The short answer
| File | Holds | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| A picture of the printed page | Print, read on a tablet, share | |
| MusicXML | The score itself: notes, key, bars, hands | Edit in MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico |
| MIDI | Which keys were pressed, when and how hard | Play back, slow down, use in practice apps |
PDF: for reading and printing
A PDF looks the same everywhere and prints cleanly. It cannot be edited as music: to change a note you need the MusicXML. Use it for the music stand, a tablet app like forScore, or sending to someone who just wants to play.
MusicXML: for editing
MusicXML is the shared language of notation software. It keeps everything a score needs: key and time signatures, bar lines, which notes belong to which hand, ties and beams. Open it to fix a wrong note, simplify a passage, add fingering or lyrics, or change the layout.
How to open MusicXML in MuseScore
- Install MuseScore Studio from musescore.org. It is free for Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Open MuseScore and choose File, then Open.
- Pick the
.musicxmlor.mxlfile you downloaded. It opens as a normal score. - Click any note and use the arrow keys to move it, or type a letter A to G to replace it.
- Save as a MuseScore file, or export a new PDF.
Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, Flat and Noteflight open MusicXML the same way, through Open or Import.
MIDI: for playing back
MIDI records a performance rather than a page: each key, when it went down, how long it was held and how hard it was struck. It has no idea of key signatures or which hand plays what. That makes it the right file for audio software, piano learning apps with falling notes, and slowing a passage down to practise, and the wrong one for printing.
You can open a MIDI file in MuseScore, but notation software has to guess the bar lines and hands, so the result is messier than opening the MusicXML. See piano audio to MIDI.
Which should you download?
- Just want to play it: PDF.
- Want to fix or change it: MusicXML.
- Want to hear it, slow it or use it in an app: MIDI.
Every score from Hear It, Score It comes with all three.