Lipi Notation Studio Open Lipi

Coming from MuseScore? The fifty things, one by one.

Not a feature list off a box. These are the fifty things somebody genuinely reaches for in an ordinary MuseScore session. For each one: how it goes in Lipi, and an honest verdict. Where MuseScore has more, it says so.

Writing the notes

The first ten minutes of anyone's first session.

  1. Type notes on the keyboard

    Quicker in Lipi

    A–G writes, and the number keys are the values musicians say: 1 whole, 2 half, 4 quarter, 5 eighth. MuseScore's 5 is a quarter. A note that overruns the bar is split and tied across the barline for you, and entry flows into the next bar. A MuseScore keymap is one click away if your hands know it.

  2. Click on the staff to place a note

    Equal

    Click empty staff at the pitch you want, with note input on. The centre of an empty bar is its rest, and a click there selects the rest. Same as MuseScore.

  3. Play notes in from a MIDI keyboard

    Quicker in Lipi

    Single notes and chords, plus a grand-staff split with a learn-the-key button, so the left hand lands on the bass staff and the right on the treble.

  4. Every note value, whole to 64th

    Equal

    All of them, dotted and double-dotted.

  5. Dotted and double-dotted notes

    Equal

    The dot key cycles: dotted, double-dotted, plain. A number key is always the plain value.

  6. Triplets and other tuplets

    Quicker in Lipi

    Select the note or rest the tuplet should occupy and press 3, or choose 2 to 9. The count shows as you write and ordinary rhythm resumes by itself.

  7. Ties, including across a barline

    Quicker in Lipi

    T ties. A duration that does not fit the bar is written as tied notes across the barline without being asked.

  8. Rests

    Quicker in Lipi

    Beats you have not written yet are drawn as the rests an engraver would write, on the beat boundaries. Touch a rest and press 5 to divide it into two eighths.

  9. Sharps, flats and naturals

    Equal

    Printed only when they are news; a note already in the key stays clean.

  10. Stack a chord on a note

    Much quicker in Lipi

    Shift plus a letter stacks it, as in MuseScore. Or pick m7 in the chord palette and press one letter: the whole chord is written with its symbol attached.

Changing what is already there

Editing is most of the work; writing is the smaller half.

  1. Change a note's length

    Quicker in Lipi

    Select any run of notes and press a number: every note in it takes that value, and the bar refuses out loud if they will not fit.

  2. Change a note's pitch

    Equal

    Drag it, or the arrow keys: a semitone. Alt-arrow for a step in the key, Command-arrow for an octave. Alt-Right lengthens a note into the room beside it, Alt-Left shortens it.

  3. Delete a note

    Equal

    It becomes a rest of the same length, so the bar keeps its shape. Remove and close up is in the right-click menu.

  4. Undo and redo

    Quicker in Lipi

    One gesture is one undo. And Versions keeps a copy every few minutes and before anything that replaces the score, so nothing is ever lost.

  5. Select a note, a bar, a run of bars

    MuseScore has more

    Click, drag, Shift-click, Command-click for both staves, Shift plus arrows to grow the passage, Command-B this bar, Command-A all. Right-click a note and Select all similar picks every note in the score, or on one staff, so one key moves or marks them all. MuseScore's version also picks every dynamic or chord symbol on its own, which Lipi does not.

  6. Copy, cut and paste

    Equal

    Across staves too. Duplicate is Command-D.

  7. Transpose a selection

    Quicker in Lipi

    Arrows move a selection by semitone or octave. Alt plus a number moves it by that interval: Alt-3 up a third, Alt-Shift-3 down.

Setting the score up

  1. New score: title, composer, key, meter, tempo

    Quicker in Lipi

    One dialog, no wizard: title, subtitle, composer, instrument, every key, meter, tempo, bar count and the pickup, then Create.

  2. Choose the instrument

    MuseScore has more

    Piano, lead sheet, guitar and bass with tab, drum kit, trumpet in B♭, trombone, upright bass, voice and piano, SATB, brass duet, jazz trio, rhythm section. MuseScore's list is far longer, and its orchestral sounds are ones Lipi does not have.

  3. Add and remove staves

    Equal

    As many as the music needs, each with its own clef, sound, name and transposition.

  4. Change the clef on any staff

    Quicker in Lipi

    Double-click the printed clef, or right-click a bar and pick the clef. Notes stay where they sound.

  5. Change the key signature, including mid-score

    Quicker in Lipi

    Double-click the printed key, or open the circle of fifths in the rail. Whole piece or from this bar.

  6. Change the time signature, including mid-score

    Quicker in Lipi

    Any meter, with how the beat is counted (3+3+2), and a choice of how the written music is renotated rather than a silent shuffle.

  7. Add, insert and delete bars

    Equal

    Command-I inserts a bar before, Command-Backspace deletes one; insert after is in the right-click menu.

  8. A pickup bar

    Quicker in Lipi

    Asked for in beats when the score is made, or from the bar menu later. Bar 1 is the first full bar, as it should be.

  9. Up to four voices on a staff

    Equal

    Four voices; SATB on two staves.

  10. Transposing instruments and concert pitch

    Equal

    A trumpet in B♭ reads C and sounds B♭. Concert pitch is a view and never rewrites a note.

The marks on the page

Every one draws, sounds, and survives the trip to MuseScore and back. Also there, on their own keys: fingering (Command-Shift-F), tremolo (Alt-T), glissando (Alt-G) and system text for every part (Command-Alt-T).

  1. Dynamics

    Equal

    pp to ff and sfz: Command-E and type it, or the right-click menu, or the rail.

  2. Hairpins

    Equal

    < and > over the selected bars (H and Shift-H, the Sibelius keys, too). Drawn and genuinely played to the next written dynamic.

  3. Slurs

    Equal

    Alt-S over the selected bars. On the MuseScore keymap it is plain S, the key your hand knows, and speaking to the page moves to Alt-S.

  4. Articulations

    Equal

    Shift-S staccato, Shift-V accent, Shift-N tenuto, Shift-O marcato — MuseScore's own keys — and the fermata from the right-click menu. The fermata holds time for every part together.

  5. Ornaments

    Equal

    Right-click a note, Add an ornament: trill, both mordents, both turns, and they play in the key in force.

  6. Grace notes

    Equal

    Right-click a note, Add a grace note: crushed or on the beat, asked for by note name.

  7. Lyrics under the notes

    Equal

    Command-L, every verse.

  8. Chord symbols over the bar

    Quicker in Lipi

    Command-K, type Am7, Tab to the next beat. Symbols are named by the laws of chord construction and a symbol you typed is never rewritten.

  9. Tempo marks, including changes mid-piece

    Equal

    Alt-Shift-T on any bar, or the bar menu; playback follows.

  10. Repeat barlines and barline styles

    Equal

    Played, not just drawn.

  11. First- and second-time endings

    Equal

    From the bar menu.

  12. D.C., D.S., Coda and Fine

    Equal

    Playback follows them.

Hearing it

  1. Play the score

    MuseScore has more

    A real sampled grand piano, and repeats and jumps are followed. MuseScore's Muse Sounds cover an orchestra; Lipi has piano, bass, trumpet, trombone, and modelled guitar, bass guitar and drums.

  2. A click track

    Equal

    K.

  3. Loop a section while you practise

    Equal

    Any run of bars.

  4. A mixer

    Equal

    F10, or Command-Alt-M: volume, pan and mute per staff, saved with the score.

Getting it out, and back in

  1. Print, or save a PDF

    Equal

    Command-P. A print sheet that breaks between systems, never through one.

  2. Export MusicXML

    Equal

    Opens in MuseScore, Sibelius, Dorico and Finale.

  3. Export a MIDI file

    Equal

    One track per staff, drums on the drum channel.

  4. Export images

    Much quicker in Lipi

    Every bar as its own transparent PNG at 300 dpi, zipped, in one click. In MuseScore that is export the page, crop, knock out the white, and do it again for the next bar.

  5. Save and reopen a project

    Much quicker in Lipi

    Saved on your device as you type, with earlier versions kept, and a share link that carries the whole score inside the URL. No account.

  6. Open a MuseScore file

    Quicker in Lipi

    A .mscz or .mscx opens straight in, parts and all. MusicXML from Sibelius or Dorico opens too.

  7. Export audio

    Equal

    WAV or MP3, rendered offline through the same piano you heard.

The honest answer

The daily work is all there, and it is quicker where quick matters to a teacher: writing, rhythm, chords, setting a score up, and getting bars out. The three places MuseScore has more are the length of its instrument list, the breadth of its orchestral sounds, and picking out every dynamic or chord symbol in a score at once. If you write for full orchestra, keep MuseScore; if you write lessons, lead sheets, choir, band and the parts that end up in a video, Lipi is built for that and nothing else.

And the things this page does not compare, because MuseScore does not do them: sing a melody in, say a chord out loud, every bar on transparency, twelve engraving looks, and a share link that carries the whole score.

Open Lipi free, nothing to install