the floor). If you are more comfortable with tablature than dots on five lines you can edit the tablature version.

My own interest in folk music accounts for two features of Muse:

1. Folk music play options - you can ask it to "play it dotted". This is the way hornpipes are played in England (but not, I think, in America). It's easier for you to try it than for me to explain it. You'll find it in the Options menu. Muse supports the the ABC folk music notation. This is a simple way of recording tunes in ASCII. It gives you access to some extensive collections of tunes. (There are probably over ten thousand tunes on the Web in this format). You can load ABC into Muse and see it displayed as standard notation (or even guitar tab!) and you can save a tune as ABC.