Building a score with Music Publisher 6

This sequence shows the capturing of a song. Screen shots have been taken as the score is built.

The starting screen for Music Publisher 6:

Selecting File>New offers a selection of templates. There are many supplied with the program but you can add your own with the System Construction Wizard, and delete any of those supplied if you don't use them.

Having got the empty system, it's time to add a key signature from the Add menu:

... and then the time signature

Now to enter the music itself. Notes are simply entered by typing their name and pressing Enter or spacebar.

If it's in the wrong octave, you press the up/down arrow keys to get it right. No need to worry about exact left-right placement as there is a Neaten operation which we will see in action later.

The accompaniment is very similar to the melody, so we can save time by simply copying the top stave to the second one. Below I've completed the line I started above and then copied it to stave 2.

But the piano part is not quite the same as the voice, so a change or two has to be made. Here the mouse is placed over a note (it turns red) and the full stop (period) key pressed to make that note dotted.

Similar single-key presses change the stems of notes, or delete unwanted ones.

Time to complete that stave in the same way, and then the Neaten operation is selected. It moves the music to fill the line, and gives sensible spacing between the notes:

Which becomes:

The second system is so much like the first that we can copy the whole of system 1 to a new system in one operation to save a bit of time.

The second system needs Neatening too. Once that's done we can start to think about adding the words of the song. So first select Lyric Mode from the toolbar. (NB all commands are available on the drop-down menus, or as shortcuts. Your choice.)

Now simply type in the words and as you type they will be automatically centred under their notes with hyphenated syllables and melismas catered for automatically.

There seems to be a need for more room between staves 1 and 2. Just press Ctrl key and use the mouse to drag the stave downwards. When that's done we can complete the lyrics and start the other bits of text. First to add a title:

Here I've used the Favourite Fonts screen to select the font I always use for titles. You don't have to use these but it helps to give all your music a uniform look. (And if you're in the US you can have the program spell "Favourite" the way you like to see it. We think of everything :-)

(But that's a serious point too: if at the Options screen you choose "US" for your Language then the program will use US spellings and words such as "quarter notes" etc, whereas choosing "UK" gives "crotchets". )

... so type in the Title, optionally centering it with the centering tool.

Phrase marks are placed with a "curve tool": each mouse click defines an Anchor point and the program draws a curve through them.

There are two shapes of curve, in the next screen you will see I've chosen a "flatter" look.

Finally to select the occasional musical Symbols: you can just drop these anywhere on your music.

Select from a very large menu!

Ready to "drop" it with the mouse exactly where you want it:

Of course there's a lot more to Music Publisher 6, for a full feature list click here. But I hope this quick tour has given you a flavo(u)r of the way the program works - and the fun it is to work with!