Just recently, muse group (which is apparently now the owner of Musescore) released Musescore 4.5. With the update came a slew of new features, including a new app icon, new file icons, and a new splash screen. Most notably, Musescore released a new note input method. Obviously, as a budding composer, this was the most exciting feature!

According to Musescore’s own youtube channel’s “New Note Input Mode” tutorial video, they described the feature as a seemingly revolutionary way to notate music. Although the feature might be beneficial for notating conjunct and slow melodic lines, it does not appear useful for writing faster/disjunct melodies or motifs. It is indeed faster than the traditional method of notation, but it does not feel like a step in the right direction for speeding of music notation.

I remember that a couple years ago, Soundcloud had a feature where a user could record themselves playing a melody, and the app would be able to transcribe the music for them. This could be very helpful for improvisational composition, and from what I tested, it was definitely much faster than manual notation. Albeit, it wasn’t always accurate; rhythm was always an issue. With the current progress of AI, however, this should be an easily solvable problem.

In short, I don’t see myself relying on this new mode any more than the traditional input mode. Its possible applications could include transcribing or arranging music, but for notating original compositions, it still feels far off the ideal music notation method.