You might need to use PlayScore’s transposition for several reasons:
These situations are all different:
The score has transposing instruments (with different key signatures)
Normally PlayScore 2 assumes that all staves have the same key signature. This assumption helps PlayScore 2 read poor quality scores, but it doesn’t work when there are transposing instruments. To handle transposing instruments correctly.
PlayScore 2 will reprocess the music.
* Lyrics and text is only necessary when PlayScore needs to read text to the left of the staff naming the instrument and possibly its key, see below.
Solo parts
If you are using PlayScore to hear your part (single-staff music showing just your part), then you should set the transposition directly. Go to the Staff settings screen and set a transposition using the +/- controls. For example if you play the B flat clarinet, set the transposition to -2.
Making music sound higher or lower
Suppose you want to make the music play in a different key:
As an example, suppose you have a song with piano accompaniment but you want PlayScore 2 to accompany you on your Bb clarinet. Because every note on the Bb clarinet sounds a tone lower than written, you should transpose the music down by two semitones. Then the piano, played by PlayScore 2 will accompany your clarinet in the same key. Note that the music still looks the same. PlayScore 2 just plays a tone lower to match your Bb clarinet. (in this example you would also need to mute the voice part so the PlayScore 2 plays just the accompaniment)
Changing the written key
This is different from the example above. In this case the aim is to transpose the notation for the music, for a human to play. The best way to do this is to export the music as it stands as MusicXML, and use SeeScore or a notation editor like MuseScore, Dorico or Finale to transpose the music. One advantage of using SeeScore is that you can do everything on your mobile device.
Setting transpositions from the printed instrument names
To do this turn on Lyrics and text under the cogwheel as described above.
Most scores have the names of the instruments, and any transposition written to the left of their staves. PlayScore can use this information to
PlayScore also uses instrument names to help match up staves between systems written in compact format (where instruments sometimes drop out for a while)
Transposing brass
In traditional classical scores and some others, certain instruments are written without a key signature. Horns for example prefer music where key accidentals are written as they arise, rather than in a key signature. To set the correct transposition for these instruments (e.g. horns and trumpets), PlayScore must read the text to the left of the staff giving the instrument’s key, for example Horns in F.
To do this turn on Lyrics and text under the cogwheel as described above.
Guitar and other instruments that transpose at the octave
Some instruments (eg piccolo) transpose at the octave. A piccolo, seeing a notated middle C plays the C one octave above. In the case of the guitar the transposition is the other way. A written middle C played on a guitar sounds one octave lower.
So that PlayScore can observe these octave transpositions be sure to turn on Lyrics and text under the cogwheel. Your score will then play and export correctly.
If your music does not have the names of the instruments printed, or you don’t turn on Lyrics and text, you can set octave transpositions manually from the Staves screen. In this case, if you export the score to a music editor such as MuseScore, Dorico or Finale you will also need to set the transpositions in the music editor.
With Lyrics and text turned on, everything is automatic.
NB The instrument dropdowns on the Staves screen let you set the instrument used as the sound for each staff. These are simply for setting the sound used. They do not imply any transposition. This lets you try out different sounds without changing the the pitch.